Commercial Radio Australia article

Commercial Radio Australia has announced an extra two week call for entries for any radio ad made at any time in the 2008 Siren Awards yearly cycle to be considered for the 2008 Siren Awards. The Siren Final Call will allow agencies and radio stations to submit work previously not entered, or re-enter work that had not been recognised in the quarterly rounds.

Ads will be judged by a panel of experts and those chosen to be finalists will join winners and highly commended from each of the five rounds of Sirens already completed. All of these finalists will then be judged by the Siren Creative Council, a group of Australia’s leading creative directors and producers, with a winner from the three categories: campaign, single and craft then announced along with an overall winner: the Gold Siren. The winner will be announced in Melbourne in early May.



The overall Gold Siren winner for 2008 will be automatically entered into this year’s Cannes Advertising Festival with the winning writers receiving a free trip to Cannes.

Judge at last year’s Cannes Radio Lions, Ralph van Dijk said: "The Final Call round will ensure that the wider group of Annual Siren judges are selecting from the best work of the last year. So even if you've entered work in to the quarterly Sirens and were not successful, re-enter! You've got nothing to lose."

Last year’s Gold Siren winner, an advertisement for Snickers called “Hoedown”, won the Grand Prix Radio Lion at Cannes – equivalent to the best radio ad in the world – and was the first Australian winner ever. The other radio winner from Australia was a campaign for Foxtel, written by Saatchi & Saatchi, Sydney
which won a Silver Lion.

Chief executive officer of Commercial Radio Australia, Joan Warner said the additional entry time for Sirens 2008 was to ensure advertising agencies, stations and studios throughout Australia had sufficient opportunity to participate in the national awards.

“This is the final opportunity for people to be part of this year’s Siren Awards and entry is free – so it is well worth the effort,” Ms Warner said.

The national Siren Awards, now in their fifth year, are run by Commercial Radio Australia and are designed to recognise the best radio advertising in the country. The awards promote the importance of creativity as
a way to make radio advertising more effective.

Winners of the 2008 Siren Awards will be announced in Melbourne early in May and the awards ceremony will coincide with a Masterclass, including some great information and speakers talking about making world-class radio ads.

For more information visit the dedicated website www.sirenawards.com.au.
Media contact: Jenny Stevenson (02) 9281 6577 or (0402) 214 039.