Campaign of the month: Meet the DJs

August’s winner of the IAB Creative Showcase Award, in association with Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions, is Agency Republic with its latest campaign for Radio 1 – “Meet the DJs”.

Radio 1 has always championed specialist musical tastes. So when a change in its schedule meant that a lot of the specialist shows were moving to later time slots it was important to let listeners know about the change, but also to make it clear how much Radio 1 still valued these shows. A contrived advertising message was not something that Radio 1 listeners would respond well to. Therefore, the best solution was to let the DJs sell themselves.

The end result is a series of 12 films in which the DJs share their musical backgrounds and passions, executed via a series of online ads and a dedicated area of the BBC website, intended to build stronger relationships between themselves and their listeners.

First runner-up this month was Avenue A Razorfish with its latest work for the NSPCC. Following the hugely successful Don’t Hide It campaign in 2006, which aimed to get children and young people to speak out about sexual abuse, the NSPCC has launched Don’t Hide It, part II. This year’s campaign is about getting children and young people to speak out about all forms of abuse: sexual, physical and emotional abuse, and neglect and bullying. The campaign harnesses the power of what is essentially a peer-to-peer communication between children. It uses a combination of powerful creative, an informative microsite with a strong user-generated content element and content partnerships with social software sites to spread the campaign messages.

The second runner-up for August was Archibald Ingall Stretton with its outstanding and innovative campaign, O2 Stare Out: a webcam-based game where the public lock eyes with top international rugby stars. To build support for the England rugby team the agency developed a game which challenges the public to a “stare-out” competition with three of England’s top stars: Josh Lewsey, Mike Tindall and Tom Rees. The contest requires participants to line up their eyes with their computer’s webcam, which monitor the eye for any sign of blinking.