Creative Juice\Bangkok’s Asawin Phanichwatana at LIA: What happens in Vegas starts before Vegas
Asawin Phanichwatana, Chief Creative Officer at Creative Juice\Bangkok sat on the Digital and Use of Influencers jury at the LIA judging in Las Vegas. Here he gives insights into the judging experience and highlights a few winners.
I got excited the moment I received an invitation to be a jury at London International Awards (LIA) 2024. In fact, the excitement only grew stronger as the judging week got closer.
A process unique to LIA, there is no pre-(online) judging. Everything only starts once the entire jury panel assembles at the dazzling city that is Las Vegas. Which means as I began my 20+ hours journey to fly half way across the world, I still had no idea what or how many pieces of work I’d be looking at. I only knew that I’d be seeing some of the world’s best work for sure, since LIA being one of the most prestigious shows, sets the bar for creative excellence year after year.
Even though I arrived at the venue (very) jetlagged, I couldn’t help but felt a sense of anticipation as fellow jurors filled the room. Soon we were ready to finally look at the work. We sat down together and went through the work one by one. We looked at each one of them through our own lens, with our own background, experience and culture. At the same time learning from others’ perspectives and culture.
On the first two days, we voted the work in or out. Then on the third day we ranked all the work that made it into the second round from 1 to 10. I felt like a student back in class. Studying, digesting and learning. I took my time going through each and every piece of work carefully. And on those first few days, I was always the last one to leave the room.
Then it was time for the final discussions for awarding statues. The interesting part was that we actually started by selecting all the gold winners first, something I’ve never experienced in any other awards show judging.
The other thing was when we voted, we didn’t just click on a tablet, we had to raise our hand and really get behind the work. With some work, I found myself raising my hand, then looked around only to realize that there were only 2 or 3 hands up.
Since the category of Digital and Use of Influencer is quite broad, there were hundreds of entries. And so many of the cases are super well crafted, that it was difficult for everyone in the room to align. This led to a lot of heated debates. We dove deep into discussions, dissecting a lot of the work… and often times, it ultimately came down to whether the entry really fit the sub-category.
The toughest was awarding the Grand winner, because all the gold winners are great already. So Grand was the one that most of use felt very passionate about and rooted for. Despite everything happening outside in this party city, this room to me was the most exhilarating place. I felt so lucky to be surrounded by some of the brightest creative minds. We also didn’t forget where we were and had more than a few laughs together.
It goes without saying that all the winning entries are amazing. The reason I picked these 3 campaigns is I believe these works haven’t been talked about as much and they deserve more attention:
Title: “Rewilding Mode”
Brand: Husqvarna
“I’m impressed with how seamless this campaign integrates digital into the product. A fresh, simple way to engage people and to make a real impact. Real innovative use of digital.”
Title: “MullenLowe Global Rebrand”
Brand: MullenLowe Global
“Wonderful design that also uses digital to allow anyone to be their own ‘designer’ (even John from finance or Jane from HR). The craft is superb, giving the old branding a modern take while staying true to the brand essence.”
Title: “Next to Stok’d”
Brand: Stok’d
“Not saying I support cannabis promotion (even though it’s been recently legalized in Thailand). But knowing the difficulties this product category face when it comes to advertising, this is a clever and funny way to overcome that.”
After this amazing experience, I hope that what happens in Vegas does not stay in Vegas. As I believe every one of us took home valuable knowledge, ready to share with more people. While also feeling extremely privileged to be part of this special opportunity, to help celebrate some of the world’s best creative work.
Shoutout to all the winners and finalists, the entire LIA team, our jury president and fellow jurors. Look forward to meeting you all in Las Vegas again.
