Leilani Horthy Banks’ Creative LIAisons Diary #3: The one woman wolf pack grows by 127
Leilani Horthy Banks, Junior Art Director, Clemenger BBDO (formerly DDB Australia) ~ current CB Australian 2025 Agency of the Year ~ has been representing Australia at the 2026 Creative LIAisons program in Las Vegas, featuring some of the world’s most respected creative directors as speakers. Here, on her last day in Vegas, Leilani channels The Hangover as she reports exclusively for Campaign Brief.
Vegas, Day 6-ish, 5:53pm.
I’m sprawled across three seats at Gate D53 at Las Vegas Airport, surrounded by suitcases and souvenirs and all the various bits of hotel stationery that I’ve scrawled and scribbled on over this past week (refer to diary entry #1 for more context). Beyond the airport windows, the lumbering white bodies of jumbo jets glow orange and pink under the slowly setting rays of desert sun. It is, in case you haven’t already guessed, the very end of my last day in Vegas.
And well, I’d like to say something that I’ve prepared. Tonight. I never got the chance to say it in person, so I guess this will do. Ahem.
Hello. How about that ride in? Fourteen hours of hell… I guess that’s why they call it Sin City. Ha ha.
You guys might not know this, but I consider myself a bit of a loner. I tend to think of myself as a one woman wolf pack. But back in 2024, when I found my creative partner, Nick Warrand, I knew I’d found one of my own. And my wolf pack, it grew by one.
So there were, there were two of us in the wolf pack. I was alone first in the pack, and then Nick joined in later. And six days ago, when I landed in Vegas for LIA and met all the other Creative LIAisons, I thought, “wait a second, could it be?”
And now I know for sure, I just added a hundred and twenty-seven more sick-ass creatives to my wolf pack. All of us wolves, running around the desert together, in Las Vegas, looking for strippers and cocai— I mean no, uhh, not that part. How about looking for advice and inspiration… yeah, yeah that sounds better. Let’s go with that.
In true Hangover fashion, I don’t quite remember it all. But I do remember tucking myself into the corner of the ‘Production & Post and Music Video’ jury room , listening as jurors debated the merits of the work and the craft and what makes it award worthy – or not. We saw firsthand how judging has a power all on its own, to send a message and help shape the future of our industry. And we witnessed that in effect as a Grand LIA was awarded to the work that best embodied what we believed great craft should mean – a simple idea, clearly, cleverly, and beautifully communicated. Did we sway the jury? Maybe. But only slightly, I swear.
I remember a night among the fallen neon icons of old Vegas, lit by the brightly-hued signs of last century, as we sipped champagne and cocktails and ate tiny pieces of food and mingled with icons of the industry. All trying very desperately to sound intelligent and insightful and keep foot-out-of-mouth. “Netflirting”, as my copywriter Nick likes to call it.
All too shortly followed by speedwalking down the boulevard the next morning, heart pounding and head throbbing and hazy images of after — dimly lit clubs, dance floors and definitely putting said-foot-in-said-mouth — flashing through my mind. At least I wasn’t the wildest one on the dance floor. If my less than perfect memory serves correctly, I do believe a few of the jurors can claim that prize.
And I remember our last day soaking up the wisdom of even more inspiring people, as they talked about the importance of building your tree of influence, of unplugging and taking breaks (to watch trash TV for two hours), the power of play, and getting out of advertising to go back to advertising.
Thank god I wrote notes. I can’t decipher most of them, but here’s the best of what I can:
“Trying to convince a client who doesn’t buy good work to buy good work is like trying to convince a vegetarian to eat meat. You have to start with turkey, not choripan.”
– Pancho Cassis
“Don’t do it.”
– Kwame Taylor-Hayford, about starting an indie.
“There is no right time to do anything in life. I think you just have to take the step when you’re ready. You’ve just got to do it in spite of the fear.”
– also Kwame about starting an indie.
“They’re not really your values unless they cost you something.”
– Jyrki Poutanen, about balancing your values with your career.
“Sometimes having a bit of hate is not a bad thing. It’s about what you do with it.”
– Lewis Tutssel
“Fear is a hugely humbling, learning emotion. And fear makes you want to try harder, makes you want to learn more, makes you want to read more. So be fearful. I’m terrified 24/7. It’s good.”
– Tista Sen
All followed by the only natural way to ever finish off a week long work trip in Vegas… starring as an extra in a music video, of course. Because when you’re sitting next to someone in a jury room, and they tell you about their music video they’re filming in a tiny wedding chapel on Friday on the outskirts of the city, you most definitely have to offer your services. And the services of the guy sitting next to you. Don’t worry Pico, the marriage wasn’t legally binding. I think.
My chest hurts. I’m pretty sure it’s the opening strains of some deep-seated chest infection beginning to take root. Probably courtesy of all the cigarette smoke, noxious casino perfumes and dusty desert air I’ve been sucking into my lungs these past six days. Definitely nothing to do with the fact that I’m leaving behind some of the coolest, weirdest, wildest and just plain freaking nice people I’ve ever met. Don’t start crying, Alan.
Editor’s note: Leilani’s wolf pack speech is borrowed from Alan’s rooftop toast in The Hangover.
Read Leilani’s first diary here
Read Leilani’s second diary here
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