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Ideas and technique to help you promote and image radio

Radio’s rare win at D&AD

K9FM logo

K9FM – the radio station for dogs.

Prizes from the design organisation D&AD are highly regarded among advertising creatives but radio ads can struggle to get noticed alongside print, tv and film.

D&AD black pencil

D&AD black pencil

The esteemed “black pencil” prize has only been awarded for radio work three times in more than three decades. So we can’t let this most recent win pass unnoticed.

New Zealand agency Colenso BBDO and petfood manufacturer Pedigree created a branded radio station for dogs. The station was broadcast on FM to Aukland, New Zealand in April last year and sounded like this:

[audio:http://earshotcreative.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/320kbps.mp3|titles=”K9FM by Colenso BBDO and Pedigree.”]

The initiative generated a tonne of local publicity and you can hear what fun the writers had, breaking out from their normal formats of fixed duration spots and shortform print copy.

Now Clare Bowen of the RAB in the UK wants Britain’s creative advertising industry to be similarly bold. Writing for campaign.co.uk, Clare says:

There is nothing we’d like to see more than a UK agency creating an answer to K9FM. Colenso BBDO is to be congratulated for creating a truly well crafted, innovative and entertaining piece of radio. I hope it motivates and inspires teams and brands in the UK to raise their ambitions, allowing the advance planning and creative development time needed to create something to match it. Advertisers, agencies and audiences deserve it.”

Clare’s been in touch today to say the agencies are already straining at the leash.