Campaign to protect Ningaloo wins Round 3 of Siren Awards

A campaign to protect Western Australia’s Ningaloo Reef has won Round 3 of the 2021 Siren Awards, being awarded the single, campaign and craft categories.

The Siren Awards are run by industry body Commercial Radio Australia (CRA) to recognise outstanding radio advertising. The process consists of five earlier rounds before a final call round.

The ‘Beautiful Ningaloo’ campaign won the single (for the ‘Whales’ execution), campaign and craft categories.

It was created by creative agency Meerkats and aimed to draw attention to the advocacy work of Project Ningaloo and the importance or protecting and preserving the Exmouth Gulf region.

The creatives, Matt Wilson and Luke Wilson, said they believed in the cause and wanted to help save the area from industrialisation.

“We set out to let people know we needed to help save this special place,” they said.

“In a year where creative opportunities have been slim and award shows are being cancelled and delayed in droves, winning a coveted Siren in 2020 is really special,” they added.

CRA’s CEO Joan Warner said: “Once again we see how powerful radio advertising can be when its immediacy and reach are used in creative ways to bring about change and raise awareness for important issues.”

CRA’s own campaign about the power of radio advertising, ‘CRA Radio Alive 2020’ crafted by Eardrum and Ralph van Dijk received a highly commended in the campaign category, alongside Southern Cross Austereo’s (SCA) M&S Offset campaign ‘True Artists from creatives Cameron Horn and Michael Barry.

Highly commended in the craft category were: ‘Hope’ for Distinctive Funerals from sound engineer Drew Barrett from Creative Services West; ‘Salmon Plumbing – The Fish Pun Song’ for Salmon Plumbing by sound engineers Andrew Fritsch and Tony Byrne from SCA – The Studio; and ‘Ginger Vitis & The Pearly Gates’ from sound engineer Nat Marshall from SCA South West.

Round 5 of the 2021 Siren Awards is now open, with entries closing on February 9, 2021. The 2021 Gold Siren winner will be announced in May 2021.