(14 May 2024) London International Awards (LIA) is pleased to announce Della Sweetman, Chief Business Development Officer Executive Lead, Creative, Strategy and Planning at FleishmanHillard Global as the 2024 Creativity in PR Jury President.

Della is an energetic leader with a proven record of creating a high-performance culture centered on the work. She has led global clients, P&Ls, practice groups, and large-scale agency initiatives. Based in New York, today she leads FleishmanHillard’s global growth function and Creative, Strategy and Planning, including the introduction of ‘Bend the World’ – the agency’s unique point of view for earned-led creative.

“I’m delighted and honored to be invited back to serve as president on the LIA Creativity in PR Jury for a second time,” said Della. “We are well into the era where the power of earned creative and ideas is unrivaled. I’m especially keen to see more work emerge from Creatives in PR and Communications at a time when we know other disciplines continue to show very strongly in this category. And I’m looking forward to joining the other LIA jurors to celebrate some exceptional work!”

LIA introduced the Creativity in PR category to the Awards in 2022. The work entered in this category must have creative thinking at its core. Work that has driven and influenced opinion. Work that is culturally relevant and focuses on reputation management with the objective of increasing positive reinforcement and good will for the brand across all sectors of the PR spectrum. 

Some of the most inspiring creative work has come from PR. The sky’s the limit. In 2018, when SpaceX launched Falcon Heavy, their newest space rocket into space, it made the headlines.  But the PR hype for both SpaceX and Falcon Heavy went into hyperdrive when Falcon Heavy shot a cherry red Tesla Roadster into orbit. Today, six years later, the orbiting Tesla is still an annual curiosity with the media asking, “where is it now in space?” A good PR campaign gets people talking, puts brands in the spotlight and makes a lasting impression.  It doesn’t just attract attention, it attracts stakeholders.

Barbara Levy, President of LIA, said: “Every PR campaign is a series of planned activities to give either the brand or the company publicity. Over the years, many brands have been inventive and have used original ideas in PR to bolster media relations and coverage, and to build credibility. Some have likened Creativity in PR to a breath of fresh air - it gives the public a chance to learn more about the brand or company through the lens of creativity without an overt call to purchase. Creativity in PR is increasingly vital. It is like what Oscar Wilde wrote, ‘There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.’ With our esteemed jury, we are confident that there will be a lot of buzz from the work honored this year.”

Meet LIA’s 2024 Creativity in PR Jury:

Della Sweetman, Chief Business Development Officer Executive Lead, Creative, Strategy and Planning at FleishmanHillard Global - Jury President

Deborah Abraham, Head of PR, Global at Forsman & Bodenfors, Singapore

Tom Beckman, Global Chief Creative Officer at Weber Shandwick

Sean Citrigno, Managing Director at Middle Child, Toronto

Shereen Ladha, Creative Strategy Lead at Hill & Knowlton, Toronto

Micaela Lagoria, VP of Latinoamérica at Talkability PR, Buenos Aires

Marie Claire Maalouf, Chief Creative Officer at Edelman, Dubai

Anthony O'Neill, EVP, Executive Creative Director at Golin, Chicago

Chad Song, Campaign Director / Co-Founder at the.WATERMELON, Seoul

Lourenço Thomaz, Chief Creative Officer - Spain + Portugal at Dentsu Creative Iberia

Luke Walker, UK Head of Creative at Ketchum, London

Judging in Las Vegas commences on 29th September and will be completed on 7th October 2024. All rounds of judging are done onsite at the Encore @ Wynn Hotel. Every judge is required to see every piece of work in their respective categories. These panels decide on the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Statue Winners, as well as the Finalists. Each panel, at their discretion, also decides on whether a Grand LIA will be awarded.

As there is no off-site pre-judging, all judges are fully involved from the beginning to the end, so everyone is privy to the final results before they are published.

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

For more information on the juries, categories and/or requirements, visit our website at: www.liaawards.com.

    Jury President                               Deborah Abraham                            Tom Beckman                                  Sean Citrigno   
    Della Sweetman

 

   Shereen Ladha                                Micaela Lagoria                               Marie Claire Maalouf                        Anthony O'Neill

 

  Chad Song                                        Lourenço Thomaz                            Luke Walker

 

---

 

 

# # #

 

Notes to the Editor:

London International Awards (LIA) is a Creative Awards Festival, established in 1986, by Barbara Levy, President. Barbara was the first woman to found and operate an International Awards Show honoring multiple media types. 39 years later, LIA continues to hold the unique distinction of being the only international award owned by a woman and having a full-time staff of only women.

LIA stands as a champion of the creative process, creatives themselves, and of course, great creative ideas and executions. We are proud to award the best creative work each year in all forms of media: Advertising, Design, Package Design, Data, Technology, Craft, Health, Pharma, Music, PR, Innovation, Strategy, B2B and much more.

That’s why every year, LIA invites industry leaders and trendsetters on both the creative and client side, assembling the most celebrated people for 10 days of judging in Las Vegas. To cut through the thousands of entries to get to the metal, you need the best jurors from diverse communities – not just meeting DEI standards but having true representation from across the regions, companies, networks, holding companies, independent companies to clients.

All members on our diverse global jury panels, including the Jury Presidents, judge all entries in their respective competitions with the exception to work that they personally collaborated on or was entered from their company. The LIA judging process requires that jurors are onsite for all judging from the first round through statue discussions. There is no pre-judging to narrow the entries.

Creative LIAisons Funded by LIA

LIA created the exclusive and sought after Creative LIAisons educational initiative in 2012, as a way of giving back to the industry that supports us. Our mission is to develop, educate, inspire and nurture emerging talent. That in a nutshell is the driving purpose behind the Creative LIAisons initiative. What began as a vision in 2012, became a zeal which crystallized into the Creative LIAisons Global Coaching Academy. This game-changing training academy is a powerful springboard for the current and next generation of talent. Consisting of both onsite and virtual programs, approximately 300 Creative LIAisons Mentees participate annually.