Leo Burnett’s Andrew Woodhead and Justin Nagorcka win round 3 of 2013 Sirens Awards for ‘Volunteer your voice’ for seekvolunteer.com.au

An ad calling for volunteers, titled “Volunteer your voice”, has won the single and overall categories in round three of the 2013 Siren Awards. The ad was written by Andrew Woodhead and Justin Nagorcka from agency, Leo Burnett Melbourne for client, seekvolunteer.com.au, which helps source volunteers for all Australian charities. The ad was produced using volunteer voice over artists and broadcast by stations via volunteered air time.

Click here to listen to Round 3 winning ads.

Says Mike Edmonds from Meerkats and judge: “Like all the most engaging marketing ideas today, this idea transcends its own particular channel and reaches a far broader tribe. I bet it started with a bit of extra buzz at Seek, bringing together their own team behind it, then spread out into the stations and then further out into society. All along, I would imagine it snowballed beyond just a radio ad into something of a mini social movement. That’s great value for the client and a terrific case study for radio.”

Says Woodhead and Nagorcka: “It’s an idea that was really inspired by the spirit of volunteering. Most charities would cease to function without time and talent given generously by passionate people. We wanted to demonstrate the impact of volunteering through an advertising concept that saw the voice-over artists, engineers, music composers and radio stations all come together and volunteer to make the ad.”

“We wrote one script, but this script has been recorded hundreds of times by different voice-over talent and on-air personalities. Then stations all over the country volunteered to broadcast the commercials. We have been extremely floored by the time and talent volunteered to make this campaign happen. It is a campaign without an end date, the commercial will run as long as people are willing to volunteer to air it.”      

Highly commended in the single category was an ad for Velvet Jane called “Respect”, written by Joe Hawkins from agency, McCann World Group.

Winner of the campaign category was “He Gave Up a Lot” for the City of Perth, written by Guy Howlett and Neil Martin from agency, Marketforce in Perth.

Winner of the craft category was an ad for Edith Cowan University, called “ECU Open Day – Ryan”, produced by sound engineer, Brad Habib from production studio Soundbyte Studios in Perth.

Two ads were highly commended in the craft category: an ad for HBF called “Outdoor Fitness”, produced by sound engineer Justin Braine from production studio, Brainestorm in Perth and an ad for Four and Twenty called “Car Man” produced by sound engineer, Paul Le Couteur from production studio, Flagstaff Studios in Melbourne.

 Ms Warner also congratulated all the Siren winners and entrants who won radio awards at the recent London International Awards including the last round winner, Earphone Bully (SapientNiro, Brisbane and Eardrum Australia, Sydney) which won a Gold in the Sound Design category and a Silver in the Direction category. CRA’s Ear app ad (Eardrum Australia) also won a Silver in the Corporate Image category.