An ad for Viewsonic, which rose to the challenge of a brief to “create a radio ad demonstrating superior picture quality” has won the overall and single categories for round one of the 2009 Siren Awards.

Written by Thomas Duncan-Watt from agency Gorilla Communications, Sydney, the ad called “Amazon” describes the picture quality of Viewsonic’s LCD monitors.



Judge and previous round winner, Josh Bryer from agency Mark in Sydney said the ad was a clear winner: “A great and simple idea, beautifully crafted, with excellent sound engineering. And a brilliant answer to a very tough brief.”

Mr Duncan-Watt said the challenge of the brief was also his inspiration: “I feel like it is the kind of radio ad that you can listen to several times and always hear something new. The level of detail and effort that went into the production is really evident in that way. Then again, for a machine that can produce more colours than a television screen, what better medium than radio?”

There were two highly commended entries in the single category. They were both written by Ryan Albuino and Andrew Chu from agency Marketforce in Perth for Lotterywest and were called “More Words – Weatherman” and “More Words – Pilot.”

These two ads were also part of a campaign of three ads that won the campaign category in this round for Lotterywest. The campaign was called “More Words.”
Judge and previous round winner, Josh Bryer from agency Mark in Sydney said about the campaign winner: “More Words is a clever and engaging idea, bought to life in three significantly different ways – all with good audio craftsmanship behind them.”

Highly commended in the campaign category was an ad called “Find Your Animal” for Perth Zoo, written by Kurt Beaudoin and Josh Edge, from agency, The Brand Agency in Perth.

Winner of the craft category was “Flying Knee” for the Epworth Foundation with sound engineer, James Ashton from production studio, Risk Sound in Melbourne.

The national Siren Awards 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. Entries for round 2 for 2009 are now open and close on August 1. For more information and to listen visit the dedicated website [link=www.sirenawards.com.au.]www.sirenawards.com.au.[/link]