FINALISTS ANNOUNCED FOR THE $20,000 AUSTEREO RADIO WRITERS AWARD
The list of finalists for this year’s $20,000 Austereo Radio Writers Award shows a mix of perennial contenders and some new blood as the next generation of creatives makes its mark.
Marketforce’s Ryan Albuino leads the way with 6 finalists, 2 of which were written when he was at Rare Creative Thinking and 3 others co-written with Andrew Chu. Their Marketforce colleague Murray Laird has 4, 3 of them co-written with Julia Elton-Bott. The Brand Agency’s Josh Edge and James Wills, Meerkats’ Mike Edmonds, Gatecrasher’s Adam Barker, and the team of Guy Hamilton-Howlett & Rob James (Marketforce) each have 2.
Mitch Mitchell (Rare) has a finalist written when he was at Vinten Browning, Kurt Beaudoin (Brand) and Malcolm MacLean (303) also each have 1, while 303’s Dav Tabeshfar, Richard Berney and Lindsay Medalia share a finalist.
No surprise that Marketforce is the leading agency with 10 finalists. The Brand Agency is second with 5 finalists; Meerkats, Gatecrasher, Rare Creative Thinking and 303 have 2 each; and Vinten Browning has 1.
The winner of Perth’s longest running and richest creative cash prize will be announced at a special function on October 16th.
The full list of finalists is:
July 07
St John’s Ambulance ’38 year old male’ Rare Ryan Albuino
St John’s Ambulance ’24 year old male’ Rare Ryan Albuino
August
Dept. of Consumer & Employment Protection Worksafe ‘High Risk’ Vinten Browning Mitch Mitchell
Dept. of Premier & Cabinet ‘Hoon’ Marketforce Ryan Albuino
September
City of Perth ‘Kids in the city’ Marketforce Murray Laird
RAC ‘Battery’ The Brand Agency Kurt Beaudoin
October
Lotterywest ‘Mondays’ Marketforce Murray Laird & Julia Elton-Bott
Lotterywest ‘Wednesdays’ Marketforce Murray Laird & Julia Elton-Bott
November
RAC ‘Opera’ The Brand Agency Josh Edge
RAC ‘Auctioneer’ The Brand Agency Josh Edge
December
Health Dept (Quit) ‘How Old’ 303 Malcolm MacLean
State Govt ’12 Points of Christmas’ Marketforce Ryan Albuino & Andrew Chu
January 08
Stockland ’50 Hot Homes’ Meerkats Mike Edmonds
Office of Crime Prevention ‘Open Invitation’ Gatecrasher Adam Barker
February
REIWA ‘Confusion’ The Brand Agency James Wills
REIWA ‘Anger’ The Brand Agency James Wills
March
LotteryWest (SnW) ‘Weather’ Marketforce Ryan Albuino & Andrew Chu
LotteryWest (SnW) ‘Ladies And Gents’ Marketforce Ryan Albuino & Andrew Chu
April
LotteryWest (Lotto) ‘Summing Up Life (1)’ Marketforce Guy Hamilton-Howlett & Rob James
LotteryWest (Lotto) ‘Summing Up Life (2)’ Marketforce Guy Hamilton-Howlett & Rob James
May
Health Dept Piece Of Piss Gatecrasher Adam Barker
LotteryWest (SnW) ‘The Best of the 80s’ Marketforce Murray Laird & Julia Elton-Bott
June
Bamboozle ‘Bam-boozer (2)’ Meerkats Mike Edmonds
Health Dept ‘Pass It On’ 303 Dav Tabeshfar, Richard Berney & Lindsay Medalia
26 Comments
Are any of these ads online anywhere?
Someone please tell me how this thing works.
Who nominates the ads that get voted on?
Your ad just has to run on Austereo. Then it gets narrowed to a few each month by Austereo, then some chosen creatives judge (if it works as it used to). Gets down to monthly winners who are then judged by some bigwigs from out of town. Bam! You got yourself 20 large.
It’s about the best prize for a creative in Australia.
