Sonal Dabral, Chief Creative Officer, South and South East Asia and Vice-Chairman, India, Ogilvy, has been namedas one of the jury presidents for the 2020 edition of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
Dabral will head the ‘Direct Lions’ jury at the 2020 edition of the festival that will take place between 22-26 June 2020.
In a career spanning over 30years, Dabral has been exceptional leader, transforming Ogilvy Mumbai into India’s Number 1 creative agency while later leading Ogilvy Singapore to the top slot in Asia.Ogilvy Singaporebecame the third most-awarded office in the world at Cannes Lions 2007 — a first for an Asian agency. Besides, Dabral has chaired programmes or has been a judge at every major international awards show and has also been a key speaker at important festivals across the world.
THE LIONESS’S SHARE
Interestingly,women make up 53 percent of the jury presidents at the 2020 edition;it was 33 percent in 2019. Simon Cook, Managing Director, Cannes Lions, said, “This year we have established gender parity in our president line-up as part of our ongoing commitment to appoint outstanding global talent that represents the full breadth of our diverse community.”
Referring to the composition of the jury presidents, Cook, said, “We’re delighted to present such an impressive global line-up of experts from all over the world. The Cannes Lions Jury Presidents represent the many facets of the creative global industry and will play a fundamental role in defining the creative benchmark on the global stage in 2020. As the uses of creativity expand and diversify, so does the work and so do our expert juries.”
EIGHT THEMES
For Cannes 2020, the Lions’ content team carried out extensive research, involving more than 1500 industry professionals, to develop eight 2020 Festival themes. The team conducted interviews with more than 100 top Chief Marketing Officers, Chief Creative Officers, CEOs, brand leaders, and strategists to put together the themes around branded marketing and communications.
The following are the eight 2020 Festival themes:
- Creativity is the Business Growth Engine
- Creative Disruption in Commerce
- Post-Purpose: Brand Accountability and Activism
- Your Brand is My Experience
- Looking to 2030: Making Your Business Future-Fit
- Applied Creativity: When Data, Tech and Ideas Collide
- Storytelling at Scale
- Let’s Get Back to Brand
Cannes Lions 2020 Key Dates:
28 Oct 2019: Delegate passes on sale
16 Jan 2020: Awards entries open
22-26 Jun 2020: The Cannes Lions Festival
