Cannes Lions announces 2022 See It Be It finalists

Cannes Lions has named its 2022 See It Be It finalists. Each year, the women chosen for the festival's bespoke accelerator programme represent some of the top industry talent from around the world.

This year, three of the six finalists originate from APAC markets (Australia, Hong Kong and the Philippines), alongside representatives from UK, Brazil and the US. They are: 

Anastasia Simone, senior art director, Leo Burnett, Hong Kong

Sabine Stromsky, senior creative art director, Edelman, UK

Soleil Badenhop, associate creative director, Gigil, Philippines

Stephanie Cajucom, VP creative director, McCann Worldgroup, USA 

Sumita Maharaj, design director, Re Agency, Australia

Teresa Verde Pinho, creative, AKQA, Brazil

These six 2022 finalists (full bios posted below) will now join the 2020/2021 See It Be It cohort of 15 women who will also take part in the unique development experience at the international Festival of Creativity from June 20-24, 2022. The aim of See It Be It is to support global creative female talent and accelerate them into senior creative roles.

Each finalist receives an all-access festival pass, travel to and from Cannes, and accommodation, courtesy of the festival, and will attend an exclusive programme of events, workshops and mentoring with some of the most respected leaders in the industry.

To date, over 100 women have taken part in See It Be It, and many alumni have progressed into leadership positions, won Lions awards and become Cannes Lions jurors.

See It Be It ambassador, Swati Bhattacharya, chief creative officer at FCB India, will guide the group through the programme alongside its chair, Madonna Badger, the CCO and founder of Badger & Winters.

This year’s programme theme is ‘I am enough’. Commenting on this, Bhattacharya said: “Women navigate life among permanent contradictions. Women think they will only be seen as doers when they over do. We get lost in trying to arrive. In order to take our rightful place sooner rather than later, we need to accept that we are enough exactly the way we are. Enough to lead, enough to experiment, enough to thrive and enough to be.”

The 15 women already selected to take part in See It Be It from 2020/2021, who will join the six newly selected creatives for the 2022 cohort in Cannes, are:

• Allie Steel, senior writer, DDB, Australia
• Andrea Auz, creative director, Paper, Ecuador
• Denise Tee, creative consultant, Philippines
• Ellen Fromm, senior copywriter, AKQA Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Geetanjali Jaiswal, senior creative director, McCann,India
• Javiera Wuth, senior copywriter, Pedro Juan y Diego, Chile
• Karo Gomez, social media strategist, Media.Monks, Mexico
• Lauren Ferreira, creative director for Apple, TBWA\Media Arts Lab, USA
• Leticia Rodrigues, associate creative director, FCB, Brazil
• Mica Gallino, brand creative director, Nike, USA/Mexico
• Nedal Ahmed, senior writer, Wieden+Kennedy, Japan
• Rachel Chew, associate creative director, Ogilvy, Singapore
• Rosa Guerrero, creative leader, MoM Marketing of Minds, Dominican Republic
• Roxana Nita, creative director, DDB, Romania
• Tescia Deak, creative director, TBWA\Chiat\Day, USA

“See It Be It is a vital initiative in Cannes Lions’ response to the gender imbalance that exists within the global creative community," said Susie Walker, VP Awards & Insights at Lions. "We’re delighted to welcome this hugely-talented cohort of 21 women to both the festival and the SIBI network, which has become a global movement of women providing learning and support to their peers right across the world, ensuring the impact of the programme reaches far beyond the festival week."

See It Be It is open to women, trans-identifying and non-binary people. Further details about the programme can be found here.

Here are the bios for the 2022 finalists:

Anastasia Simone

Hong Kong-grown, Simone is a senior art-based creative nerd. With deep roots in activation, she believes in ideas that go beyond changing perception, and seeks to spark lasting value through culturally insightful interactions. With her campaign ‘The Last Word’, she changed the 2,000-year-old character for ivory (象牙, literally ‘elephant tooth’), ending the misnomer, and the ivory trade in Hong Kong.

After six years in APAC, winning regional recognition with such clients as Cathay, WWF, Pernod Ricard, UberEATS, and more, she’s now relocating to Melbourne.

This year, she’s also delighted to serve on the D&AD gaming jury, representing Black female nerds and the glorious diversity of gamers.

Sabine Stromsky

Born in Germany's wine country, with a lifelong loyalty to Riesling.

Coming from a design background, Stromsky has been working in the advertising and marketing industry for the last 15 years, consistently deepening her conceptual and art direction skills in a multitude of agencies in Berlin, New York, Stockholm, Amsterdam and her current home base London.

Over the years, she has developed multichannel campaigns with an array of clients including P&G, Budweiser, Naked Turtle Rum, Yoplait, Volvo, Helly Hansen, IKEA and the United Nations, earning her several awards and exposure in the industry.
 

Soleil Badenhop

Badenhop is an associate creative director at Gigil, an independent agency in Manila.

Badenhop's emerging creative excellence has been recognized globally and locally with works for Greenpeace, LoveYourself Organization, and Netflix. She has won Gold and Silver Cannes Lions, D&AD Impact Wood and Graphite, multiple awards from Clio, New York Festivals, The One Show Awards, London International Awards, Spikes Asia, Effies, AdStars, AdFest, Cresta, Warc, Tambuli, Adobo, Boomerang, and Kidlat.

She was ranked Campaign Brief Asia’s Top 3 Most Awarded Creative in the Philippines in 2020. In 2019, she was ranked Top 1 Copywriter and Top 1 Young Creative in the Philippines by Adobo Magazine. Badenhop is also an advocate for the LGBTQI community and continues to do work promoting gender equality.
 

Stephanie Cajucom

Cajucom is a creative director working, living, eating, and walking her dog in NYC. She started her career as a receptionist at a global agency and has gone from telling stories through Post-its to telling stories through social posts, art exhibits, rave dance floors, robots, Minecraft dogs, Gen Zers who are cooler than her, middle-less worlds, a Met Gala dress and, ya know, TV spots, banners and print.

She’s worked on brands like Chase, IBM, Target, YETI, Microsoft, State Street Global Advisors, Citi Bank, HomeGoods, Verizon, Facebook, and more. Her favorite thing is making the complicated simple. Her favorite-er thing is making the complicated simple AND fun.
 

Sumita Maharaj

Maharaj is a design director at Re Agency, with over a decade of experience in broadcast, advertising, and design.

For Maharaj, brands are living, breathing entities. Her approach to design stems from a belief that we live in a dynamic, motion-first world. Her diverse experience and hands-on approach to creativity equip her with the agency to lead cross-functional design projects large and small.

Passionate about creating considered and meaningful design. She has helped create holistic brand experiences for Sydney Festival, Sky, Big W, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Action Aid, and Mistranslations.
 

Teresa Verde Pinho

Pinho started her career at Fuel Lisboa. During this period, she would spend all after-hours competing in every  young creative competition. After  winning a couple of metals in junior competitions, I moved to Ogilvy Paris. 

At Ogilvy Paris, she worked for global accounts such as Dove, Milka, IBM, Ford, Perrier, and Philadelphia. She also created side projects and campaigns for NGOs, which  made her feel more confident and eventually win Next Creative Leaders from The  One Club in 2020. 

One of these side projects is Quem é Quem (@quemequemproject), where  they intend to expose the best Portuguese talent and help national creatives to take the name of Portugal  overseas. 
In 2021, she started working at AKQA São Paulo under the mentorship of Hugo Veiga and Diego Machado, her lifetime advertising idols. Today, I create  mostly for the global accounts of Nike and Netflix.