The winner of the 2007 Siren Awards for creative excellence in radio advertising will be announced at a gala breakfast in Melbourne on May 4 featuring renowned Australian comedy duo and top-rating radio personalities, Hamish and Andy.


Hamish and Andy, who began their careers on radio in Melbourne at Fox FM, now host a nationally syndicated drive time show on the Today Network. The duo will host the breakfast and also speak at the Sirens Masterclass, a creative seminar directly following the breakfast.


The Masterclass will also feature Dr Rebecca Huntley, a researcher and author with ten years experience in publishing, academia and politics, who recently published a book, The World According to Y: Inside the New Adult Generation. Huntley, who is also the Director of Research and author of the Ipsos Mackay Report, will talk about Generation Y and how to engage them.


Cannes Radio Lions judge for this year and creator of the award-winning Australian radio brand campaign, Ralph van Dijk of Eardrum Australia, will also talk at the Masterclass and run several interactive sessions on how to write world-class radio ads.  More high-profile speakers will be announced soon.


Chief executive officer of Commercial Radio Australia, Joan Warner, said the annual Sirens breakfast and Masterclass provided a great opportunity to recognise the excellence in Australian radio advertising and also look at ways to further improve it.


As an industry we have tried to be creative in our own advertising campaign – recently launching the latest series of ads which feature one of the world’s funniest men, John Cleese. It is important to keep looking at radio creative, recognise its strengths and also focus on ways to keep improving it, Ms Warner said.


The winner of the 2007 Siren Awards will be chosen from the winners and highly commended of the five rounds of the Awards and will be judged by the Siren Creative Council - comprising leading creative directors from national advertising agencies. The 2007 winner will be automatically entered into the Cannes Radio Lions – to be held in June and will also win two tickets to attend the festival.


Last year’s Gold Siren Award winner was an ad for Bic Pens called Chicken Inseminator. The   advertisement, written by John Mescall, Rebecca Newman and Malcolm Chambers from Smart advertising agency in Melbourne, used comedy to promote the importance of using a failsafe pen. The same ad also won a Silver Siren for winning the overall single category.


Both the Sirens breakfast and Masterclass will be held at The Point Albert Park in Melbourne. Commercial Radio Australia is running the event in association with the Melbourne Advertising and Design Club (MACD). The breakfast will run from 7.30am to 9.30am and the Masterclass will follow the breakfast and includes lunch. Tickets are on sale now at $395 for the breakfast and Masterclass combined and $60 for breakfast only. An early bird discounted rate of $350 is available for those members of Commercial Radio Australia and MADC who book and pay before Thursday April 5. For a booking form and more information visit the Sirens website.