Yeah, it’s the bit between ‘narrowed down and chosen’ I’m concerned about.
Exactly who at Austereo? And under what guidelines?
Used to be ‘narrowed down’ but for the last 5 or so years it’s been any ad created by an agency. The narrowing down is done by three local judges who choose the top 2 each month. The finalists are then sent to senior creatives, usually E.S. based but occasionally international, who vote on the winner.
The previous winners show the cream usually rises to the top – Adam Barker, Steve Browning, Mike Edmonds, Tom Martin, Malcolm MacLean, Mat Garbutt, Ron Samuel, Pat Lennox, John Ilian and last year Josh Edge – all with top spots.
In any case it doesn’t matter ‘who’ or ‘under what guidelines’ – it’s bloody generous of Austereo to put up $20K every year, so we reckon you should just say “Thanks”.
It’s a great prize alright, but it is a shame it doesn’t engage with the creative community and clients in the same way at the West Caxton competition does. Why not get clients to approve good work created on spec, get it made up at the agencies expense using up-and-coming talent (growing the pool of talent in the process) and then let an international jury judge the finished results. Winner would get the cash and the client would get the free air-time. Austereo could offer reduced media rates to any finalist so many of those ads would run too.
1.56 is obviously an art director. The radio writers’ award certainly engages with me. So on behalf of all copywriters out there “Thanks Austereo”.
2.41. Unless you put your name to this blatant toadying Austereo judges will not know who you are and will not be able to reward you appropriately. My money’s on Ryan this year as, historically, those people with the highest number of nominations – like Dav last year and Murray the year before – have done really well. Er.
What about the perth zoo stuff?
Entered at Cannes and figured in the Sirens.
Don’t tell me it was a scam campaign that only ran on RedFM up on the mines.
Plenty of nice stuff doesn’t get up.
That’s why I question the ‘nomination’ process.
Still can’t seem to get an answer on exactly ‘who’ chooses the spots and what their rationale is.
Sure, I’m grateful the comp exists (thanks very much Austereo), but there seems to be a slight grey area in the initial process.
My last comment too controversial for ya CB?
I shouldn’t be questioning the process of the chosen ones?
Just assume someone out there knows what they’re doing?
Is there a way you could link all the spots so we could listen to them all?
Not at all too controversial 9:58/11:50. Believe it or not we do have other sides of Campaign Brief that do take up a bit of time every now and again…..
I actually thought Martin had answered this pretty well previously. Here’s how it works. There is no nomination. Every new radio spot that is created by an agency and runs on Austrereo during the month is compiled for judging. Three disks with all these spots on are then sent to three local creatives who vote and the top two spots go through. This happens every month leaving 24 spots for the final judging… which is undertaken by 3-5 eastern states or overseas judges.
If your spot misses out there could only be two reasons… Your spot never appeared on an Austereo station. Or, the three creatives who judged your work that month are complete hacks and failed to recognise that your spot is actually going to go on and win a Gold Lion.
12:34. Nice idea. Maybe next year!
Hi Kim, Thanks for the clarification. Has the process changed since a couple of years ago when a certain person at Austereo used to select the ads they liked from those couple of months, which then went on to form the selection for the judges? Surely if every new ad was put onto those CDs, the local judges would have to wade through loads of buy buy buy ads? Everyone I have spoken to who has judged has only has to choose from 5 or 6. Nothing wrong with that, so long as the pre-selection is done by the right people (like the West Caxton competition) The done thing used to be to call up the said Austereo employee when you got a nice ad on air asking him/her to “look out for it”.
Ha! I knew it. Bloody hacks.
It used to be that one writer wrote radio commercials in Perth. Now it seems you need at least one art director, and sometimes two, to make sure you make it down to Brainestorm.
As far as I recall, writers and art directors work together on ideas across all different media. Why can’t an art director be credited on a radio ad because he didn’t type up the script?
Dear CB. You have helped with the Radio Writers’ awards for a long time so please look back in your files and tell us if there has ever been a year where so many art directors have been credited on radio finalists for this award.
