The 31st LIA award ceremony was held in Las Vegas, convening over a 10-day period. LIA is a global award annually honoring legends and pioneers in advertising, digital, production, design, music & sound and technology. The jury teams viewed and scored every entry and determined the recipients for Grand LIAs, Statue Winners and Finalists.

United Arab Emirates had a strong year at the award festival, with a total of 10 Statues and five Finalists – 5 Gold, 2 Silver and 3 Bronze. DDB Dubai received an impressive three Gold Statues and two Bronze, all in the Radio & Audio category. Memac Ogilvy & Mather Dubai took home two Gold LIAs for UAE, one in Billboard and the other in Print. TBWA\Raad and Y&R Dubai were the other winners from UAE.

The other awardee this year from MENA region was Memac Ogilvy & Mather Doha, picking up two Statues. Two different juries- Design and Print awarded statues for the same campaign.

“Nothing was taken for granted in the judging rooms. The jury members were very conscientious when it came to Statue discussions. They visited and revisited each piece of shortlisted work again and again. So you can be assured that the Statue winners in the 2016 LIA Awards come from a crop of work that is universally acknowledged as exceptional. And the Grand LIA winners are without doubt, the best of the best. So my highest congratulations to our Grand LIA and Statue Winners,” commented Barbara Levy, President of LIA.

J. Walter Thompson Beirut received a Finalist status in Integration for The Good Note. Commenting on this Ms Levy said, “We know from the jury members that the standard of entries this year have been particularly high. There were many robust discussions going on in the judging rooms when it came to awarding Statues and Finalists. So, attaining even a Finalist status this year is indeed an honor.”