Revealed: The YFM Loeries Surprise

26 Dec 2014

Can a combination of the oldest electronic medium and the modern world of digital create new strategies for advertisers? YFM believes it can, and to prove it is giving away a creative package to advertisers worth R380,000; combining airtime, digital exposure, audio production, digital production, and possibly live activation...

The idea was born out of this year's Loeries awards, which saw radio as the most hotly contested category; with O&M and client Lucozade winning the Grand Prix for "Give Me Strength".

"Radio's strength is that it complements the web and social media in a way that print and television cannot," says YFM's Marketing Manager Tamaria Motsepe. "When we combine that with live activation, such as events or guerrilla broadcasts, we can do creative advertising campaigns that would not have been possible just a few years ago."

Most clients, however, have not yet tapped into the possibility of working across platforms and allocate separate budgets to radio, web, and social media. This means that radio creatives are forced to work only with audio.

But what if an agency is able to do an innovative integrated creative campaign and bring it to life without financial risk to the client?

Taking radio beyond the airwaves

YFM believes that making that opportunity available to creatives will allow untapped ideas to come to life. The station is giving away R300,000-worth of airtime; R50,000-worth of digital exposure; R20,000-worth of radio production at YFM facilities; and R10,000-worth of digital production.

"We're looking for completely amazing, award-winning, career-defining work that shows off exactly what advertisers can do with YFM," says CEO Kanthan Pillay.

"We're looking for campaigns that combine radio with social media including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Judging criteria are based on the Loeries' judging criteria.

"Your campaign should be innovative in its thinking, approach and use of communication platforms; relevant to the brand, to the media used, and to YFM's target audience. It should be well-executed; it needs to look slick."

The entries - initial deadline was 16 December and has since been extended - will be judged by Loeries chairman Neo Mashigo, YFM CEO Kanthan Pillay, YFM Marketing Manager Tamaria Motsepe, YFM Agency Sales Manager Marco Montanari and YFM DJ and Club 808 host Mo Flava.

The winning entry will be eligible for free entry to the Loeries 2015 Integrated Category. Click here to find out more...