DEI at Cannes Lions deepens as PHD Boss, others become Jurors
By Oghale Mafuru
As conversations around diversity, equality and Inclusion gain prominence in the global advertising and marketing communications industry, Cannes Lions, Festival of Creativity, the largest gathering of advertising professionals in the world, has announced four Nigerian star professionals as jurors for the 2023 edition of the festival alongside other creatives minds from the African continent.
Dozie Okafor, Managing Director of PHD Media, Nnenna Onyewuchi, Executive Director, Strategy and Innovation, Yellow Brick Africa, Chuka Obi, Director, Creativity &Innovations at Globacom and Adenike Odutola, Managing Director at X3M Ideas Zambia will be judging the media, innovation, mobile and PR categories respectively.
The global body while unveiling the 290 jurors who will set the standard and benchmark for advertising excellence for the next 70 years, also announced other very distinguished and experienced professionals from South-Africa and Kenya.
Some of the highly cerebral professionals whose experiences have traversed the broad spectrum of marketing communications who made the jury list this year are Carlo Murison , Group CEO & Chief Creative Officer, TWO TONE GLOBAL, SOUTH AFRICA,Khensani Nobanda, Chief Brand and Marketing Officer at NEDBANK, SOUTH AFRICA, Joyce Kigathi, Head of Strategy, Creative and Content at HAVAS AFRICA , KENYA, Maurice Wangalachi, Creative Director at Ogilvy Africa, Kenya amongst others.
This selection further enhances the advocacy for black representation in the global advertising ecosystem as the jurors are expected to bring the African perspectives to the entire metrics for evaluating creative performances across different markets with significant impact on the continent.
Dozie Okafor, who is also the Vice-President of the Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria, MIPAN has worked for both OMD Nigeria and OMD Ghana across numerous brands including Vodafone, Guinness, GSK, Distell, SC Johnson, Stanbic IBTC, Beiersdorf amongst others.
He was the Media manager and IMC lead for Coca-Cola Nigeria, West Africa Business Unit where he managed Regional Integrated Marketing Communication and media/assets Development.
Nnenna Onyewuchi has 25 years’ experience as a strategist, spanning 3 continents, over 50 brands, and a variety of creative disciplines including advertising, experiential marketing, film production, and pay-tv.
Nnenna began her career at McCann New York, rising to the position of Vice President. She moved back to Nigeria in 2004. She held positions at CPMS, TBWA/Concept, Small World Media and HiTV, before joining ZK Advertising in 2007. In 2010, she co-founded Yellow Brick Road, a creative solutions company.
In 2022, Nnenna shifted her focus to build the company’s marketing technology offering.
Chuka with over two decades of experience in various creative functions including Copywriting, Art Direction, Illustration, Comic Book Creation, Content Writing &Creation, and Sound Design and Product Design across several leading brands has worked extensively with brands like MTN, Glo, Johnnie Walker, Pepsi, Star, Heineken, Smirnoff, Macallan, Interswitch, VISA, Maggi, Golden Morn, FidelityBank, Mouka, Knorr, Royco, Lipton, Guinness, Malta Guinness, AXA, Wrigley’s, Oando, Verve, Quickteller, amongst others.
Before assuming the role of Director of Creativity & Innovation at Globacom, he was ECD at Publicis Nigeria, and before that ECD at DDB Nigeria.
Adenike has been in the Marketing and Communications industry for over 12 years, leading Consumer Marketing, Advertising and New Business Development projects across markets in Africa including Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
She has led and had the responsibility for driving local/regional business development, client service and brand management through equity driving brand campaigns across multiple industry sectors for local and multinational clients.
The event which marks 70th anniversary in recognizing creative excellence around the globe is scheduled to hold from June 19th, 2023 to Friday, June 23rd, 2023 at the Palace of Festivals and Congresses of Cannes, France.
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