Gorilla Doctors creative competition at LIA’s Creative LIAisons sees 9 concepts shortlisted including Australia’s Jack Harrison + Janice Ko: Winners to receive trip to visit the gorillas in Rwanda + trip to 2019 LIA judging in Las Vegas

One of the many great highlights of the London International Awards’ young creative programme, Creative LIAisons, was the Gorilla Doctors creative competition.

The challenge is to produce a creative piece of work to help promote the work of the Gorilla Doctors and the prizes on offer were a once-in-a-lifetime trip for two to visit Rwanda, home to the critically endangered Mountain Gorillas.

And, for a second team be invited to participate at LIA 2019 in Las Vegas.

All entries were judged last week on site during the London International Awards judging and Creative LIAisons program held in Las Vegas.

The competition was judged by a team of industry creative leaders that included the legendary Bob Isherwood, Leo Burnett’s global CCO Mark Tutssel and Innocean Worldwide’s global CCO Jeremy Craigen. Also on the panel was McCann Health’s Marcia Goddard, Anna Fawcett (Filmgraphics Australia) and Kirsten Gilardi and Mike Cranfield from Gorilla Doctors.

The response to the competition was astounding – with 243 individual entries received.

30 concepts were then shortlisted to be shown in the final judging, with the whole gathering of 100 young creatives attending the Creative LIAisons witnessing the judging.

Following the final round of judging 9 concepts made the cut, including one from The Philippines (Soleil Badenhop from Dentsu JaymeSyfu, Philippines) and Australia (Jack Harrison + Janice Ko from Y&R Melbourne) to win Gold, Silver, Bronze.

The winner of the Grand Prize picks up an Ecotour trip donated by Terra Incognito Ecotours. The final judging saw 5 concepts rise to the top and there was a general consensus that at lest three of these concepts must get released.

The winners will be announced on November 5th. The competitions was generously sponsored by McCann Health.

There are currently about 1004 mountain gorillas left on earth. Habitat loss, poaching and disease have made these gorillas one of the most endangered species alive. Today, thanks largely to the efforts of a group of dedicated veterinarians called Gorilla Doctors, their numbers are rising.

Gorilla Doctors are a team of 16 doctors who operate across gorilla territories – spanning the rainforests of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This team is supported by the non-profit Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (MGVP. Inc) and the UC Davis Wildlife Health Center.

They are the ONLY provider of in-situ veterinary care for wild mountain gorillas in Rwanda, Uganda and DRC and their close cousins, the Grauer’s gorillas in eastern DRC. Gorilla Doctors’ main goals are to keep the gorilla populations safe, healthy and thriving. They treat the gorillas for life-threatening injuries and illnesses caused by close contact between gorillas and humankind.

Here are the final shortlisted entries:

Gorilla Doctors

Tiago Daltro, Igor Pontes, Gabriel Moraes, Erik Machado and Rafael Costa (Miami Ad School Brazil, Rio de Janeiro)