LIA awards still open for a couple of days, get in there in the new categories.

The London International Awards announces some significant changes to The NEW medium for the 2017 awards. Almost a decade ago, LIA collaborated with Faris Yakob, author of Paid Attention: Innovative Advertising for a Digital World, to conceptualize The NEW to recognize work that sat outside traditional media definitions, reflecting the rapid changes in the marketing landscape. The NEW is never static and to reflect this, Faris and Rosie Yakob, co-founders of the nomad creative consultancy Genius Steals, have once again partnered with LIA to re-define the categories for The NEW @ LIAs.

Firstly, The NEW @ LIAs is dropping “Brand Content” as a category. The NEW is a petri dish in which nascent forms of advertising can coalesce. Brand content is now a stand-alone competition ‘Branded Entertainment’ in its own right.

At the same time, new forms have emerged and thus been added to The NEW, which keeps updating to reflect and champion evolution in the industry.

LIA has consistently pushed the boundaries of the advertising and awards industries. As well as the competition for The NEW, LIA developed Creative LIAisons, which, uniquely among award shows, brings young people into the judging process. It continues to push the boundaries with the announcement of these categories.

The definitions here begin the codification of these new kinds of ideas for brands, as new terms and ideas are often poorly defined, and to champion creativity across them.

On the evolution of The NEW @ LIAs, Faris said: “Creative ideas are being developed by a broad spectrum of agencies and entities and these categories reflect and embrace that. The NEW will continually evolve to bring attention to the most exciting and generative ideas in creativity and advertising.”

Brand Action: Brand actions are activities that live outside media that may inform advertising content but are distinct from it. Programs such as AMEX Small Business Saturday, stunts like Red Bull Stratos, PR ideas like McWhopper, and one-offs such as REI OptOutside are famous examples, none of which fit anywhere comfortably inside existing categories, which is usually a good indication of generative mutations in the industry.

Creative Data: This category celebrates the most innovative uses and incorporation of data into creative executions.

Native Advertising: Material in an [usually online] publication which resembles the publication’s editorial and is created internally but paid for by an advertiser and intended to promote the advertiser’s brand. Brand content is created by the agency & brand and placed, native advertising is developed in-house by the publication / media partner or in-house agency.

Influencer Advertising: Ideas created by individuals, or groups of individuals, who have large online followings, paid for or supported by brands.

Media Creativity: Ideas / content developed by media agencies and publications rather than traditional creative.

Self-Promotion: Ideas deployed to promote the person or agency under their own aegis, reflecting the impetus from agencies and individuals to create on their own behalf. The Self- Promotion category will be priced on a sliding scale to encourage participation from those with varying levels of experience.

These supplement the existing NEW categories that have been refined by diverse juries over the last eight years:

Augmented Reality
Creative Technology
Experiential
Media Innovation
Product Innovation
Technology Development
Virtual Reality

Judging will take place at Encore Las Vegas from September 29th through October 7th.

The Entry System is open for entries. The initial entry deadline is the 9th June.
For more information on submissions and eligibility, please visit the LIA website at www.liaawards.com/