Last March, adobo Magazine gathered young creatives for the adobo LIA Young Creative Competition, held in partnership with the London International Awards (LIA) and the Design Center of the Philippines.
Contestants from network and independent advertising agencies, design studios, marketing agencies, production houses, and more faced the challenge of creating a poster adhering to this short, straightforward brief: “You Can What AI Can’t.”
Out of 85 entries and 170 participants from 27 companies, two young creatives emerged victorious: Art Tagnipez and Ginoe Ojoy of EON Group (Team Basura Girls). Their entry, “Pinoy Life Strategy,” unanimously won the favor of jurors and won Gold in the competition. It also received the Client’s Choice Award from the Design Center of the Philippines.
Ginoe and Art won two slots in the Creative Liaisons Program and all-expenses-paid trips to Las Vegas, inclusive of airfare and stays at the Encore at Wynn Las Vegas.
Months later, in late September, Ginoe and Art finally flew to Sin City, where they attended learning sessions led by seasoned global creatives and met similarly passionate young creatives from around the world.
Expectations vs. reality
Before flying to Vegas, each creative had their own expectations for what the experience would be like. Art only knew the program through interviews and articles about previous Liaisons. “It was kind of surreal to actually be one of the creatives attending this year,” she said.
Ginoe, on the other hand, had even less to go on, saying: “Before attending the Liaisons, I honestly didn’t know the dynamic of the program.”
Art describes herself as someone who keeps to herself, but vowed to be more open and welcoming before flying to Vegas. What mattered most to her was the possibility of meeting and getting to know creatives from other regions and seeing how different—and how similar—their advertising and cultural experiences have been.
She found a crowd just as curious as she was, with energy that extended well past the sessions.
Ginoe, on the other hand, was surprised by the camaraderie. There were no nerve-wracking moments, and the group felt relaxed and at play. Everyone was still thinking about what they had heard in the sessions.
“There was a sense of attentiveness to each other’s insights that felt really comforting,” he said.
What struck them the most
Since the Creative Liaisons Program is built around learning, Art and Ginoe each shared the sessions that stuck with them most.
For Art, “Steer into the Crash,” a talk by Kaleeta McDade, Global Chief Experience Design Officer at VML, stood out. It spoke to her worries about advertising’s way forward while offering “really great advice” on leaning into the complexity of the industry’s changes and challenges.
She also liked “You’re On the Jury” by Marco Venturelli of Publicis Groupe, which she described as a “masterclass on how to navigate jury rooms, talk about the work, and push forward the creative ideas you believe in.”
Her verdict? “Quite thrilling!”
Ginoe had a longer list, but a only few stood out, including Alexandra Taylor’s “Art Direction Masterclass,” which gave him a new view as a graphic designer in what he refers to as “a sea of art direction.”
He also pointed to the Creativity in Healthcare panel. Big Pharma is commonly seen as evil, but the panel, he said, had one of the “most down-to-earth, humanist, and thoughtful exchanges.”
Some of his favorite moments happened outside the sessions, and one was was the dinner party held at the Neon Museum. He watched everyone having fun and carrying on long conversations beyond the conference. He also recalled talking with Art and Zach Pittman, a copywriter at KitchenAid, about how culture is shaped by the economy and politics.
These moments stayed with him because they were “great reminders of humanity in what we’re trying to do with our work, craft, and lives in this world.”
Between the talks, the panels, and the dinner at the Neon Museum, Filipino delegates Art and Ginoe picked up lessons that reached well beyond the sessions.
Lessons they got from a sea of creatives
Art and Ginoe were surrounded by creatives, from young talent to seasoned professionals. Both Filipino delegates were pushed to rethink their approach to creativity.
For Art, it started with a question from a fellow mentee: what did she not like about the AI session? She had to stop and think it through, and it reminded her of something: “Being creative continually asks you to be adventurous and question your discomfort. Once you stop, creativity dies.”
Over the following days and weeks, she dug into how other creatives use AI for work and personal projects. She learned that while there is plenty of “regurgitated slop,” there are also “highly effective methods to the AI madness.”
She knows what she doesn’t like about it, but that won’t stop her from learning the best practices.
“I am sure once upon a time, people felt this way about the internet and phones,” she added.
On the other hand, Ginoe’s lesson came from a CCO session where Chaka Sobhani, Global Chief Creative Officer of TBWA, was asked about her personal values and how they play into the work. Her answer stuck with him: “This industry is woeful: draw your lines.”
Hearing that from a seasoned creative leader was “refreshing and comforting” for him, and it confirmed he isn’t alone in how he sees the industry for the time being. It also reinforced the idea that creatives have control and agency in their work. Setting boundaries and making meaningful work, he said, takes “an awful lot of creativity” to survive and navigate the world “without losing one’s self.”
Art and Ginoe came away with a sharper view of how they work and where they stand as creatives.
Lasting impressions and realizations
Looking back on the program, Arthel and Ginoe named the moments that stayed with them most, and the realizations that made those moments worth remembering.
On their first evening, Arthel had what she called “quite the post-mortem” with two fellow copywriters. It was an honest exchange of the views and insights each of them had when they arrived in Vegas, and it made her curious whether the program could convince her otherwise. The conversation left such an impact that she wished there had been a last-day debrief to compare how their views had changed over the Creative Liaisons program.
Ginoe’s takeaway was simple: “That we’re different but also the same.” The exchanges were affirming, he said, because the sense of aloneness was “shattered by the shared experiences and diverse insights” everyone brought.
More than a trophy
Winning the adobo LIA Young Creative Competition opened the door to Las Vegas, but the win meant something different to each Pinoy delegate.
“I asked for change in 2026, and it came to me ten-fold,” Arthel said. The win was one of those changes, and everything she learned from the Creative Liaisons reaffirmed “the creative I am, and who I can be.” She just needed a little reminding.
For Ginoe, the experience made him love what he does even more: “More than a hundred passionate people in one room really illustrated the amount of rigor and humanity we put into this industry.”
A wrap on this year’s Lia Creative Liaisons Program in Las Vegas, with Art and Ginoe among the delegates who filled the room
with passion, rigor, and humanity.
For two young Filipino creatives, one poster turned into a seat among the industry’s global voices. What they do with it next is up to them, and the work they make from here will show it.
This year’s LIA Creative Liaisons Program has wrapped up, and the experience and lessons the Filipino delegates gained are meant to be treasured. The trip offered more than they expected.
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