LIA Legend Award
In 2023, the LIA Legend Award was introduced. This award is presented to a leader of the industry past or current who through their talent, vision and generosity have not just demonstrated outstanding creativity at all levels, they have also demonstrated their willingness to share, mentor and develop others with a focus on the advancement of the industry and creative thinking in all sectors.
We are not just awarding for brilliance, although that is a factor. We are not just awarding for creative leadership, although that is also a factor.
We are awarding above those two achievements, a person who has been selfless and humble in developing others and giving their time to advance the industry and talent within it.
Mark Tutssel is the former leader of the global advertising network Leo Burnett.
In 2018, he was named Executive Chairman of Leo Burnett Worldwide. The first creative leader of the iconic advertising agency since Leo Burnett himself. He served as Global Chief Creative Officer for 16 years.
One of the most proven and awarded creative leaders in the industry, Mark’s work has garnered every major creative accolade, including ten Cannes Grand Prix, over 600 Cannes Lions, the first-ever D&AD White Pencil, two D&AD Black Pencils, 25 D&AD Yellow Pencils, five Grand LIA Awards, eight One Show Best of Show Pencils, two Art Directors Club Black Cubes, six Grand Clio Awards, eight Clio Hall of Fame Awards, and two Emmy Awards.
Under Mark’s creative leadership, Leo Burnett has ranked in the world’s Top 5 most awarded creative networks 11 years in a row, and has developed iconic campaigns for some of the world’s most valuable brands, including Procter & Gamble, Samsung, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Heinz, Nintendo, Diageo and Mercedes-Benz, among others. McDonald’s, Samsung and Coca-Cola were named Cannes Lions ‘Creative Marketer of the Year’ under his purview.
In 2013, Mark introduced ‘Creativity Without Borders’, a game-changing vision for marketing communications to Leo Burnett that is now widely adopted and embraced by the network.
He has had the honor of chairing the world’s greatest award shows many times over, including presiding over the LIA Awards jury eight times, and is one of the only creative directors in the world to serve as Cannes Lions Jury President five times. In 2018, The Epica Awards honored Mark with The First Creative Leaders Tribute award for being ‘a tireless initiator of ground-breaking creative work’. Campaign Magazine named Mark the ‘No.1 Worldwide Creative Director’, earning him the title of top global Creative Crusader. He sits on several boards, including the D&AD Global Advisory Board, the Facebook Creative Council and the One Show Board of Directors.