Radio advertising will get its own category for the first time ever at this year’s Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival—a move which is expected to boost its creative profile.
“We’ve introduced radio as a category because of its strength as an advertising medium,” Cannes Lions Festival CEO, Terry Savage, says.
“We cannot continue to ignore a medium that generates significant revenue and percentage of market share in the markets in which it operates.
“The one thing Cannes can do is elevate the creative profile of radio. Better quality radio advertising will be a win for everyone—the radio industry, the clients and the listeners.”
Commercial Radio Australia CEO, Joan Warner, agrees.
“[The award] will help raise awareness about the importance of creativity in radio, and increase the levels of enthusiasm creatives have towards radio,” she says.
“This will hopefully lead to a higher standard of radio advertising on air in Australia, and therefore, more effective campaigns.”
But she bemoans the delay in recognising radio at the awards.
“It was well past time that radio, as an important advertising medium, was included in the world’s major advertising festival,” Warner says.
Similarly, KWP Advertising national creative director, Peter Withy, points out that other awards like the Cleos, New York Festivals and London International advertising awards already have radio categories.
“Cannes is probably the last to do it, so it’s not any Everest that has to be conquered for the first time,” Withy, the Australian representative on the Cannes Lions’ jury judging this year’s radio category, says.
He believes that the award merely allows radio to take its rightful place. “As long as I have been in advertising, radio has always been one of the principal places of advertising,” he says.
Some market players question how the new radio awards are likely to work at an international festival where very visual ads have traditionally done well because they can communicate across language barriers.
But Eardrum creative director, Ralph van Dyk, says he has judged many international radio awards, and good ideas always transcend language barriers.
“We can’t hope to recognise all the accent nuances and word play from other languages, but I’m sure Cannes judges will put the purity and simplicity of the idea first, and the execution second,” he says.
Savage believes the concept that visual ads do well needs updating. Besides Film, Press and Outdoor awards, he says Cannes in 2005 has Direct Marketing, Media and Interactive categories.
“These are complex entries that require careful examination and consideration by the jury. Radio and Integrated Titanium, [which recognises work across multiple channels] will be no different. But careful consideration will need to be given due to the unique aspects of the entry category,” Savage says.
Van Dyk disputes the notion that radio is TV’s poor cousin.
“It’s only journalists who still seem to use that old phrase. Internationally, radio advertising is going from strength to strength while TV’s role as the ‘dominant medium’ has, at best, diminished,”he says.
“Initiatives like the on-going brand campaign for Commercial Radio Australia will continue to raise radio’s awareness, plus, the launch of the Siren Awards this year will encourage agencies to get more excellent creative on the airwaves.”
Warner agrees that the Siren Awards will help promote radio advertising in Australia and encourage great work within the medium. The annual winners of Sirens will be automatically entered into Cannes Radio Lions, she says.
Commercial Radio Australia is also embarking on a number of other moves to bolster radio’s standing.
“We are working on improving education and training for copywriters as well as involving the advertising industry more in radio issues,” Warner says.
The industry, she adds, has embarked on a two-year, $40m brand campaign to promote the effectiveness of radio as an advertising medium. It repeats the message that radio advertising during the day is twice as effective at reaching an audience as television.
So what makes a good radio spot?
According to Warner, it’s “creativity, originality and impact” while Van Dyk believes a good spot shouldn’t sound as if it’s trying.
“It’s a well executed original idea and a tone which draws the listener in, holds their attention and finally motivates them,” he says.
Savage’s vote is for creativity.
“Cannes is a creative festival and, accordingly, the emphasis will be based on creativity,” he says.
Entries for the awards must be in the language of origin with an accompanying English script, according to Savage. “You can have optionally a dubbed copy of the commercial in English,” he says.
The radio category will be judged by a jury of 15 international members. The jury president is executive creative director of Ogilvy & Mather in London, Malcolm Poynton.
Savage says entries are progressing well with half or more of those from individuals and companies coming from non English speaking countries.
The jury will start judging in Cannes on Monday, June 20.
