LIA names 2024 Branded Content and Branded Entertainment Jury: Santosh Padhi, Sling and Richard Yu representing Asia

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. Representing Asia on this jury are; Santosh Padhi, Chief Creative Officer at Wieden+Kennedy Mumbai, Sling, Film Director at Directors Think Tank Kuala Lumpur / Singapore and Richard Yu, Co-Founder / Chief Creative Officer at ROCK YU Creative,

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 included in the Campaign Brief Asia Creative Rankings.

For more information on the juries, categories and requirements, click here.