Cannes Lions Jury Spotlight: Dhruv Warrior

At Cannes Lions, the world’s premier festival recognizing creative excellence, thousands of entries pour in from countries worldwide. Behind the scenes, a carefully selected panel of judges reviews the work that will ultimately take home a coveted Cannes Lion.

Joining the ranks of the industry’s most recognized and respected creative professionals, Dhruv Warrior, creative director, VMLY&R Dubai, is serving as a juror in the Direct category this year.

While at VMLY&R, Dhruv Warrior has worked on the agency’s key brands and has been an important part of a team whose work has been recognized by top international and regional award shows, helping VMLY&R EMEA get regional and global recognition.

Dhruv has won awards at Cannes, Clio’s, Spikes, One Show, D&AD, Adfest, The Effies, Goafest and Dubai Lynx. On paper, he is a writer but his love for copy and art began at 6 when he first discovered Mad Magazine.

How do you spot Cannes-winning work? OR What do you hope you’ll see in the overall work at Cannes in 2019?

It's not really difficult to spot work that wins at Cannes. In fact, Cannes winning work stands apart from the rest. I've always believed a good idea speaks for itself. And most of the work that wins starts conversations and is talked about because it sets a precedent.

At the end of the festival, what do you want to have taken away from your experience?  

I have dreamed of going to Cannes for over a decade, and now that it's happening I hope to come back with crazy new memories and experiences, hopefully having met some of my heroes. And most importantly, learned a lot of new things. It’s a rare opportunity to attend some incredible talks, meet amazing people, and see what's leading the way in advertising and everything connected to it.

What do you think will be the big talking points at this year’s festival?

I think there are going to be a lot of discussions around social good and issues affecting our society.

Name three things in your Cannes survival kit.

Water, my jury pass and a clone.

What are the trickiest elements of Direct to judge?

Everything can be direct, so you're comparing so many varied forms of work to each other in the same sub-category. It becomes tricky then.