Spikes 2013: Metro Melbourne named ‘Advertiser of the Year’

Spikes Asia Festival of Creativity has announced the recipient of the ‘Advertiser of the Year Award’ for 2013.

This year’s award will go to Metro, Melbourne’s train system, which has been winning a record number of international awards for its public service announcement ‘Dumb Ways to Die’.

The award ‘honours a brand that is currently setting itself apart through the quality of its campaigns with consistently high creative communications whilst encouraging and nurturing innovative marketing techniques produced by their agencies’, said a Spikes Asia statement.

“It is remarkable what Metro and its agency have achieved with the ‘Dumb Ways to Die’ campaign. This is the best use of creative communications that we have seen recently. Not only has it captured the imagination and engaged the public through multimedia platforms – radio, outdoor, gaming, social media, etc. - but it has also been effective in achieving a change in people’s behaviour,” said Terry Savage, chairman, Lions Festivals.

Leah Waymark, general manager corporate relations, Metro Melbourne, said, “What a great honour! The past year has been an incredible journey for Metro and the evolution of our brand. As our operational performance has improved, we have increasingly been able to be more creative and make light of what are usually pretty dull topics. Out task now is to keep the conversation about train safety alive so we can change behaviours among our next generation of customers.”       

Waymark will receive the Advertiser of the Year award at the Spikes Awards on 17 September.

More information on Spikes Asia Festival of Creativity is available at www.spikes.asia.

(The Spikes Asia Festival of Creativity is a collaboration between Lions Festivals, organisers of the International Festival of Creativity, Cannes, and Haymarket, publisher of Campaign India.)