Draft:London International Awards

London International Awards, or LIA (formerly known as London International Advertising Awards, LIAA), is a global competition that awards creativity in the advertising and brand communications space as well as the producer of a global educational initiative called Creative LIAisons.

LIA is one of five global shows included in the WARC Creative 100 Rankings.

History
London International Awards is a fully woman-owned company. It was founded in the United Kingdom in 1986 by its current President, Barbara Levy.

It was the first international advertising award of its kind to acknowledge all media and methods from around the world to be judged by a diverse global jury.

At its inception, the competition awarded international submissions for the best advertising in the main communications media of Cinema, Television, Print, Outdoor and Radio. New categories have been added regularly and today the awards include not only traditional advertising, but recognize every touch-point between a brand and the consumer, including: digital, social media, health & pharmaceuticals, technology, audio, production, public relations, strategy, design and package design.

In 2004, the word "Advertising" was removed from the competition's name to reflect the fact that it observes more than only "advertising" in an ever-changing industry.

In 2008, LIA revamped its entire judging event by having all judges gather together in Las Vegas. In recent years, there have been 17 separate panels that gather over a 10-day period.

For 26 years, LIA held its one-night awards ceremony in London. However, in 2012, LIA made the decision to no longer hold its annual Award show. LIA replaced the Award Show with Creative Conversations, a fully-funded educational initiative to develop emerging talent from around the globe.

For the first time in 2010, the same year as the Awards' 25th Anniversary, LIA awarded statues to global Network of the Year, Agency of the Year and Production Company of the Year. In 2017, LIA added Regional 'Of the Year' Awards to Australia / New Zealand; Asia; Europe; North America; the Middle East / Africa; and South America as additional components of its Global Of the Year honors. These were followed by Independent Agency Of the Year Awards for Regional and Global in 2022.

In that same year, LIA also started LIA Chinese Creativity – a competition that only accepts and judges work conceived, produced and published or broadcast in the Chinese language.

In 2021, LIA appointed Terry Savage, former Chairman of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, as Chairperson of LIA.

2023 also saw the addition of two new awards: Holding Company of the Year and Created for Creatives LIA Legend Award - given to a leader of the industry, past or current, advancing the industry through their creativity and mentorship skills.

Cancellation of the Awards Competition
For the first time in its history, LIA cancelled the 2020 season of the competition due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Judging resumed virtually in 2021. The competition rebooted in 2022, with judging and the Creative LIAisons program back again in Las Vegas.

Judging
Judging is held annually at Encore Las Vegas over a 10-day period in late September/early October.

LIA Jury panels, each one headed by a Jury President, are composed of nearly 190 experienced members of agencies, production companies, design houses, in-house agencies and technology companies.

There is no pre-judging. Each juror is required to be on site for all rounds of judging to ensure that they see every piece of work entered within the category (or categories) that he/she/them is required to judge. LIA has no quotas for winners, and every juror is fully aware of all winners when judging is completed.

These panels decide on the Gold, Silver and Bronze Statue Winners as well as the Finalists. Each Jury is given the opportunity to award a Grand LIA to a piece of work that has achieved a Gold statue. According to the LIA website, awarding a Grand LIA is not mandatory.

Creative LIAisons
The Creative LIAisons Global Coaching Program was introduced in 2012 to develop, educate, inspire and nurture emerging talent. The program is fully funded by LIA.

The program is curated every year with input from influential and leading creative people in the industry, such as, Rob Reilly, Global Chief Creative Officer, WPP; Bob Isherwood, former Worldwide Creative Director, Saatchi & Saatchi; Mark Tutssel, Former Executive Chairman/Global CCO, Leo Burnett Worldwide; Susan Credle, FCB Global Chair and IPG Creative Advisor; Malcolm Poynton, Global CCO, Cheil Worldwide; Doerte Spengler-Ahrens, Non-Executive Chairwoman, Jung von Matt, Hamburg; and Piyush Pandey, Former-Global CCO, Ogilvy Worldwide.

There is a mix of speakers, panel discussions and interactive workshops. Topics covered are not only industry centric, but also touch on issues that are relevant to today's culture and lifestyle, brand building and future worldwide trends. One recurring speaker outside the realm of advertising but with influence in the marketing arena is Daymond John from Shark Tank and Founder and CEO of FUBU.

LIA is the only global advertising and marketing award show to open its jury rooms to emerging talent from around the world to observe discussions in real time.

In 2021, as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Creative LIAisons Global Virtual Coaching Program was born. The program gives young industry professionals an opportunity to have real-time, one-to-one coaching with three established industry leaders from around the world. Coaches will share their expertise and experiences of their many years in the industry. These private and bespoke e-mentoring sessions are customized to the mentee, covering all disciplines with emphasis on skill development, elevating ideas and boosting creative confidence to fast-track careers.

At present, the Creative LIAisons 'Global Coaching Academy' continues with in-person and virtual sessions.