Radio commercials that win advertising awards are not always great effective radio ads. Sometimes they’re written just to win awards and may only get broadcast once, late at night, to qualify. Some radio ads have won gongs but not had any measurable result for the client… and some have.
Many year ago I wrote some ads using the voice of the late great Brian Glover…. based on an idea by the late great Mike Hurley. It was for a real client to sell a real car… and I didn’t know it was being entered into the London International Advertising Awards. I got a finalist certificate and was so pleased. It’s nice to be recognised in what can sometime feel like an industry where there is little recognition for the lowly copywriters and producers.
I have been recently asked on to the Grand Jury of the New York Festivals and I am very excited to be judging in the radio section. So what will I be looking for? I guess they will give us criteria… but personally I want a combination of these..
1. I want to be surprised where the ad takes me.
2. I want to hear people who understand and use the medium of sound.
3. I want to be held for the full duration of the ad.
4. I want to be moved emotionally or changed in my thinking.
5. I want to laugh or cry.
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