oOh! Launches the BIG Creative awards

In an initiative born out of Australia's less than sensational results at Cannes in the Outdoor category, oOh!media has launched the BIG Creative national award program this week in the interests of boosting the standard of billboard creative.

The program awards the creators of the best metro and regional campaigns with return tickets to the Cannes Lions Festival in June, 2012.

In the leadup over the next nine months, oOh!’s executives will award $500 worth of entertainment expenses to the ad agencies that create the best advertising on metropolitan and regional billboards before the two overall winners are announced. 
National oOhroad! Manager, Steve Danaher said he wanted ad agencies to continue focusing on developing great billboard creative in the absence of the industry run outdoor creative awards.

"We decided to run our own reward program to make sure great creative for everyday products and services is encouraged, recognised and rewarded,”he said. “Often outdoor ads that win awards are stunts, or one-offs, and not part of a far reaching billboard campaign."

Danaher said the big billboard ads would be measured against the Five Golden Rules of creative billboard advertising that arose from a consumer insights research study conducted earlier in the year -  simplicity, clear branding, visual appeal, language and innovation.

Managing partner of Spinach, Craig Flanders, said it was great to see oOh!media take the initiative to promote and reward good creative artwork on billboards. 

"The five criteria for good creative reinforces what we already know and oOh!’s rewards campaign helps keep this top of mind for everybody," he said.

The first two monthly winners were JWT Melbourne for Ford Focus and Clemenger BBDO Melbourne for Great Northern Beer.

Danaher said the winning entries scored highly in all Five Golden Rule categories.
"The Great Northern Beer billboard used clear product branding with images and language that Queenslanders could clearly identify with. The Ford Focus creative used the size of the billboards to illustrate the actual look and feel of the car as part of the billboard teaser campaign to promote the impending car launch."

Agencies do not have to enter or register, they will automatically be selected and assessed by the judging panel from oOh!'s metropolitan and regional billboards.