Ben Lilley Live From Vegas: Jesus Is Here

Ben Lilley, creative chairman of HERO + McCANN, is representing Australia on the LIA Integration and Direct jury. Here, he reflects back on his time in Vegas exclusively for Campaign Brief.

My Uber app pinged as I exited Vegas airport: “Jesus is here”. It was a sign. And a good one, as I passed the last of the airport slot machines to find Jesus waiting at the Uber rank.

When I checked into my room, my phone pinged again: “Jesus thanked you for your tip”. I don’t remember what the tip was, probably about the importance of tailoring each case film for each LIA category. He didn’t seem that interested in at the time TBH. But it’s a point I was reminded of once I got to the jury room as we settled in to “In, Out or Abstain” for our Round 1 of shortlisting.

I was mainly Out I gotta say, as we powered through hundreds upon hundreds of entries. I’m not gonna lie, it can be a slog going through case film after case film, hour after hour. And that’s when there IS a case film. Sometimes there isn’t. We were served up some pretty quirky videos and had to rely on the entry notes to make sense of them. Even then some still didn’t make sense. But fortunately that was the exception.

A great case film is a joy for any jury. The best are just as engaging as the campaigns they represent, if not more so. Sounds kinda obvious I know, but it’s astounding how many entries don’t pass that basic test. It’s a creative award show after all. Be creative.

The funnier case films got some good laughs. And the more emotional causes drew a tear or two. The case films that get the feels, get the votes.

These first rounds of voting are all anonymous though, so I still don’t know the innies from the outies. I’m pretty sure the In’s though will be the ones that put the ‘in’ in intimacy, intensity and a bunch other emotional in words I can’t think of right now. We’ll see once we’ve got through these first couple of hundred entries. Jesus.