I brought a perspective that isn't often represented at Cannes: Binda Dey

Tell us the experience about judging the Entertainment Lions for Sports.

Cannes this year felt like a genuine inflection point - the conversation around sport and culture has matured significantly. Less about campaigns, more about meaning.

Being a first-time juror on the Entertainment Lions for Sport was intense in the best possible way. The pre-work alone - weeks of independent scoring before we even arrived - meant that by the time we sat in that room, we weren't discovering the work; we were interrogating it.

What made those discussions genuinely powerful was the composition of the jury itself. Big network agencies, independent creatives, consultants, brand marketers, and rights holders — all in the same room. A strong gender balance. Voices from Singapore, the USA, the UK, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Australia, Peru, Nigeria, the Caribbean Islands and India. That breadth meant every piece of work got stress-tested from angles it wouldn't have survived in a more homogeneous room.

Coming from a cricket franchise in India, I brought a perspective that isn't often represented at Cannes. And what struck me most was how ready the room was for it. The emotional architecture of sport - loyalty, heartbreak, identity - transcends the game itself.

The work that won this year earned it through rigour and real conviction. I'm proud of what this jury put forward.

Any learning that you believe has cross-border potential that can work in India. As you lead marketing at the KKR franchise, any learning in particular that you would like to implement in KKR.

The single biggest learning that travels across markets is this: the brands that won at Cannes weren’t just marketing to fans; they were building with them.

That distinction matters enormously for Indian cricket. The IPL already has the audience, the intensity, and the commercial ecosystem. What the best work at Cannes showed is that the next frontier isn’t reach, it’s depth - how do you take a fan who watches every match and turn them into someone who feels genuinely part of the franchise’s story?

For KKR specifically, that’s a very exciting space to explore. We already have one of the most passionate and vocal fan bases in world cricket, with a global community that has its own identity, rituals, and language around the team. And across the Knight Riders ecosystem, while the core identity remains consistent, each team in the USA, Caribbean, and UAE also carries its own local cultural nuance.

The learning I’m taking back is about unlocking more creative ownership for that global community. Not just content to consume, but narratives they can help shape, participate in, and feel part of.

Any campaign that stood out for you / what idea stood out for you

Two pieces that stood out for me were The Thousand Sponsors of Muni and The Luck Fan Index. Very different in execution, but deeply aligned in thinking. One reimagined a struggling football club’s jersey as a shared ownership model, turning 1,000 micro-sponsors into a lifeline for the team. The other captured something more intangible but equally powerful - the emotional rituals, beliefs, and superstitions that define fandom and turned it into something measurable and participatory.

What connected both was a simple but powerful truth: fans don’t just watch sport, they participate in it, shape it, and sustain it.

Among them, the Thousand Sponsors of Muni stayed with all of us and ultimately won the Grand Prix unanimously. Faced with severe financial hardship after relegation to the third division, the club reimagined its sponsorship model by transforming its jersey into 1,000 micro-sponsorship spaces. Local businesses, entrepreneurs, and fans were invited to become “official sponsors” at a small cost, effectively turning the shirt into a shared community asset.

What made the idea exceptional was not just its ingenuity, but its emotional truth. It didn’t treat sponsorship as a transaction; it treated it as belonging. The jersey became a living symbol of collective ownership, while also generating crucial funding for the men’s team, women’s team, and youth academy. It was a reminder that in sport, the strongest ideas often come from constraint, and the most powerful outcomes come from community.

Perhaps the most striking insight from the entries overall was that the best work wasn’t about victory. It wasn’t about the trophy lift or the winning moment. It was about resilience—rebuilding after setbacks, staying loyal through difficult seasons, and finding creativity in adversity. In many ways, it reflected what fans already know instinctively: the culture of sport is not built in winning alone, but in perseverance.