MUMBAI: Ogilvy South Asia executive chairman and creative director Piyush Pandey and film director Prasoon Pandey will both be honoured with the Cannes Lions’ Lifetime Achievement Award, the Lion of St Mark.

In an email addressed to Piyush and Prasoon Pandey, Ascential Events CEO Philip Thomas wrote, "Next year we would like to honour you both, as two brothers who have changed the face of creativity in India and far beyond."

Piyush Pandey says, "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 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."

In addition to the innumerable accolades that have been awarded to Piyush, he is the first Asian to be jury president of the Cannes Film Festival in 2004, in 2012 he was bestowed with the lifetime achievement award from CLIO, the lifetime achievement award by AAAI and in 2016 he became the first person ever in the advertising and communication sector to receive the Padma Shri, an award conferred by the president of India.

The Lion of St Mark is the highest honour that the Cannes International Festival of Creativity bestows on creative geniuses within the communications industry. Previous recipients have included David Droga, John Hegarty, Lee Clow and Marcello Serpa, Dan Wieden, Joe Pytka and Bob Greenberg.

This is the 8th Lion of St Mark awarded by the Cannes Film Festival. The award will formally be given to Piyush and Prasoon Pandey at the Cannes Festival on 22 June 2018. They will be the first Asians to receive the Lion of St Mark.