Finalists for the 2024 Outstanding Radio Creative Awards (ORCA) and Student ORCAs have been announced!

ORCA is an annual competition to find and celebrate the most effective audio creative on New Zealand commercial radio stations and associated streaming platforms.

Judging was very close this year, resulting in a record five finalists in the Standard Category. There was a huge variety of creative approaches, and music was a significant theme: from a choral composition by Baz Luhrman, to UK grime by Scrufizzer – and even good old singalongs!

Congratulations to all the finalists: Ogilvy, Clemenger UnLtd, FCB, Motion Sickness, Daylight and TBWA\NZ.

Student ORCA Finalists
Each year, the ORCAs are also expanded to include a popular student competition. In 2024, students from AUT University and Media Design School were given live briefs to create audio scripts for one of 3 clients: Talk Peach, Bellyful and Snackachangi.

With a record number of entries, the judges were blown away by the boundary-pushing creativity in the entries submitted.

Congratulations
TRB CEO, Alistair Jamison says, “Congratulations to all of this year’s finalists. At TRB, we recognise the importance of audio creativity and we’re very proud to once again support the ORCAs. These awards can’t happen without the support of the industry, so I’d like to thank all the Judges who gave their time.”

Judging was based on four criteria: creativity, execution, effectiveness, and innovation. The 2024 Grand ORCA Judges were Simon Vicars (Colenso BBDO), Hadleigh Sinclair (Colenso BBDO), Matt Watts (Chemistry) and Matt Williams (DDB).

Simon, Hadleigh and Matt Williams did double duty as 2024 Student Judges and were joined by Emily Beautrais (Clemenger UnLtd). The Judges picks for the finalists are:

Standard Campaign

Wild Bean Café & Ogilvy – Cravey Radio
Wayne Smith, James O'Sullivan, Toby Talbot, Kristal Knight

Ministry of Social Development & Clemenger UnLtd – Own the Feels
Alex Metson, Mike Gwyther, Julia Ferrier, Brigid Alkema

Green Cross Health & FCB – Thankfully On Uber Eats
Letitia MacKenzie, Hannah Watts, Alan Jones, Angelo An

Fire & Emergency NZ & Motion Sickness – Warning Labels
Schumacher Leona, Freddy Riddiford

Auckland Transport & Motion Sickness – Invisible Hazards
Andrew Hathaway, Kelly France

Non-Standard Campaign

The Spinoff & Daylight – Paper Podcasts
Charlie Godinet, Scott Moyes, Bel Hawkins

2degrees & TBWA\NZ – Good Tings
Ashley Wilding, Simon Watts

Media Design School
Bellyful - Too Much on Your Plate
Emily Boswell, Romy Lane, Mikayla Riddell

Talk Peach - Ghosting
Stasia Edmeades, Sonya Solonchenko, Khushaal Singh

AUT
Bellyful - Help Them Feel Human Again
Keeley Bates, Madeleine Robertson

Winners will be announced over an awards luncheon on Tuesday 12^th November, with a release to follow shortly after.