NEW YEAR OF $20,000 AUSTEREO RADIO WRITERS AWARD UNDERWAY
A new year’s Austereo Radio Writers Award is underway, with the first two rounds having been judged.
The Brand Agency scored both finalists from July. Judges Andrew Tinning (Marketforce), Adam Barker (Gatecrasher) and Paul Coghlan (Meerkats) thought RAC ‘Everything you own’ by Kurt Beaudoin and REIWA ‘The perfect place’ by James Wills were the top spots for that month.
For August, judges Brett Wheeler (Rare), Steve Brown (Linc) and Drew Ridley (AdImpact) couldn’t separate the Lotterywest Lotto Father’s Day campaign of 3 commercials – ‘Got your nose’, ‘Piggy bank head’ and ‘Detachable thumb’ – by Marketforce team Guy Hamilton-Howlett and Rob James.
These tracks now go through to the final judging, when the best agency radio commercial aired on Mix 94.5 or 92.9 will win its writer $20,000 cash and the client $20,000 worth of value-added promotion on the stations.
This will be the 15th year the cash prize has been awarded – an outstanding commitment by Austereo to fostering creative radio advertising in Perth.
18 Comments
Hi CB,
Please can you explain exactly how the judged radio ads are selected. I’m guessing there are dozens of spots on Austereo and yet, anecdotally, there judges only get to choose from 5 or 6. Who is the secret pre-selector and what is their phone number and/or e-mail address? Cheers
9.17, this is the exact same question I couldn’t get answered last time this issue came up.
CB pretty much said ‘be grateful and shut the fuck up’ (in a much nicer way of course).
I get the feeling you’re supposed to ‘lobby’ for your spots to make it onto the judging CDs.
You seem to think there’s some conspiracy to exclude a whole bunch of outstanding ads from the award but that’s just not the case.
It’s an agency competition, that is, ads written and booked by agencies as part of a legitimate schedule are the only ones eligible. Station created ads and direct bookings aren’t, and they make up the majority of new spots that go to air each month.
There certainly aren’t “dozens” of new spots from agencies each month – Austereo wishes there was!
There were 13 contenders in July: 9 from The Brand Agency, 2 from Rare and 2 from 303.
For August there were 8: 3 from Marketforce, 2 from Gatecrasher and 1 each from 303, Brand and Meerkats.
Besides the ‘usual suspects’, last year’s competition included ads from Workhouse, JMG, Game Plan Media, Cooch Creative and Courtney Media & Marketing.
But if you write an ad that you think gets overlooked, let Simone Henry at Austereo know and I’m sure she’ll follow it up for you.
Martin Trevaskis
Now 9.17 & 9.49, shut the fuck up and be grateful.
White and one please.
Speaking of being grateful, I’d have thought our October 16 post about this year’s winners – Ryan and Andrew – was the ideal opportunity for everyone else to publicly thank Linda, Marty and Austereo for continuing to support this amazing award. Sadly, of the 23 comments posted, not one of them did.
Martin Trevaskis
Well said Martin. Quite frankly the award just satisfies the ego and greediness of some people. I’m not saying any of the winners are like that, but if I was the suit or client that bust a gut to write the brief, sell the idea, approve a risky spot and/or face insults from the writer if said idea wasn’t getting up, I’d be pissed off when said writer pocketed 20k after all my hard work. So shut the fuck up and thank Austereo for large mercies.
Martin, Thanks for your reply. I think some of the frustration about this award comes from the fact that it is Australia’s biggest single award financially and supports a category in which big budgets are secondary to a great idea – making it enticing to enter and brilliant to win. In short it is a fantastic award and a credit to all involved. And yet there is no clearly identifiable way to enter, other than simply putting the ad on Austereo. If this is a condition of entry that’s is entirely fair, but why on earth not level the playing field a little by allowing ads that have been aired on Austereo to be entered online by the agencies or creative team(like the Sirens). Then everyone who completed this simple action could feel they had done everything they could have done to maximise their chances of winning. As it, the rumour and speculation that has plagued the award will continue to overshadow its undoubted value to the Perth advertising community
Well it’s Austereo’s award and they set the entry criteria but I’m sure they’re open to suggestions so pick up the phone and give Martin Whittle a call.
Martin
If it’s not good enough to capture the attention of Austereo, maybe your ad’s not good enough to win? Maybe some potential finalists do slip thru but i doubt a true winner will miss a nomination.
