Cannes Lions best practices Goafest must emulate

Guest Column: Dr. Sandeep Goyal shares why Goafest must adopt the Cannes Lions playbook to become a world-class creative festival

by Sandeep Goyal
Published: May 26, 2026 8:52 AM | 6 min read

The article discusses the need for Goafest to adopt new strategies to elevate its status in the advertising festival landscape, drawing comparisons to the Cannes Lions festival.
Key recommendations include streamlining award categories, enhancing jury transparency, focusing on educational content, and prioritizing young talent through competitions and mentorship opportunities.
The author emphasizes the importance of creative effectiveness and data-driven insights, suggesting the introduction of a "Business Impact Abbys" and a "State of Indian Creativity Report."
To foster a more exclusive and engaging atmosphere, the article advocates for smaller venues, limited-access events, and the inclusion of regional and international perspectives in the festival.

I have been to Cannes several times over the years. For the Cannes Lions adfest, the Cannes Film Festival as well as MIPTV, the television fest.

Cannes didn’t become Cannes because of the French Riviera. It became Cannes because it treats creativity like a serious, expensive, global sport.

Goafest has the beach. But a lot else is missing. In its 20^th year, it needs a new playbook.

Here’s what to copy, adapted for Indian budgets and attention spans:

Ruthless Category & Jury Discipline

What Cannes does: 30 Lions. Each has global benchmarks. Juries are 50%+ international, 40%+ women, and they publish the full jury list + conflict rules upfront. No “uncle” quota. No domination by repeat veterans. No over-dominance by network biggies.

What Goafest must do:

- Merge the Abbys: Kill “Digital Craft in Subcategory 3B.” One Film, One Digital, One Design, One Effectiveness. Scarcity = prestige.

- Blind pre-judging + live Grand Prix debates: Stream the final jury room discussion for 1 category. Controversy drives credibility. Right now nobody knows why something won.

- Pay jurors in respect, not trips: Fly in 3 global CDs and 3 Indian CMOs per track. Give them time and mandate. Stop filling rooms with agency ECDs and CEOs judging their own networks.

Learning Over Lanyards

What Cannes does: The real product is the content. 4 days, 8 stages, 400+ sessions. People go to get smarter, not just sunburnt.

What Goafest must do:

- “Cannes on a Budget” track: Deconstruct 10 Lion-winning cases with the actual teams. Not CMO gyaan — storyboard to SOV to sales data.

- Craft Labs: 90-min workshops capped at 40 people. “Writing for 6-second reels,” “How to sell bold work to a risk-averse client,” “AI Midjourney prompts that don’t suck.” No panels. Only practitioners + laptops.

- Ban paid speaking slots: If your brand bought a stall, you don’t auto-get a stage. Cannes keeps a church-state separation between sponsors and content. That’s why people listen.

Young Talent Is the Headliner, Not the Sideshow

What Cannes does: Young Lions competitions, Roger Hatchuel Academy, See It Be It. They fund the next generation because that’s who tweets.

What Goafest must do:

- Abbys Young Gun: Under-30 teams get a real client brief on Day 1, present live Day 3. Winner gets ₹5L + the brief goes live. Agencies will kill to send teams.

- “Speed Mentoring” beach: 1 CD, 1 planner, 1 film director per table. 10-min slots. No business cards, just books. Dubai Lynx does this and the lines are longest there.

- Scholarship 100 passes: Funded by 5 sponsors. If you’re from a Tier-3 town and can’t afford ₹40k, GoaFest pays. You buy loyalty for 20 years.

Effectiveness Is Sexy

What Cannes does: Creative Effectiveness Lions are judged by CMOs, CFOs, and consultancies. They require 3rd party data. Winning it can get your ECD a client-side job. GoaFest standards need serious upgrade.

What Goafest must do:

- Launch “Business Impact Abbys”: Mandatory data section. 100 words on problem, 200 on idea, 500 on results with Nielsen/Kantar/BARC proof. Jury = 50%+ marketers.

- Publish “GoaFest Effectiveness Index”: Every year, which agencies + clients won + grew share. The share growth bit has to be the lead metric. Make winning correlate with career growth, not just self-congratulatory LinkedIn posts.

Design the FOMO

What Cannes does: Tight venues, queues, secret parties, limited-access talks. Scarcity creates cachet.

What Goafest must do:

- No more giant ballrooms: 300-person “Cabana Sessions” with the Harit Nagpals, Uday Shankars and Josy Pauls. If you miss it, you miss it. Recordings drop 3 months later.

- “Off-Goafest”: Let agencies throw unofficial events. Cannes lets Edelman, Meta, Dentsu, TikTok run beach takeovers. GoaFest still controls the map too tightly. Unleash the fringe.

- Daily Wrap Reel: 90-second edit of best talk, best fight, best idea. Drop at 9 pm daily. If you’re not there, you feel it.

Go Global, But Stay Indian

What Cannes does: 90 countries enter. Judges fly from Tokyo to São Paulo. Yet it’s still about universal human truths.

What Goafest must do:

- “Bharat Lions” Sub-fest: Day 2 only, all work in regional languages, for non-metro audiences. Judge it by distribution + cultural nuance, not English subtitles.

- SAARC Invites: Set aside 50 passes for Pakistan (if Govt. of India permits), Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives and Bhutan agencies. Be the Spikes of South Asia. Right now we’re insular.

- Export Indian craft: Force every session to have 1 global case + 1 Indian case. Stop the inferiority complex; the always inward-looking.

Treat Data Like Cannes Treats Champagne

What Cannes does: Lions publishes the “Lions Creativity Report” — themes, trends, country rankings. WARC mines the data all year. The festival has a point of view.

What Goafest must do:

- “State of Indian Creativity Report”: Launch at GoaFest 2027. % of entries that were AI-assisted, % for purpose vs product, top 10 words in scripts, spend vs metals. Make it the report every CMO downloads.

- Open the entry data: Anonymized, after 1 year. Let ISB/IIMs study what wins in India. Cannes knows academia legitimizes the award.

What is needed today is a serious mindset shift: Cannes curates. GoaFest accommodates.

Cannes says “no” 95% of the time — to entries, to speakers, to sponsors who want to dilute the stage. That’s why a Lion matters.

If GoaFest wants to be India’s Cannes, it has to stop being India’s everyone-gets-a-trophy festival.

Let’s start with 3 things for 2027:

Cut Abby categories from 200 to 40.
Launch Young Gun live brief with ₹5L prize.
Stream at least one Grand Prix jury debate.

Do that, and by 2029 the question won’t be “How much is Goafest like Cannes?” It’ll be “Why isn’t Cannes more like Goafest?”

It can be done. It must be done.

Dr. Sandeep Goyal is Chairman of Rediffusion and Everest. He is former India JV Partner and Chairman of Dentsu India & Middle East, and ex-CEO of Zee.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not in any way represent the views of exchange4media.com.