AJF Partnership wins round 2 of 2011 Sirens

Melbourne ad agency, AJF Partnership has won the overall, campaign and single categories for round two of the 2011 Siren Awards. The winner of the overall and campaign category was a campaign of three ads – “The Fist’, ‘The Date’ and ‘The Reunion’ – for National Foods’ Dare brand. The campaign was written by Michael Skarbek (pictured).

LISTEN TO THE WINNING CAMPAIGN

Judge, and previous round winner, Josh Edge from agency, The BrandAgency in Perth said about the winning ad: “We like the Dare IcedCoffee Campaign for its simple, human insight – that “coffee” momentsare usually the sort of moments men would rather undergo an emergencyvasectomy than attend – and the great, punchy writing. Making an honestinsight funny is harder work than it looks, but these ads make it lookseffortless.”

Winning writer, Michael Skarbek said: “It’s not that these ads areunique, they just use a style that doesn’t really get used all thatoften anymore on radio – the simple art of storytelling. Just a voice,no sound effects or music, drawing you in with a story you haven’theard before, which hopefully makes you smile.”

There was one highly commended ad in the campaign category. It was anad for sports.bet.com.au called “People who like to bet on the net”,written by Brendan Greaney and Andrew Woodhead from Leo BurnettMelbourne.

Winner of the craft category was an ad for the South Australiangovernment initiative, Be Active called “Be Active the Musical”. Theinitiative, which aims to make South Australians more physicallyactive, was produced by Eddie Bye from Adelaide’s Nova 919.

Judge, Vaughan Jones from Prime Radio Network said about the winningad: “These commercials demonstrate a range of technical craft. Theengineer needed to create an instantly recognisable theatre ambianceand transition to a musical parody in a way that made sense to thelistener, without the luxury of explanatory dialogue. Overall, a riskyconcept that relied heavily on the ability of the recording engineer todeliver a real, believable environment. A very vivid result wasachieved. A perfect mental image.”

Judge and previous round winner of the craft category, Martyn Zub fromproduction studio, Oasis Post in Adelaide, said:”The pace and timing ofthe sound edit worked really well for me, adding to the humour of thetrack. Great, funny stuff, makes me want to start singing!”

There was one highly commended ad in the craft category. It was an adfor Adelaide Now called  “World Cup Soccer” and was produced by soundengineer, Justin Astbury from production studio, Oasis Post in Adelaide.

The national Siren Awards are run by Commercial Radio Australia and aredesigned to recognise the best radio advertising in the country.Entries for round three of the 2011 Siren Awards are now open and closeon September 17. For more information visit the dedicated websitewww.sirenawards.com.au.