5 Indians named speakers at Cannes Lions 2024

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

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

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

From India, Talented founders Gautam Reghunath, PG Aditiya, Rajdeepak Das from Publicis Groupe, Digitas India CCO Abraham Varughese, Duolingo’s Regional Marketing Director Karandeep Kapany will be speaking at Cannes Lions this year. 

Regunath, Co-Founder and CEO at Talented.Agency and PG Aditiya, Co-Founder and CCO at Talented.Agency’s session will cover the history of advertising’s bad pricing. The duo will discuss the cure needed: the change of self-image from a service industry to a commercial entertainment industry.

In another session, Laura Jordan Bambach, Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Uncharted and Rajdeepak Das, CCO, Publicis Groupe South Asia, and Chairman Leo Burnett, South Asia, will come together on stage to exchange ideas, dissect creative processes and storytelling techniques, and debate emerging trends, tools, and skill sets. This session will answer questions such as: What fuels the ingenuity of some of the top creatives? How do you cut through and succeed in the fast-changing creative industry? What are the trends and threats worth paying attention to?

One of the sessions in which Indians will be taking over the stage is ‘Your Guide to High Engagement: Duolingo's Creative Insights from India’. In this session, Abraham Varughese, CCO, Digitas India, and Karandeep Kapany, Regional Marketing Director, Duolingo, will share how Duolingo captured the hearts of Gen Z in India. This session will equip you with strategies to penetrate new markets while staying culturally relevant and engaging with your key consumers.

Other global names and brands who will be speaking at Cannes are Deepak Chopra; e.l.f. Beauty; Google; Guinness; Jay Shetty; Novo Nordisk with Queen Latifah; Vidhya Srinivasan, Vice-President and General Manager, Advertising, Google; and P&G’s Marc Pritchard.

As previously announced, Cannes Lions has launched Lions Creators. This new experience includes a curated mix of learning and networking opportunities for creators and those in the wider creator economy. The programme will include a full day of creator-centric content on the Terrace Stage, recognising the creator economy as a rapidly growing and increasingly important part of the marketing mix.

Natasha Woodwal, Director of Content, Lions, said, “Our open call for content gives us unparalleled insight into what matters most to the industry right now, and we’ve used this to design a programme filled with a diversity of voices offering different perspectives on global challenges. Speakers include creatives, monks, comedians, artists, filmmakers, scientists, economists, trend forecasters, and paralympians; it’s reflective of the multifaceted world of creativity.”

Simon Cook, CEO, Lions, said, “We’ve identified the key areas that are top of mind for our industry and community and used these to create five core content streams that will run throughout the Festival. This line-up of world-class talent will share the thinking, processes and techniques that led to the most successful and most awarded work and provide our community with the ultimate tools, insights and knowledge they need to drive personal and business growth.”