Day one of the 73rd edition of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity started with a solitary shortlist for India courtesy VML for KitKat in the 'Brand Experience & Activation' category.

Part of the Manifest team, Anupama Sajeet, features editor, Raahil Chopra, founder and editor, and Riya Sethi, senior correspondent, are here in Cannes covering the festival. 

The action at the Lumiere meanwhile opened with Creative Marketer of the Year Marcel Marcondes talking about sustained creativity of the brand leading to it winning the accolade for a record third time. Marcondes also emphasised the importance of human connections and trust in the advertising industry likening agency partners to superheroes. More on this shortly on our website.

At the Sports Beach, footballer Daniel Sturridge was joined by Pedro Pina, VP and YouTube Europe, Middle East and Africa, Rick Pineda, VP - global sports, Diageo, Cristian Racioppi, director business development EMEA, Channel Factory, to discuss the evolving fan relationship with sports and brands.

Sturridge spoke about the way fans consume sports has changed talking emphasising on watch alongs and streamers. Read more from the talk here. 

At The Terrace, there was a roundtable on 'How to move at the speed of Asia.' Moderated by Melanie Speet, director, Spikes Asia, the speakers included Josy Paul, chairperson and CCO, BBDO India; Sonal Chhajerh, NCD, Leo India; Adams Fan, CEO, F5 Shanghai; and Shilpa Sinha, chief strategy officer - global markets - L'Oreal, McCann.

Josy Paul 

Sonal Chhajerh

During the roundtable, each of the speaker collaborated with the audience and discussed how to scale a brand consistently across cultures, using AI to build a brand fast and what the West can learn from Asia about the future of commerce.