Manifest's third day of the 2026 edition at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity began with breakfast with Dept at the agency's 'Secret Garden'. 

We met with Andrew Dimitriou, partner, global chief client and growth officer, Dept, to speak about the recently launched Studios in India, and what's happening across APAC. The full interview will appear in the July edition of Manifest.

Also during the breakfast, we learned of India's last shortlist - taking the tally up to 24. 

Our next stop was the Carlton, which is hosting Lions Sports. 

The opening session here featured a talk moderated by Kameryn Stanhouse, VP, sports and entertainment partnerships, IBM. She was in conversation with Usama Al-Qassab, marketing and commercial director, The All England Lawn Tennis Club (Wimbledon), and five-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova. Sharapova, who spoke at Sport Beach yesterday, chatted about how she now enjoys tournaments such as Wimbledon as a fan, while Al-Qassab stated how the tournament addresses fans as guests. More on this shortly on the website.

Next, at the Debussy Theatre in the Palais, Leandro Barreto, CMO, Unilever, addressed the audience.

He argued that brands grow when they create meaning worth sharing, and not just content worth distributing. Barreto also showcased a few case studies of some of the Unilever’s most successful campaigns including Dove’s Real Beauty, Vaseline’s community hacks, and Hellmann’s X Will Levis. More from his talk shortly on the site.

Stay tuned. Next up is Priyanka Chopra's session!