Oink Ink, the leading agency specializing in the creation and production of award-winning radio ads, announces the call-for-entries for this year’s Dead Radio Contest, the annual contest now in its 13th year honoring the best radio ads that we’re never produced. The deadline for this year’s entries is May 22, 2010 with the winning script to be selected in June. The winner will receive an all-expense-paid trip for two to Oink Ink‘s production studios in New York or Venice, CA, to attend the recording session.
For further contest information and submission guidelines, visit http://www.oinkradio.com/2010DeadRadio or call 800-776-OINK.
The popular contest offers frustrated copywriters across the country the chance to submit their best un-produced radio scripts that have been “collecting dust since their untimely deaths,” says Dan Price, Oink Ink president.
A precursor to some very high-profile recognition, the contest has given a second chance to many first-rate scripts. In fact, six of the past winning spots convinced previously doubting clients to change their minds and broadcast the once dead work. Each of those spots ultimately went on to find success at numerous national and international awards shows, including Radio Mercury, Cannes Lion, Clio and London International winners.
Last year Dead Radio top honors went to Neil Blewett of the agency ZIG, Toronto, for his IKEA spot “Morning Face,” which features ‘Linda from HR’ who, to the horror of her office, traipses around with ‘morning face’ – something you get when you don’t sleep well. The Swedish announcer reminds us that “It’s called beauty sleep for a reason” as the spot goes on to promote Ikea’s Sultan Mattresses.
Blewett’s win marked the third victory in four years for writers from Toronto. ”I couldn’t believe it at first,” said Blewett of winning. “I went from writing a spot that I felt really good about. To feeling disappointed when it didn’t get approved. To crossing my fingers when I entered the contest. To being anxious when I heard I was a finalist. To doing arm pumps when I got the call that I won.”
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Click here to listen to the IKEA’s “Morning Face” spot:
http://www.oinkradio.com/2009DeadRadioWinner/v03/index.html
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“We believe in the spirit of great writing and great radio,” adds Price. “There’s a lot of good ideas out there; some of which never see the light of day. The contest is our opportunity to breath life into an idea that maybe should have been breathing all along.”
The contest also serves as a reminder to the marketing industry at large about the power of radio advertising, which is enjoying a renaissance lately.
Besides Oink Ink‘s own recent growth, which includes new studios in mid-town Manhattan, new hires and a recent ‘top-track’ pick by Shoot magazine, a recent article in Advertising Age noted: “double-digit increases in national and local spot buys among top marketing categories such as entertainment, financial services and automotive…And several analysts peg radio to finish 2010 with year-end revenue that is flat or even 2% higher than last year, which would mean the industry’s first year-over-year gain since 2006.”
Oink Ink is an award-winning, bicoastal creative agency founded by veteran managing director and president Dan Price and his brother, executive creative director Jim Price. Oink Ink writes, produces, directs and manages radio advertising for ad agencies, client-direct accounts, cable network promos and special projects. Headquartered in New York, and with offices in Los Angeles, Oink Ink has been providing high-end radio work for 18 years, for such notable clients as Google, AT&T, CBS Television, Coors Light, Ford, IBM, Southwest Airlines and Staples, to name a few. Oink Ink is a sister company of 38 Greene Studios in New York, which produces sound design, radio, audio for TV and original music work for such ad agency leaders Wieden + Kennedy, BBDO, McCann-Erickson, Ogilvy, Publicis and Saatchi & Saatchi.