A good ad is one that gets noticed. So stop your whining and write a good ad. The rest will follow. (Oh and make sure your media dept put it on Austereo… which is the real reason behind the comp anyway.)
7.24am. Fine, if “capturing the imagination” is the main criteria. However, if we are also expected to lobby Austereo to get our ads up, this should be made clear, too. If 9.49am is right, this practice is common among agencies who do get their work in front of judges. I think a splash page on the Austereo website, outlining the T&C’s of the competition would be useful, or even a quarter-page in the next issue of CBWA
Martin I seem to recall that Ryan and Andrew thanked the Austereo team in person at the award presentation as part of their acceptance speech. Isn’t that enough or is it a requirement that they announce their gratitude to the world via your blog inorder to not be dubbed ungrateful ad brats.
Of course it is enough that Ryan and Andrew thanked Austereo on the day. I was there and they certainly gave great thanks to Austereo. As have other winners over the years.
But as commentators on the industry it has always amazed both Martin and I how many people in our industry can generally take prizes like this for granted.
People I know in London, Asia, Sydney always have a “What? they put up HOW much?” attitude to this Austereo comp and others like The West Fellowship. Our industry in Perth is very lucky. It doesn’t happen outside of WA. We have a very supportive media industry here and both Martin and I like to remind everyone of that every now and again.
As for the guy arguing about the “rules”. If you do enough good work your ads will be recognised and make the monthly judging. It’s no conspiracy. You are arguing over ads you have written that have no chance at all of even being a finalist at Cannes… yet you want $20 grand for them! Get real.
9:59, 7:24 here again. just so you can rest easy tonight, 9:49 is wrong, there is no lobbying. There is no conspiracy. The monthly judges are local people so there may be a little bias here and there but that’s why there are 3 judges every time. However, you might like to know that there was no plane that flew into the Pentagon on 9/11. have you seen the pictures? no marks on the grass before the wall impact area. Tell tale signs of a missile, or maybe a torpedo on wheels… I’d give $20,000 to find out what really happened there.
careful, 7:24. You’re going to kill the competion with all your whingeing and moaning. Don’t make it too hard for Austereo. It’s an awesome comp. Let’s keep it going, not kick it to death.
Kim,
You are misunderstanding what we are saying. We just want the rules and the conditions of entry made clear. Is that too much to ask?
Kim, the argument is a bit more complicated than that. I think those questioning the rules just want to make sure their ads are getting on the CDs for judging. That’s all.
They’re not asking for 20k, just the chance to be judged fairly. I know of a few nice spots that have slipped through the cracks in the past. No they didn’t go on to win at Cannes, but they we’re cute and might have had a chance. You never know your luck.
And not everything that wins the 20k goes on to do spectacularly well, as I’m sure you are aware.
I know Ryan and Andrew thanked Austereo – the winners usually do and in any case, they are two of the most outstanding young people in the industry – that’s why my comment said “…everyone ELSE…”.
I just thought it was a nice opportunity for those who have the chance to win AND enjoy Austereo’s hospitality every year at the presentation to say thanks – for the drinks, for the award, for supporting creativity.
Everyone likes a bit of appreciation now and then and it aint that hard.
As for doing it publicly on this blog – well, it’s just an easy way to do it. Be great if you sent Linda and Marty a personal email but that’s not likely to happen. I’m sure everyone at the presentation went up and congratulated Ryan and Andrew personally; that didn’t stop a couple of people doing it again on the blog.
Look, I just think this is such an amazing award and Austereo WA work really hard to keep it going. We’re the only city that has it and Linda has to do some fancy footwork every year to get it past Austereo nationally. With the way the economy looks to be heading they’re going to come under even more pressure to cut costs so if you want this award to continue you have to get right behind it and support it to the hilt, not pick it to bits and treat it like it’s some kind of entitlement.
At the end of the day it’s up to you. We’re never going to win it so it wont make any difference to us if it’s canned but we’d be extremely sorry to see that happen for your sakes.
Martin
I’m sitting here in at the airport in Sydney waiting for a flight back to Perth and would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody at Austereo and The West for the generous support they offer to our industry. We are incredibly fortunate to have the local media come out and back our creative product the way they do every year.
It’s not just about the money and the trips it’s about the opportunity to produce great work that these initiatives provide. They don’t have to do it, they could just sit back and be content with the revenue our work generates for them, but they don’t, they continue to believe in our ability and to back it.
Thank you and long may your support continue.
Andrew Tinning.