What to expect from 16 Indian speakers at Cannes Lions 2024

New Delhi: The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has unveiled its program for 2024.

The program will showcase more than 150 hours of content, featuring around 500 speakers from across the spectrum of creativity.

Among the 500 speakers are 16 Indians who are set to share their invaluable insights and innovative perspectives. Their participation underscores India's growing influence and dynamic presence in the global creative landscape.

The festival will run from June 17 to 21, in Cannes, France.

On Day 1 and Day 5, no Indian speakers are scheduled to take the stage.

Day 2 at Cannes

On June 18, Day 2, a stellar lineup of 5 Indian speakers will present throughout the day.

11:00 am: Talented Co-founders Gautam Reghunath and PG Aditiya will speak at the Forum, The Palais, on ‘Pricing Creativity: Curse, Karma, and Cure to a Strangely Priced Industry’. They will discuss how the wrong pricing practices in the creative agency business affect diversity, ageism, client-agency trust, gender pay gaps, non-competes, and in-house creative teams. They will explore the history of advertising’s bad pricing and suggest a shift from a service industry to a commercial entertainment industry.

Questions this session will answer:

• How do everyday practices affect pricing in a services business?
• What is the new vision for account management?
• Can re-imagining pricing make us more optimistic about the future?

3:30 pm: Rajdeepak Das, CCO, Publicis Groupe South Asia, and Chairman, Leo Burnett, South Asia, will join Laura Jordan Bambach, Co-Founder, Uncharted, and Cameron Adams, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at Canva, at the Terrace Stage, The Terrace. The session, ‘Creatives on the Terrace: Publicis Groupe, South Asia, Uncharted, Canva,’ will discuss how top creative leaders solve problems, their passion, and lessons learned along the way.

Questions this session will answer:

• What fuels the ingenuity of top creatives?
• How to succeed in the fast-changing creative industry?
• What trends and threats are worth paying attention to?

3:45 pm: Josy Paul, Chairman and CCO, BBDO India, will present a selection of Lion-winning work he’s judged at the Festival in previous years at the Basement Stage, The Palais. 
Attendees will vote on the awards, and Paul will share exclusive insights from the Jury room.

10:45 am: Anusheela Saha, National Creative Director at FCB India, will share insights into this year's Jury decisions on Outdoor work at the same venue earlier in the day.

Day 3 at Cannes

11:00 am: At Ogilvy Terrace (63 Bd de la Croisette), Nitin Saini, VP, Marketing, Mondelez India, will join Kent Wertime, Global CEO of Ogilvy One, and Roberto Fara, Global Creative Lead for Ogilvy One, to discuss how brands can create valuable relationships by design. They will reflect on the roles of creativity, data, and AI in these relationships.

10:30 am: At the Basement Stage, Kalpesh Patankar, Chief Creative Officer, Leo Burnett, will discuss what made this year’s Industry Craft Lions winners special.

12:15 pm: Mayuri Nikumbh, Head of Design, Conran Design, and design juror, will give a guided tour of shortlisted and Design Lions winning pieces, providing insights into their selection.

12:30 pm: Prasoon Pandey, ad filmmaker at Corcoise Films and Jury President for the Film Craft Lions category, will share insights into standout work for the Film Craft Jury.

Day 4 at Cannes

11:00 am: At The Forum, Palais, Abraham Varughese, CCO, Digitas India, and Karandeep Kapany, Regional Marketing Director, Duolingo, will present ‘Your Guide to High Engagement: Duolingo's Creative Insights from India’. They will share strategies for penetrating new markets while staying culturally relevant.

12:24 pm: At the Basement Stage, Prerna Mehrotra, Chief Client Officer and CEO, Media, Dentsu APAC, will discuss insights from this year’s Media Lions winning work.

3:15 pm: At the Forum, The Palais, Kawal Shoor, Co-Founder, The Womb, Manisha Sain, Strategy Partner, The Womb, Partha Sinha, President, Times of India Group, and Gurdeep Puri, Founding Partner, The Effectiveness Partnership, will reveal findings from their research into boardroom marketing battles in India. They will discuss successful C-suite relationships and their causes of failures.

Questions this session will answer:

• What can marketing do to have more traction with the C-suite?
• How can we resolve the debate between short-termism and sustainable marketing?
• What is the ideal relationship between marketing and the C-suite?