Y&R Malaysia’s Gigi Lee on the judging and the work at the London International Awards

Gigi Lee, Executive Creative Director at Y&R Advertising in Malaysia, this year sat on the Print, Poster + Billboard jury at the London International Awards. Here’s Lee’s comment on the 5 days spent judging at The Encore Hotel in Las Vegas.

I love LIA. I had a day’s rest to recover from my 24-hour flight from home! Thankfully, they had one huge comfy couch, made judging casual and informal, totally helped with the jetlag. Thanks to Chief Judge Dorte (what a sharp woman, I’m inspired).

The work was good. Lots of different degrees of craft on display.

Posters, billboards, were better than last year.

Print took a hit in terms of creativity but it still met current standards. I think it’s because we’re in the digital era, where less emphasis goes into traditional media is paid. One of the things we observed was that a single piece was entered in just about every category, even in those that didn’t really fit. But rest assured, we dealt with that and all works were awarded appropriately.

Judging was fun. Everyone was open minded, warm, humble (surprisingly), even though they were some of the world’s leading creative ad minds. Sure, there were disagreements but as they say “iron sharpens iron”, and only the best work made the cut. So if you won, it was deserved.

Pieces that really struck gold with me were British Airways “Magic of Flying” (really wish that was mine). Same for the American Open Tennis Tournament billboard/fence, as a smart installation it was so apt and really, very cool! Guinness was well crafted, too. Another that stood out was OPI’s use of location rather than technological trickery.

Truly great work and experience at LIA 2014.