2009 Radio Mercury Awards Call for Entries!

The 2009 Radio Mercury Awards competition is officially underway. As soon as I received the email notification from Wendy Frech this afternoon, I headed over to the website to check it out.

What a great new look! Click on a link and up pops a new web page cleverly disguised as a radio commercial V/O script. The requested information is presented clearly and concisely. Kudos on the attractive website makeover, performed by Cabell Harris, WORK Labs.

This year's RMA competition introduces a new category ("Integrated Radio Campaign") for the best use of radio within an integrated multimedia plan. Winner takes home $10,000. This one's open to agencies, production companies, and radio stations, and clients. Here's the summary of all the prize categories this year from the RMA website:

Prizes:

• One (1) $100,000 Grand Prize
• Two (2) $5,000 Agency/Production Company Prizes
• New: One (1) $10,000 Integrated Radio Campaign Prize
• One (1) $5,000 Political Category Prize
• One (1) PSA Category Award and $2,500 charitable donation
• One (1) $5,000 Radio Station-Produced Category Prize
• One (1) $5,000 Spanish-Language Category Prize
• One (1) $2,500 Student-Produced Category Prize

To be eligible for a prize this year, the commercial must have aired for the first time on a U.S. commercially licensed radio station between January 1, 2008, and February 28, 2009. Deadline for entry at the standard fee ($125 per commercial, most categories) is March 20th; late entries will be accepted between March 21-28 with a higher entry fee ($150).

Full details, rules, links to previous winners and more at the RMA website.

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Want to hear what great radio advertising sounds like? Spend time listening to - and learning from - previous RMA winners. You'll find a substantial library of commercials representing seventeen years' worth of winners archived at the RMA website. The library is fully searchable by client, agency, commercial title, year, and category.

Attention Station Managers: Want to get your team members fired about about selling/writing/producing more effective commercials for local clients? Get everyone together for a 30- to 60-minute meeting (around a computer with a good set of speakers) for the sole purpose of listening to commercials from the RMA archives. See if you don't come away with some fresh ideas for advertising prospects and clients.