Georgia Henare’s Creative LIAisons Diary #2: New friends, grandma fame and the Sports jury room
Georgia Henare, Intermediate Art Director, McCann New Zealand (formerly DDB New Zealand) ~ current CB New Zealand 2025 Agency of the Year ~ represented Aotearoa at the 2026 Creative LIAisons program in Las Vegas, featuring some of the world’s most respected creative directors as speakers. Here, Georgia reports exclusively for Campaign Brief.
DAY 3 & 4
Hello
It’s day 3, and I can confirm Vegas is still crazy and I am still not used to the heat.
I realise last time I didn’t really touch on all the amazing people I got to meet through this program. Mostly because I don’t think I’ve ever said the words “got to meet” before.
After my absolute horror of meeting new people on the first day I realised the unpredictable was true. Everyone was actually super nice. The LIAisons were some of the most open, eager and crazy articulate people I’ve ever been in a room with.
Speaking of articulate, here’s some of the best quotes of day 3:
“Be grandma famous” ~ Liz Taylor (Global CCO Ogilvy)
Make work so widely known that your grandma will be talking about it over Mahjong.
“Would anyone say thank you?” ~ Susan Credle (Former Chair & Global CCO FCB)
Do work that makes people say thanks for making me laugh, cry or for changing my perspective.
“Be careful that you don’t think anybody could do this” ~ Chris Smith (Principal and CCO Plot Twist Creativity)
Protect your own talent. People think that because they’ve seen ads their whole life, they could do this job. But we’ve also seen structural engineering our whole lives …
The afternoon had my favourite panel, the jury for the newly birthed Sports category. Some would say I’m biased because the jury president does a bunch of WNBA work. I would say that the jury are the ones who have to be impartial, not me.
Going in I was wary of how transferable the talk would be to us in NZ, with the US and UK being known for their epic, big name campaigns. But when one of the judge’s highlights for the year was the QuikTrip Hot Dog Bun Race, there were no excuses.
The next day was inside the actual Sports jury room, where we got to see the judges in action. A big theme in the work was luck and fan superstition, which represents what I personally love about advertising. It’s silly, so true to the sports audience and a little bit made up.
All in all it was another great two days of learning things, like how sometimes it is worth breaking your “no new friends” policy, the Welcome to Las Vegas sign is much smaller than you think and the Fremont Street Mickey Mouse is not the real deal.
Oh and all the amazing advertising stuff.
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