(7 August 2024) London International Awards (LIA) announces the Branded Content and Branded Entertainment jury. Presiding over this jury is Juan Woodbury, North America Creative & Entertainment Lead, Ogilvy, New York. These jurors were chosen for their expertise, experience and skill and because they have been the force behind award-winning work throughout their careers.
This jury will travel to Las Vegas to view every piece of work entered in the Branded Content and Branded Entertainment competitions. All rounds of judging take place in person at Encore @ Wynn Hotel, Las Vegas. 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.
Juan, an Entertainment industry veteran and Grammy Award Winner, serves as North America Creative and Entertainment Lead for The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) at Ogilvy and WPP Open X. Woodbury is responsible for driving creative work that influences culture and continuously delivers on TCCC’s market-leading position. Working with the entire WPP Open X team, he helps shape and drive the creative vision for Ogilvy’s work on TCCC’s portfolio of brands in North America. For more than 20 years, Woodbury has held trailblazing roles in the industry and helped shape bold, innovative creative work for brands that include Samsung, Nintendo, The U.S. Army, Kellogg’s, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble, Intel, and more.
In accepting his role as Jury President, Juan said, “In today's landscape, brands aren't just vying against each other; they are in a constant battle for people's attention, affection and excitement, leveraging various narratives and experiences. The key is crafting something irresistible, something people eagerly engage with and can't afford to overlook. This is why overseeing LIA's Branded Entertainment and Branded Content category is such an exhilarating responsibility and I'm privileged to lead as its Chair.”
Branded Content vs. Branded Entertainment: It’s simple, Branded Content has no obligation to entertain, nor does it have an obligation to sell a product or service, whereas Branded Entertainment is advertising. It’s simply disguised as entertainment.
With the advent of social media and mobile entertainment, it has been posited that Branded Entertainment is more “effective and necessary” today. A seamless and well executed piece of branded entertainment or branded content engages its audience, while amplifying the brand attributes and desirability. The lines between entertainment and advertising become almost indistinguishable.
Barbara Levy, President of LIA, said, “Whenever I think of effective branded content, the highly successful ‘LEGO Movie’ comes to mind. The entire movie is about one brand. It was highly entertaining, yet the brand was effortlessly in every part of the movie. What a wonderful way to introduce LEGO to a new generation of users. We are very excited to have Juan Woodbury guide the Branded Content and Branded Entertainment room. With the kind of talent in the judging room, it will be interesting to see the top work that emerges.”
Branded Content and Branded Entertainment Jury:
Juan Woodbury, North America Creative & Entertainment Lead, Ogilvy, New York – Jury President
Sling, Film Director, Directors Think Tank, Kuala Lumpur / Singapore
Simon Au, Executive Creative Director, The Kitchen North America, Toronto
Jordan Doucette, Chief Creative Officer, Dentsu Creative, Toronto
Perry Fair, Chief Creative Officer, / Head of Entertainment, McCann Worldgroup, Los Angeles
Santosh Padhi, Chief Creative Officer, India, Wieden+Kennedy, Mumbai
Marjorieth Sanmartin, Chief Creative Officer, Philipp und Keuntje, Hamburg
Joel Simon, CEO / Chief Creative Officer, JSM Music, New York
Mandie van der Merwe, Chief Creative Officer, Saatchi & Saatchi, Sydney
Richard Yu, Co-Founder / Chief Creative Officer, ROCK YU Creative, Taipei
Judging in Las Vegas commences on 29th September and will be completed on 7th October 2024.
LIA is one of five global shows that is included in the WARC Creative 100 rankings.
For more information on the juries, categories and requirements, visit our website: www.liaawards.com.
Jury Photos:
Juan Woodbury Sling Simon Au Jordan Doucette
Perry Fair Santosh Padhi Marjorieth Sanmartin Joel Simon
Mandie van der Merwe Richard Yu
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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.
The exclusive and sought-after, Creative LIAisons educational program, funded by LIA, was implemented 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.