MARKETFORCE PICK UP PERTH’S ONLY GONG AT THE NATIONAL CAXTON AWARDS

Marketforce copywriter Ryan Albuino has had a great couple of weeks adding a Caxton Award to his recent $20,000 Austereo Radio Writers’ Award. Albuino collected Western Australia’s only Caxton Award this year at the sell-out Caxton Seminar held over this weekend at the Sea Temple Resort at Port Douglas. His win was in the Copywriting category for the “10 Things Every Bloke Should Know” press ad for the Cancer Council of WA.

17 Caxtons for Excellence in Newspaper Advertising were awarded at the awards show. Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney was awarded the prestigious Quinlivan Black Award for the Foxtel/National Geographic Channel ‘Sir Edmund Hillary’ newspaper campaign.

The Quinlivan Black Award is chosen each year by the Chairman of Judges for one ad or campaign that he feels is best overall for that year.

Said Caxton Awards Chairman of Judges Paul Catmur from Barnes, Catmur & Friends, Auckland: “The Caxton judging was friendly, well mannered and considered which usually means either the work was rather average or that judges didn’t have any of their own work entered. Neither turned out to be the case and while there may not have been too many actual ‘balltearers’, we left the room with plenty of scratches around the scrotum – apart from Michelle Galluzzo from M&C.  We saw some really nice ads and importantly, some really nice newspaper ads.

“International print award shows are judged by who got away with the best scams so it was good to see some real work surface every now and again. I believe we have some really deserving Caxtons and a good spread of work to uphold the tradition of the awards.”

Commenting on the Caxton Award winners this year, Caxton Chairman Rob Belgiovane from BWM Sydney said:  “It is encouraging to see the quality of work has improved this year. This year 17 Caxtons were awarded – up from just 12 last year – which is a reflection of better creative standards in our newspaper advertising.

The  2008 Caxton Awards for excellence in newspaper advertising saw 74 finalists across 26 categories, with the number of entries up by 10 per cent on last year. In addition to the Caxton Award, Marketforce also had two finalists. Other WA finalists were Rare Creative Thinking (with two) and 303 and Ad Impact with one each.