11.18 has a good point. Maybe it’s changed now but in my day the recording studio, apart from the library, was the one art director free haven we could escape to.
Did Lori Canolini ever get his name on any of Adam’s work? Did Ray feel the need get his name on Lindsay’s stuff? Dale on Mike’s? Craig on Peter’s? Did Ric Cairns ever have a FCB Shorter art director down on his stuff? Did Wayno feel it necessary to hold Steve Browning’s hand?
Surely an art director’s time is better spent on the time consuming job of crafting the print, the tv, or even down the pub, rather than fetching the coffee at Brainstorm?
Kids today.
I respect what you’re saying Old Writer, but things don’t work like that anymore. All those people you mention are either specifically writers or art directors. I think if you were to look on any of the business cards of any of the younger talent in Perth, it wouldn’t say writer or art director, it would say creative.
The lines between have blurred considerably in the past 5 years (at least) regarding who does what. Especially now with a host of new media channels as well.
Anyway, ideas are just ideas, who cares where they come from?
Or maybe it’s just taken us this long to figure out there’s 20 grand up for grabs?
I remember those days, but thank God they’ve changed. It’s all about ideas now and whether it takes one two or ten people to come up with them, anybody who has made a valid contribution deserves their share of the credit. I for one encourage my teams to cross discipline as much as possible inorder produce the best work they can.
There is no law saying that ADs can’t jump on board the credits for a radio ad – especially given that success in the industry is judged on how many awards your name appears on. And a quick glance at Perth’s international successes over the last couple of years shows that radio is the easiest way to pick up precious metal – and therefore guarantee yourself a pay rise. Until the remuneration system changes – and until CB changes the way it ranks creatives – expect to see as many names as possible on these ads.
Yes, all valid comments about who gets credits, let’s call it points-lust and move one.
So, we were talking about the nomination process…
Sorry Old Writer, I’m a bit late getting onto this having been sick as a dog for the past couple of weeks. I guess everyone’s moved on by now.
My records of monthly contenders go back to 2002 and you’re right – not many art directors were credited in previous years. There was a bit of a flurry in 2003/4 and 2004/5, when Marketforce team Tom Wilson & Maisen Hall and Brand’s Josh Edge & Rikki Burns had a couple of finalists each year, as did Murray Laird & Julia Elton-Bott last year, but nothing like this year when 9 of the 24 finalists have two or more creatives credited. Perhaps as Andrew Tinning said, that just shows a more team-like approach to all creative these days.
The winners since 1994 (when the prize was made $20,000 cash) have all been individuals:
• Mike Edmonds (1994, 2003)
• Mat Garbutt (1996)
• Steve Browning (1997, 1998, 2005)
• Ron Samuel (1999)
• Malcolm MacLean (2000)
• Tom Martin (2001)
• Pat Lennox (2002)
• Adam Barker (2004)
• John Ilian (2006)
• Josh Edge (2007)
1995 is missing because the prize was made part of the national Golden Stylus Awards that year.
So this could be the first year the cash has to be split – $10,000 each for the pairs or $6666.67 for the trio. Ahh…Lindsay would probably let Dav and Richard have his share – it’s not like he needs it!
Good luck to everyone involved. It’s a beaut competition and a sensational prize.
By the way, we’re off and running with the next one. 13 contenders from July are out for preliminary (local) judging now. So write more great radio and get it on Austereo!
Martin
I haven’t moved on! The nomination process anyone?
So there are only 13 new ads ads on Austereo for the whole of July?
13 from agencies. Remember, this is an agency competition.
The majority of radio stations’ business comes from direct sales and their direct sales teams are much larger than their agency sales teams, so there would be a lot more done direct i.e. written and produced in-house.
When Mike Edmonds was President of the PADC, he started the ‘Eleven Awards’ to recognise and reward in-house radio writing and production but they seem to have disappeared since Mike stepped down.
Martin
Sorry – should have added it’s only for LOCAL agencies too. National stuff isn’t eligible (just as well).
It was in the early days. Mike Edmonds won the first one in 1994 against all comers – local and national – which made it all the more meritorious.
Martin