Jury Insights – Interview with Wendy Walker

This “Jury Insights” interview series welcomes Wendy Walker, Chief Marketing Officer at Global Dairy Trade, who joins this year's Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards jury.

With more than 25 years of marketing experience across industries and global markets, Wendy has held C-suite roles at brands including Salesforce, Intuit, Manulife, and Mindshare. She is also the Founder and President of the International Advertising Association Singapore, a member of the IAA Global Board, and a published author of Between Flights.

She opens up about how stepping outside her own category as a judge sharpens her thinking, walks us through why the strongest entries this year moved past familiar corporate filmmaking conventions, and shares her take on what actually separates a good entry from an award-winning one.

“A good entry presents strong work. An award-winning entry makes it easy for the judges to understand why that work matters.” – Wendy Walker

Q: Can you tell us a little about your professional journey? What has been the most defining moment of your career so far?

My career has given me the opportunity to work across the full breadth of marketing, spanning diverse industries, markets and geographies. I have held C-suite marketing leadership roles for almost two decades and am currently Chief Marketing Officer at Global Dairy Trade, leading the organisation’s marketing agenda worldwide.Alongside my corporate career, I am an award-winning author, an experienced speaker and an active contributor to the global creative industry. I have spent more than two decades judging creative and effective work, including serving as Global Jury President for Creative B2B at Cannes Lions in 2025 and Jury President for Creative B2B at Spikes Asia in 2026. I am also the Founder and President of the International Advertising Association Singapore and a member of the IAA Global Board.

It is difficult to identify one defining moment. What has shaped me most is the opportunity to work across different organisations, cultures and periods of change, while consistently bringing together creativity, strategic clarity and long-term brand value. That has been the defining thread throughout my career.

Q: Has participating in the jury changed the way you view your own work or the industry?

Every time I participate in a jury, I learn something. Judging gives you the opportunity to step outside the category, market or business context you work in every day and look at creativity through a much broader lens.

You are exposed to different cultures, industries, challenges and approaches to storytelling, and that inevitably influences the way you think about your own work. Many of the strongest ideas are not limited to one sector. The underlying thinking, creative courage or storytelling technique can often be applied across very different categories.

Jury discussions are also incredibly valuable because they remind you that people experience work differently. Hearing why another judge responded strongly to a particular piece can reveal dimensions of the work that you may not initially have seen. It makes you a more thoughtful practitioner as well as a more thoughtful judge.

Q: What are your impressions of this year’s entries? Are there any trends or approaches that have caught your attention?

The work that rose to the top was genuinely distinctive. It had a clear point of view, a strong creative idea and a way of telling the story that felt true to the DNA of the organisation or brand.

One of the broader trends I noticed was the opportunity to move beyond some of the more familiar conventions of corporate filmmaking. Many entries were extremely well made and professionally executed, and the most memorable were those that pushed the creative boundaries further.

These films found a more original way into the story, created a stronger sense of connection and gave the audience something that felt specific to that organisation, rather than something that could have been made for almost any company.

For internal audiences in particular, that matters. Employees already know the organisation, so the work has the opportunity to do more than communicate information. It can feel relevant, authentic and distinctive enough to help people see the organisation, or their place within it, in a new way.

Q: In your view, what distinguishes a good entry from an award-winning one?

A good entry presents strong work. An award-winning entry makes it easy for the judges to understand why that work matters.

The quality of the entry itself, particularly the case film, can make a significant difference. It should clearly explain the context, the challenge, the thinking behind the work and what was achieved. It should tell the story of how the campaign or film came to be, rather than simply presenting the finished output.

The strongest entries also anticipate the questions judges are likely to ask. They provide enough evidence and context to create confidence in the work, while keeping the creative idea at the centre of the story.

Ultimately, award-winning entries tend to combine a strong idea, excellent execution and a compelling explanation of why the work was necessary, distinctive and effective.

Q: What does a corporate film need to have for it to stay in your mind long after the judging is over?

It needs to make you feel something.

The emotion does not necessarily have to be dramatic; what matters is that the emotional response feels earned and is connected to the purpose of the story.

That emotion should also align with something authentic in the DNA of the brand. The film should reinforce your understanding of who the organisation is, what it believes and the role it plays in people’s lives. When the idea, the emotion and the brand all connect, the film becomes much more memorable.

The films that stay with you are those that leave you with a stronger impression of the organisation and a reason to care about its story.

Q: If you could see one industry completely reinvent the way it tells its stories, which would it be, and why?

I would love to see the financial services industry completely reinvent the way it tells its stories. Money touches almost every significant moment in our lives, from starting a business and buying a home to supporting a family, navigating uncertainty or planning for the future. There is enormous emotional and human territory available to these brands.

The opportunity is to build on the category’s established themes of security, freedom and possibility, while finding more distinctive and honest ways to tell stories about the role financial organisations play in people’s lives.

The brands that can do that in a way that feels authentic to who they are, and specific to the experiences of the people they serve, have the potential to create much stronger and more memorable connections.

Q: As a jury member, what do you believe is the true value of awards, and why are platforms like the Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards important for the industry?

The true value of awards is that they help establish a benchmark for what best-in-class work looks like.

At their best, awards do more than recognise individual organisations, agencies or creative teams. They give the wider industry a body of work to learn from. They demonstrate what is possible when strong thinking, creative ambition and excellent execution come together.

Platforms such as the Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards are important because they create visibility for work that plays a significant role in how organisations communicate, engage their people and build stronger connections with their audiences.

By recognising the strongest examples, awards encourage organisations around the world to aim higher. They inspire people to challenge conventions, invest in better ideas and continue raising the standard of the work. That collective ambition is ultimately where their greatest value lies.