Perth agency Meerkats has won round four of the 2019 Siren Awards, taking out the single and campaign categories, plus the overall win with ads from the campaign ‘Tiny Tots’ for St John Ambulance WA.

Meerkats creative team Rikki Burns, Gordon Haynes and Josh Edge (pictured above) created radio ads that illustrate how kids see every day life-threatening hazards. The ads are designed to stand out and shock parents and carers into thinking about taking a St John Tiny Tots First Aid course.

Burns, Haynes and Edge said they hoped to make an ad that would reward the listener for their time by making it interesting.

“Seeing the world with a sense of childlike wonderment is a beautiful thing, when it’s not involving imminent death,” the trio said in a joint statement.

“We thought the responsible thing to do was to draw a distinction between the two.”

The ‘Tiny Tots – Blocks’ ad focusing on the hazard of shiny, plastic choking blocks won the single category and overall. The campaign win was made of up of three ads: ‘Blocks’, ‘Water’ and ‘Stairs’.

The round four craft category winner was awarded to sound engineer Paul Taylor from Sound Reservoir with the ad ‘Crazy for Cars’ for Commercial Radio Australia’s 2018 brand campaign promoting the effectiveness of radio advertising.

Nine ads in round four were highly commended by judges. Highly commended in the single category were two ads from the Meerkats: the ‘Tiny Tots’ campaign for St John WA – ‘Water’ and ‘Stairs’.

Also highly commended in the single category was the Aldi ad ‘Always on Price – Kombucha’ from BMF by creatives Emily Field, Millicent Malcolm, Stephanie Allen, and Rob Boddington.

Highly commended in the campaign category included BMF’s Aldi ads ‘Always on Price – Croissants, Kombucha, Sausage’ from creative team Emily Field, Millicent Malcolm, Stephanie Allen, and Rob Boddington.

Eardrum was highly commended for the CRA Radio Alive campaign from creatives Ralph van Dijk and Tristan Viney, and J. Walter Thompson’s creative team of Wilora Keeley and Tim Newton were highly commended for the ad ‘Sounds of Saving’ for Homebuyers Centre.

Three ads were highly commended in the craft category: ‘Flaky Results’ and ‘Trusty Tunes’ for the CRA Radio Alive brand campaign from sound engineer Paul Taylor of Sound Reservoir, and ‘The Sportiest Radio Ad Ever’ for Ford Australia from sound engineer Rodney Lowe from Production Alley sound studio.

Listen to the winning ads from round four here.

CRA chief executive Joan Warner said: “We’re pleased to see a run of excellent radio ads entered into the awards in the final round for this year and look forward to showcasing more radio in the last round early next year.”

The Siren Awards, run by CRA, celebrate the best in radio advertising and are judged over five rounds throughout the year.

The 2019 Gold Siren winner will be announced in May 2019 and wins a trip to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The client of the winning 2019 Gold Siren Award also wins a ticket to Cannes.

Silver Sirens are awarded in each of the three categories: single, campaign and craft. There is also a client-voted award – a $5000 cash prize – presented to the writers of the ad voted the best by a panel of clients.