Terry Savage on Why LIA’s Judging Process Leaves Nothing to Chance

After more than three decades shaping one of the industry’s most prominent awards shows, Terry Savage knows a thing or two about what makes creative recognition credible. Now as chairperson of the London International Awards (LIA), he’s doubling down on the principles he believes matter most: transparency, cultural understanding, and a judging process that puts the work – not convenience – first.

Terry and the wider LIA team believe that the quality of the show’s end result is enhanced by all judging being done live, in-person. At LIA, which hosts its judging in Las Vegas, every judge sees every piece of work that is entered into the category that they are judging, with no pre-judging (which is often done by another jury all together) done from home.

“There are other distractions [when judging at home],” says Terry, “be it the TV in the background, kids, or just home-based work pressure.” And while judging takes place in a jury room, Terry believes that happenings outside of it are also an important part of the process to get to the most deserving work. “Cultural nuance and understanding the work also takes place at the lunches and dinners the juries have,” he says, “ensuring true understanding of the work coming from many different cultures and countries.

“In other words, we believe the results are more authentic if there is no pre-judging. Entrants pay money to enter awards and we want to give them the best possible opportunity for their work to be shown. We do not believe pre-judging remotely gives them this opportunity.”

What’s more, a stringent judging process is nothing without great jurors. The LIA team undergoes a “rigorous process" involving internal and external discussions in its aim to land with the perfect juries. It has no quotes per se but ensures a balance to make sure juries are reflective of today’s society. “Our aim is to get the best quality result and to achieve that we try to secure the best possible judges,” says Terry. “There has to be a relevance to countries that are producing good and award-winning work.

“Judging awards should not be a developmental role,” he adds.

The jury deliberation process at LIA is a mix of formal structure and a more intuitive conversation style. The initial round of judging is a simple ‘in or out’ process, while the second round sees work judging electronically from one to ten. This establishes the shortlists, which are then discussed and the overall winners are decided. “The thing is,” says Terry, “when you have juries seeing every entry in their category, there is some discussion in every round - people explaining cultural nuance and insights. That is why pre-judging is an issue – none of these conversations take place in the early rounds with pre-judging, which means things get missed that will not get missed with live judging.”

What’s more, as part of the LIA’s Creative LIAisons, in which young creatives from all over the world are invited to Las Vegas as part of an annual education programme, judging rooms are open for these young creatives and even members of the press. Terry believes that this openness causes no issues with integrity and independence, in fact, the opposite. “It actually highlights the independence and integrity of the judging process,” he says. “We have no fear of letting others see the process because we have confidence in our juries, and we delight in being able to show the level of intellect and smarts that occur in the discussions that occur in the jury rooms. The young creatives love it, and interestingly, so do the juries.”

Prior to joining LIA in 2021, Terry spent 33 years with Cannes Lions, 15 of which he spent leading the show as CEO and chairman. He was appointed LIA chairperson in October 2021. He admits that critics of the advertising award landscape, who claim that there are simply ‘too many’ of them are “probably right”.

“So, I encourage people to be careful about what they enter,” he says. “There should be no pre-judging and they should very closely examine the quality of jury members of any particular award.

“Are they award winners? Do they have a global perspective? Is the process transparent?

“I of course say this knowing that LIA meets all three criteria, which is why judges love to judge our awards."

​Read more about LIA here.​