LIA Radio & Audio Jury announced, includes South African

Paul Wauters

Paul Wauters, co-founder & executive creative director of Babel is the president of the jury. “I am delighted to be part of LIA again this year, honoured to be presiding [over] the Radio & Audio Jury and also happy that this Festival takes its radio as seriously as it does the ‘hot’ categories,” says Wauters.

“It’s incredibly difficult to get radio right, so I’m looking forward to honouring the brave men and women who never tire of rewriting the script, spending time on the length of the dramatic pause and the well-balanced Swedish accent. At the same time, I’m hoping to see innovative ideas and new ways to create connections with a scattered and ad-averse audience.”

Under his guidance, Babel has become the fastest growing independent agency in Paris. He has won a large number of national and international awards from Cannes Lions, LIA, D&AD, Dubai Lynx, Sharks and Creative Club of Belgium, while also frequently appearing on their radio juries.

The LIA Radio & Audio competition saw an increase in entries in 2015 over 2014, a confirmation of the large volume of effort and innovation that agencies put into the medium.

“The true challenge in the [Radio & Audio] category is that the work has to be better than silence,” concludes Wauter.

Jury members

• Paul Wauters - co-founder / ECD, Babel, Paris (Jury President)
  
• Chris Smith - group creative director, The Richards Group, Dallas
  
• Chuck Rachford - ECD, Cossette Chicago, Chicago
  
• Larissa Kirschner - VP, creative director, Publicis, New York
  
• Mariana O’Kelly - ECD, Ogilvy & Mather, Johannesburg
  
• Oliver Handlos - Creative lead of activation, GREY, New York
  
• Ralph van Dijk - founder and creative director, Eardrum, Sydney
  
• Tom Eymundson - CEO, Pirate Group Inc., Toronto (2015 Jury President)

The initial entry deadline for LIA 2016 is 10 June 2016. The shortlists will be announced as each judging session concludes, with winners being announced 8 November. For more information, go to www.liaawards.com/enter/eligibility.