Freelance writer Mitch Mitchell takes out the $20,000 Southern Cross Austereo Radio Writers’ Award for St John Ambulance ‘Break The Barrier’

Mitch Mitchell (near left) has added his name to the illustrious list of winners of the Southern Cross Austereo Radio Writers Award. Mitchell, who has been in  contention several times in previous years, finally broke through to win the $20,000 prize with a commercial he wrote for St John Ambulance ‘Break The Barrier’ campaign. Mitchell wrote the ad whilst freelancing at The Brand Agency.

Listen to the winning spot.

SCA Sales Director Noel Quick (far left) made the announcement at the presentation luncheon at Fraser’s Kings Park on Friday. The Radio Writers Award is one of the highlights of the Perth creative calendar and this year was the 20th time the award has been presented. A special guest was former SCA sales director Martin Whittle, who has been at every award side its inception in 1994.

Mitchell’s commercial beat a strong field of finalists in the competition’s 20th year. As part of the prize, St John Ambulance also wins $20,000 of value added airtime on Mix 94.5 and/or 92.9. It’s yet another accolade for the ‘Break The Barrier’ campaign, with the TVC having performed well at several international award shows in recent months.

Marketforce led the way with 5 finalists, followed by The Brand Agency and JWT with 4 each. Meerkats had 3 finalists, 303Lowe had 2, and Cooch and Malcolm MacLean Creative had 1 each.

The winning spot was produced by Nick Gallagher from Brainestorm, which was also Production Studio of the Year having produced 10 of this year’s 20 finalists. Soundbyte produced 9 of the finalists and Eardrum 1.

The SCA Radio Writers Award continues to be Australia’s richest creative cash prize. Previous winners have been:

1994                Mike Edmonds

1995                No award*

1996                Mat Garbutt

1997                Steve Browning

1998                Steve Browning

1999                Ron Samuel

2000                Malcolm MacLean

2001                Tom Martin

2002                Patrick Lennox

2003                Mike Edmonds

2004                Adam Barker

2005                Steve Browning

2006                John Ilian

2007                Josh Edge

2008                Ryan Albuino & Andrew Chu

2009                Paul Coghlan

2010                Josh Edge & Rikki Burns

2011                Paul Coghlan

2012                Dav Tabeshfar

2013                Alida Henson & Megan Riley

2014                Mitch Mitchell

*Subsumed into the national Golden Stylus Awards