Something happened at the 2023 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity that has never happened before in the event’s 70-year history: A chief financial officer spoke on stage.
That CFO was Mastercard’s Sachin Mehra, who co-led a session at the Palais with Raja Rajamannar, the company’s chief marketing and communications officer. Mehra, standing before an audience of creators and agency executives, admitted he was out of his comfort zone. Rajamannar, for his part, said he had mixed feelings about Mehra coming to Cannes Lions because it was like “taking the priest to Las Vegas.”
The focus of their talk, which occurred on the festival’s opening day, was to address and alleviate the tension between marketing and finance.
