Day two at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity kicked off with five shortlists for India.

Our first stop of the day was at the Havas Cafe, where the French-headquartered company unveiled a proprietary research - ‘The Science of Desire’. The report revealed that brands building 'desire' are 2.4x more likely to grow, as Havas aims to advance its next phase of the Converged.AI ecosystem. The Group also announced an increased investment in Vurvey Labs, an agentic intelligence scale-up, combining consumer interviews with AI-powered agents to help brands uncover deep behavioural insights at scale.

Yannick Bolloré, chairperson and CEO, Havas, explained, “At Havas, we believe growth starts with what truly moves people. In today’s AI-driven landscape, the most successful brands will be those that combine technological power with deep human understanding and creativity, to build lasting connections. With The Science of Desire and the continued evolution of our Converged.AI ecosystem, we are equipping our clients to unlock stronger, more sustainable growth." 

Read about this here.

This year, the 2026 Cannes LionHeart is being awarded to Oprah Winfrey. The award celebrates individuals who are driving positive change, challenging the status quo, and inspiring others through their actions and their voice.

In conversation with Phil Thomas, chairperson, Cannes Lions, Winfrey talked about how she built the 'brand Oprah', importance of authentic empowerment and how she harnessed her platform to create a meaningful impact on people. 

We followed this with a one-on-one with Emily Graham, chief inclusion and impact officer, Omnicom. She chatted with us about how the industry has a mountain to climb to achieve inclusion, and shared how Omnicom is starting that ascent both globally, and in India. She also addressed the skew towards more male leaders in the India system post the IPG-merger. The full interview will be available in our July issue.

Day two of the festival also saw a discussion around outer space titled ‘Space Isn’t the Future – It’s Your Brief,’ in collaboration with the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and PVBLIC Foundation, featuring insights from physicist Brian Cox and Sian Leo Proctor, the first woman commercial spaceship pilot, alongside Aarti Holla-Maini, director, UNOOSA. The trio emphasised the critical role of space in modern society, citing how 18% of UK GDP is reliant on space-based infrastructure, while highlighting the potential for brands and storytellers to influence policy makers and ensure adequate funding and prioritisation for space initiatives.

Watch out for an exclusive interaction with Holla-Maini in our upcoming July issue.

From left: Sian Leo Proctor, Aarti Holla-Maini, and Brian Cox

Marc Pritchard, chief brand officer, Procter & Gamble, set himself as an AI Agent ‘ChatPG’ (Chat Procter & Gamble), and answered six questions attendees at the festival potentially have about the future of marketing.

At The Forum of the Rotonde Stage, the session, 'Future Gazers: The trends defining the next 18 months' brought together industry leaders to discuss what the future holds for brands, creativity and technology.

The panellists included Hiroyuki Yokoi, associate director - data science, Accenture Song; Laura Nestler, executive VP - community, Reddit; and Rob Van Griensven, global marketing transformation director, Heineken. The trio argued that AI should act as an amplifier of human creativity rather than a replacement, with real value shifting toward human intuition, trust, and authentic perspective. 

At the Sports Beach, five-time tennis Grand Slam winner Maria Sharapova; Susie Wolff, managing director, F1 Academy; and Jessica Stacey, SVP, external communications, experiential and marketing partnerships, Sephora US. Moderated by Marissa Dacay, global VP, enterprise marketing, Adobe, the discussion explored how female athletes are navigating performance, personal branding and leadership in an era where audiences expect far more than results.

Stay tuned for more updates of the day!