Matt Shirtcliffe: Radio creates more interactive chances

Campaign: DB Breweries - Cheerleaders
Agency: Saatchi and Saatchi
Creative team: Mike O'Sullivan, Damon O'Leary and Basil Christensen
Reviewer: Matt Shirtcliffe, Aim Proximity Auckland creative director.

When I began as a copywriter, radio was widely regarded as the old-fashioned and distinctly less sexy relative of TV. Which is why I was given so much of it to write. It was a lot of fun, but very hard to share your endeavours. You had to fax your mates and tell them to listen out for your ad on air, or maybe send them a copy on cassette. In this wonderful new digital age, I downloaded Basil, Damon and Mike's ad for DB Beer from the Radio Bureau's website trb.co.nz. I laughed till I felt thirsty; the ad is worthy of its Grand ORCA (outstanding radio creativity) award for 2006, which is why I emailed it around.

What hasn't changed about radio is its ability to entertain and engage, and this ad does it so effectively.

It employs just a few simple sound effects to tell a compelling story. There's a sound for opening the fridge, the first sip of beer, the gaggle of cheerleaders who arrive to join the fun. Join them together and it's one helluva party.

Great radio is like telling a good joke; you need great timing. This ad manages it through a sped-up voiceover and slick editing, giving it plenty of energy.

In a market that's differentiated less by taste than by a brand's ability to relate to its target, this ad gets it spot-on.

Plenty of funny radio ads work on the formula of telling a joke for 40 seconds, and spuriously revealing the brand in a voiceover just before the close of play. But right from the outset this ad is unashamedly about the brand.

I'm not just excited about radio because I've listened to one great example. I think in this digital era, radio has a very exciting future for advertisers and writers alike, because it creates more possibilities for the listener to interact with the brand.

As people now listen to radio via digital streaming on their work computer, they could hear an ad at the same time as a synchronised banner ad with a downloadable e-voucher playing on the radio station's website.

People walking home from work listen to radio via their mobile phones. So a radio ad could encourage them to text in a code to receive an immediate e-voucher.

So would Baz, Damon and Mike happily place a big, direct call to action on the end of their brand ad?

Yeah, right.

* Each week, the Business Herald asks an advertising industry figure to nominate the best (or worst) locally produced campaign they've seen recently - not from their agency - and explain why.