ACRAs Finalists Fever – #11

Staff Writer

There are thousands of hard-working, dedicated and amazingly creative people throughout the radio industry – and every year a small fraction of those people make the short list as a finalist in the ACRAs.

Today we feature, Garry Dean & Drew Barrett, Jess Scully and Hit929 Pleasure Drone.  Let’s Roll Out the Red Carpet….

The ACRAs Finalists Fever – counting down the days to the big event on October 8 by profiling the finalists across all categories. You can get involved by emailing us [email protected] 

 

BEST STATION PRODUCED COMMERCIAL – CAMPAIGN

Drovers;Garry Dean & Drew Barrett, Nova 93.7, Perth WA, NOVA Entertainment M Give us a quick snapshot of your radio background…

Drew Barret: I’ve always had a love of audio, it has the ability to take you anywhere, it can tell you how you should feel. I got my start in radio at the babyface age of 15 in 1995, carting at a Perth radio station. From there I moved into a production role doing Promos and commercials, and worked my way up to a senior producer handling all major station tactics. At one point I was given the awesome job of producing the annual Skyworks Soundtrack for the huge Perth Australia Day fireworks celebration.

In 2002 I was asked to help launch Nova in Perth, I wanted to try something new and different, and commercials seemed like the next logical step. It has been the best move I have ever made! In 2010 I took up an online role (DCP) creating unique video, articles, and social media content photos for Nova 93.7 and the Nova Network. In 2015 I returned to commercial production, I was keen to come back to my real passion and start creating new scenarios and interesting content that hasn’t been heard before in the land of commercial radio

Garry Dean: I wrote a jingle in grade 6:

“If you want to jam those hoops, eat your NBA loops. If you want to be like Shaq, come on and buy a pack”.

My brother & I used to tape songs off RAGE and DJ our own mix tape radio shows. But I got my first real start as a copywriter in Perth radio in 2010 and progressed into a Senior creative role. I joined NOVA 93.7 as Creative Director mid-2015.
 

Tell us about your Entry…

Drovers Inside & Out is a furniture store, and after meeting with them we discovered they stock heaps of cool ‘one-off’ designs from upcycled material – each piece of furniture had its own story! We convinced the client to hone in on this range as their point of difference for the radio campaign to really set them apart from other furniture stores.

 

From this, we formed the idea to explore the stories behind the furniture, and find an interesting tale behind each piece. Some were made from dismantled fishing boats, repurposed railway sleepers, and even dismantled Barn wood. Imagine if the furniture could talk, what tales it would tell about its journey and what would they sound like? Hence the proposition was born “Every piece of furniture has a story to tell at Drovers Inside & Out”. The voices needed to ooze connotations of the type of wood, and the materials it was made from. The fence post became a Texan farm girl, the boat wood a seasoned sea-dog sailor, the railway post a Thomas the Tank Engine ‘Ringo Starr’ inspired voice. The post production process was heaps of fun, creating a story-time like feel to the commercials.

 

Your speech, if you were able to make one…We would like to dedicate this campaign to whoever said personifying inanimate objects is a cardinal sin!

 

BEST NEWCOMER ON-AIR

Jess Scully;Now FM, Moree NSW, Super Radio Network C –

 

Tell us about you..

During my HSC I did a radio broadcasting Cert II at Hunter tafe which helped me start my radio career in the office at Newfm & 2HD, I was there for nearly four years before I took a break to pursue other interests, in 2015 I enrolled at Petersham Tafe for a journalism course and used the studio before and after class to brush up on my on air skills before applying at Nowfm & never looked back.

 

Tell us about your Entry..

My entry for best newcomer on air, well I guess it speaks for itself. I’m a bit of a dickhead and I think it shows in my minute.

 

You get it, so let rip with the speach,,,

Aw man, please don’t make me do this here! Uhm, I’ll definitely thank my Mum & Dad & Best friend for giving me the support (and lifts) to make radio an achievable dream for me. Obviously have a massive thanks to my Station (Barb, Greg, Amy, Steve, Teegan & Ando) for taking a punt on me and also being pretty damn great. Also Josh Olek & Sam Blacker for being the best pair of radio brothers a girl could ask for.

 

BEST STATION PROMOTION

The Pleasure Drone;hit92.9, Perth WA, Southern Cross Austereo M

 

Tell us the pleasure deiivered..

Hit92.9’s Pleasure Drone hit the streets of Perth last year dropping off CASH to winners all over town! Intact we handed out 5 cheque’s of 10K to 5 lucky listeners.

In a nut shell, people registered to get a visit from the Pleasure Drone – during breakfast Heidi, Will & Woody would call a few people in the draw… one of them would see our drone flying right towards them carrying the cheque! Moments later the hit92.9 team rocked up in the Hit Squad Jeeps to get the party started.

The reason this tactic/promotion stood out is because it’s totally different to anything else on the radio right now. We flew a drone around Perth dropping off cash to people…… no one in Perth has done that! It sounds cool, it is cool. We had stacks of people calling the radio station all across the day telling us they’d “Seen a DRONE!!! Is it yours?”. It most certainly contributed to our strongest survey result in the last couple of years! (Jumping 1.1 for 11.0% share / Cume also jumped 58,000 people for a BIG 475,000 overall cume figure).

Was a winner!

 

 

Are You an ACRAs Finalist?

If you’re a finalist in Metropolitan, Non-Metropolitan, Provincial or Country drop us a line and we’ll shine the spotlight on you. Email Blair  here.

 

 

 
 
 
 
 

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