Cannes Lions to honour Piyush and Prasoon Pandey

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has announced that brothers Piyush and Prasoon Pandey will be honoured  at the 2018 festival with the Lion of St. Mark award for outstanding contributions to the industry.

Piyush Pandey, executive chairman and creative director of Ogilvy South Asia, was already a giant in India's agency world when he won his first Cannes Lions awards in 2002. Younger brother Prasoon Pandey is a highly respected director who directed the first Indian campaign to win a Lion, for Ericsson’s ‘One Black Coffee’ in 1996.

“The Lion of St. Mark recognises those who have made a significant and outstanding contribution to creativity in our industry,” said Jose Papa, managing director of Cannes Lions. “Piyush and Prasoon have undoubtedly made the world pay attention to creativity in India. While they are famous, and rightly so, in their homeland, I’m thrilled that we have this opportunity to celebrate their contributions to our industry on the Cannes Lions stage. The fact we get to honour the achievements of two brothers makes this year’s Lion of St. Mark award particularly special.”

Piyush Pandey commented:

This is a huge, huge honour. I am humbled and immensely grateful to the people of India. It is the richness and diversity of this nation that gave my brother and me the opportunity to learn and to create good work. I am also indebted to my clients, my colleagues and Ogilvy who gave me the support and the freedom to fly. Thank you Cannes Lions for giving every creative professional in my country a reason to believe that if Prasoon and Piyush can do it, so can they.

Prasoon Pandey commented:

The Lion of St Mark is an absolutely incredible and stunning honour for two 10-15 year-old kids from Jaipur who were just having a blast playing Emperors and Thugs, Dragons and Demons, dreaming stories and playing them out with some far more imaginative and talented friends. We were so engrossed in that play that we forgot that we were well into our 50s and 60s! This is such a huge and humbling honour for us; I just hope it doesn’t make the kids inside us conscious.

The Pandey brothers took part in a 2014 Cannes panel discussion moderated by Campaign's Atifa Silk.

Piyush Pandey joined Ogilvy & Mather in 1982, was made national creative director in 1994 and was the first jury president from Asia in 2004. The Government of India awarded him the civilian honour of the Padma Shri in 2016.

Prasoon Pandey started his career at Lintas Delhi, eventually becoming the creative director for Lowe India. He set up his own production company, Corcoise Films, in 2002.

Previous Lion of St. Mark winners are:

• 2017: David Droga, founder and Creative Chairman, Droga5
• 2016: Marcello Serpa, former Partner, AlmapBBDO
• 2015: Bob Greenberg, Founder, Chairman and CEO, R/GA
• 2014: Joe Pytka, Director, PYTKA
• 2013: Lee Clow, Chairman, TBWA\Media Arts Lab, Director of Media Arts, TBWA\Worldwide
• 2012: Dan Wieden, Co-Founder and Global Executive Creative Director, Wieden+Kennedy
• 2011: Sir John Hegarty, Worldwide Creative Director, Founder, BBH