MAM
VML India wins big in Cairns with a Spotify track built from human voices
Two young Mumbai creatives turned a UN brief about saving 87 million lives into an audio experience that stopped judges in their tracks
MUMBAI: Twenty-four hours. One brief. Eighty-seven million lives at stake. That was the pressure cooker in which Shilpi Dey and Raj Thakkar, senior copywriter and senior art director respectively at VML India, cooked up a winner. The pair clinched the top spot in the audio category at Cairns Hatchlings 2026, the APAC region’s most watched competition for emerging creative talent, with an idea called The Sounds of Humanity.
The brief, set live by the UN Foundation, asked entrants to redirect the global subscription economy toward human survival. Dey and Thakkar’s answer was disarmingly simple and technically audacious: a living, breathing Spotify track built entirely from real-time uploads of everyday human moments, stitched together via API integration into an evolving, interactive anthem. A massive global challenge, rendered quietly, intimately, powerfully.
“We battled through nerves, self-doubt, and sleeplessness, but the sheer purpose behind the brief kept us going,” the pair said. “We wanted to use the raw, real sounds of people to create an immediate emotional connection and prove that audio can be an active tool for solidarity. Every scrapped idea and late-night pivot was completely worth it.”
Kalpesh Patankar, group chief creative officer at VML India, was unequivocal in his pride. “Shilpi and Raj winning in the audio category reinforces our belief that the next generation of Indian creatives is well rounded to produce work that is globally relevant, culturally nuanced and emotionally compelling,” he said.
The win is no isolated moment. VML India placed a team in both the audio and design category finals at this year’s Cairns Hatchlings, continuing a streak of creative excellence that began at the competition’s very inception last year.
Indian advertising has long punched above its weight at global shows. At Cairns 2026, two young Mumbai creatives proved the next generation is ready, willing and very much awake — even after 24 hours without sleep.
