Vikram Pandey

Vikram Pandey, fondly known as Spiky, has spent nearly two decades proving that the fastest way to build a career isn’t by changing agencies, it’s by changing the agency you’re in.

In 19 years at Leo India, he’s gone from junior copywriter to Chief Creative Officer, helping turn the agency into one of the most awarded creative companies in the world. Alongside his Co-CCO Sachin, he’s helped Leo top global rankings, lead India’s medal tally across the biggest award shows, and become the kind of agency people don’t just want to work with, they want to work at. 

Under their leadership, Leo has led India’s tally at Cannes Lions, D&AD, The One Show and AdFest, won Asia-Pacific Creative Agency of the Year at Spikes Asia twice, picked up the Global Grand Effie, and was recognised by WARC as the World’s #1 Agency in 2025, followed by #2 in 2026. It’s the sort of run that most agencies would sit back and celebrate. But Spiky prefers to think they’re just getting started.

Spiky is drawn to ideas that stretch beyond advertising. Ideas that become experiences, products or platforms people genuinely engage with. That thinking has shaped work such as Spotify’s There’s a Playlist for That, which turned social listening into hyper-local OOH campaign that ran across India, Airtel’s 175 Replayed, which recreated Kapil Dev’s legendary, never-recorded innings using AI, Gatorade’s Turf Finder, which helped youngsters discover playable spaces in crowded cities using Google Maps data, and Mountain Dew’s Darescore, developed with the Nepal Tourism Board, which introduced the world’s first mountain rating system based on climbing difficulty rather than height. Different brands. Different technologies. One ambition: to create work that people welcome into their lives, not skip.

He’s judged Cannes Lions, Clio, AdFest and New York Festivals, picked up just about every major international creative award along the way, and still believes the best brief is the next one.

Ask him the secret to his career, and he’ll probably give you the same answer every time: “My seniors have been kind, my juniors have been brilliant, and my clients have been brave.”

All 2026 Jury