SILVER TO L WORD, CLEMENGER BBDO MELBOURNE WINS CANNES RADIO GRAND PRIX

It was a lean year for NZ at the Cannes Radio Lions, with only DraftFCB Auckland winning a Silver Lion for Prime TV - The L Word ‘Fresh Baking’ and ‘Morning Visitor’, produced by Digital Post Auckland.
It was a different story for Australia: Clemenger BBDO Melbourne won the Cannes Radio Grand Prix with its two-minute Snickers ‘Hoedown’ voted the best radio commercial in the world. Produced through Nylon Studios Sydney it won over a campaign for Geronimo Condoms by Grey Johannesburg asking people to imagine their parents having sex in vivid detail by just one vote.
Set to banjo music ‘Hoedown’ features three Hillbillies - two Americans Johnny May and Sonny Ray singing a song about how hungry they are with Aussie Bill saying his hunger could be sated by eating a Snickers Bar. It won Australian Commercial of the Year at the Siren Awards in May.
It also broke the Bud Light dominance of the Radio Grand Prix, having won it for the past two years although it did win a Gold Lion this year and was a contender for the top prize along with TBWA\Chiat\Day New York for Masterfoods Combos Pretzels. It was obviously a tough judging year, with only seven Gold Lions handed out in radio.
Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney won a Silver Lion for their Foxtel campaign - ‘Girl’ and ‘Your Marriage’ - produced by Song Zu Sydney/Eardrum Sydney.
David Guerrero, chairman and chief creative officer of BBDO Guerrero Ortega, who was the Jury President, says ‘Hoedown’ had some passionate advocates as did its closest rival Geronimo, which would have been given a Grand Prix if they could award two.
“It is impeccably crafted, it is brilliantly on brand and it is a very simple, universally admired campaign,” he said of ‘Hoedown’.
Australian juror Ralph van Dijk, creative director of Eardrum, who spent a lot of time outside of the room, because he was the producer on the Foxtel work, expects the win to raise the kudos of radio among Australian creatives, a process gaining momentum with the Commerical Radio of Australia’s efforts to raise the medium’s profiles with Siren Awards, creative workshops and massive branding campaign.
Australia had 47 entries in Radio this year and New Zealand had 27 entries.