AD Agencies
Cannes gets a WIN-dow to the future of creativity and inclusion
MUMBAI: The Women Inspiring Network (WIN) turned up the volume at Cannes 2025 with its buzzing #WINLounge, a high-energy hub at Hotel Martinez that celebrated diversity, daring ideas and disruptive conversations. With over 50 speakers from more than 20 countries, the event proved WIN isn’t here to whisper—it’s here to roar.
WIN’s golden moment? Anupama Ramaswamy, chief creative officer at Havas Worldwide India CCO Anupama Ramaswamy and a #WINLounge speaker, clinched India’s first Gold Cannes Lions of 2025 for Ink of Democracy. Cue the standing ovation, and a thousand proud hearts back home.
The day-long creative jam on 18 June opened with a keynote from Bridget Evans, global head of business marketing at Spotify, and segued into 10 powerhouse panels, interactive workshops, and fireside chats featuring everyone from Snap AR’s Resh Sidhu to Vevo’s Natalie Gabathuler-Scully and TikTok-famous changemakers from across continents.
If the agenda felt like a mixtape of the future—it was. Panels tackled themes like inclusive innovation, philanthropy 2.0, emotional branding, and the metamorphosis of marketing with AI and AR thrown into the blender. Highlights included ‘The 21st-Century Blueprint for Purpose-Driven Brand-Building’, ‘Culture is Capital’, and ‘Disrupting the Default’—each one as punchy as its title.
WIN also turned up the heat at Spotify Beach, where its podcast platform WIN Voices spotlighted a rising tribe of African storytellers including South African media dynamo Kim Jayde, UK-Nigerian director Meji Alabi, and Kojo Marfo of My Runway Group. From Afrobeats to blockchain, these voices brought cultural currency to the Croisette.
Speaking about Cannes 2025, Women Inspiring Network (WIN) founder Stuti Jalan remarked, “Cannes was raw, electric, and unforgettable—a melting pot of ideas, creativity, and global change makers. It was incredible to see WIN in the middle of it all. Riding this momentum, we are now gearing up for our next chapters across New York, Davos, India and other global stages.I would like to acknowledge and express gratitude for the support from our partners—Dasra, Camphouse, Masimo, and Vevo. Their belief in our mission made this powerful exchange of ideas and inspiration possible.
Workshops kept the spark alive. Bonnie Wan’s The Life Brief helped guests craft purpose-driven roadmaps, while Leading Beyond Imposter Syndrome by Trust Your Creative was an emotional tune-up for leaders navigating uncertain terrain. In a special fireside chat, Jalan went tête-à-tête with Caspar Lee, former YouTube star turned co-founder of Influencer.com, who shared his $65 million journey from creator to VC.
With New York, Davos and India in its crosshairs.
AD Agencies
AdTrust Summit 2026 to examine trust, AI and Gen Alpha in advertising
Two-day summit in Mumbai to explore ethics, regulation and the future of advertising trust
MUMBAI: At a time when advertising is navigating a delicate trust deficit, the Advertising Standards Council of India is preparing to bring the industry to the table. On 17 and 18 March, the body will host the inaugural AdTrust Summit 2026 in Mumbai, a two-day gathering designed to spark conversation around responsibility, regulation and credibility in modern advertising.
The summit, to be held at the Jio World Convention Centre in Bandra Kurla Complex, will bring together leaders from advertising, media, technology and policy to examine how brands can build trust in a marketplace increasingly shaped by algorithms, influencers and artificial intelligence.
In an age of deepfakes, dark patterns and blurred lines between content and commerce, the question is no longer just how brands capture attention, but whether audiences believe what they see. The AdTrust Summit aims to unpack that challenge.
Day one will turn its attention to the youngest digital natives. Titled Decoding Gen Alpha, the session will unveil ‘What the Sigma?’, a study by ASCI and Futurebrands Consulting that explores how children growing up in a hyper-digital environment encounter advertising and commercial messaging.
The report presentation will be delivered by Santosh Desai, founder and director at Think9 Consumer Technologies and a social commentator known for his insights into consumer behaviour. The discussion that follows will attempt to decode how Gen Alpha consumes media, interacts with brands and navigates the growing overlap between entertainment and marketing.
In a move that mirrors the subject itself, two Gen Alpha students will also join the conversation, offering a rare perspective from the generation advertisers are trying to understand.
The second panel of the day will shift the focus from observation to implication, asking what the report’s findings mean for brands, agencies and society. Speakers include Karthik Srinivasan, communications strategy consultant; Preeti Vyas, president at Mythik; and Abigail Dias, associate president planning at Ogilvy. The session will be moderated by Sonali Krishna, editor at ET Brand Equity.
Day two moves from insight to regulation. Under the theme From Compliance to Trust, ASCI will release its Ad Law Compendium, a comprehensive guide to India’s advertising regulations.
The day will open with a keynote by Sudhanshu Vats, chairman at ASCI and managing director at Pidilite Industries, followed by a chief guest address by Sanjay Jaju, secretary at the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Legal experts from Khaitan & Co., including Haigreve Khaitan, senior partner, and Tanu Banerjee, partner, will present an overview of the current advertising law landscape in India and examine whether existing frameworks are equipped to deal with emerging technologies and formats.
Subsequent panels will explore issues increasingly shaping the industry’s ethical compass. Conversations will range from the limits of persuasive design and the rise of dark patterns, to the growing scrutiny brands face from digital creators and consumer watchdogs.
One session will also feature Revant Himatsingka, widely known online as the Food Pharmer, whose critiques of packaged food brands have sparked debate around transparency and corporate accountability.
Later discussions will turn toward media literacy among Gen Alpha, asking how children can be equipped to navigate a digital world where gaming, content and commerce are becoming indistinguishable.
The summit will conclude with a final panel on the future of advertising, bringing together voices from agencies, legal circles and technology platforms to discuss how innovation, intelligence and integrity can coexist.
For an industry built on persuasion, trust has always been its quiet currency. But as audiences grow more sceptical and digital ecosystems more complex, that currency is under pressure.
Events like the AdTrust Summit suggest the advertising world knows it cannot afford to take credibility for granted. The real challenge now is turning conversation into commitment.
