Different Minds has announced that Equativ, Seedtag and InMobi have come on board as founding industry partners, ahead of the initiative’s official launch activity set to take place at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity this summer.
Created to champion and recentre the importance of neurodiverse talent within the global creative industries, Different Minds’ mission is to elevate inclusive action and support, and bring greater recognition for how integrating different ways of thinking can benefit businesses through creativity, innovation, leadership, and progress.
Different Minds Cannes activations
As part of their engagement with Different Minds, Equativ, Seedtag and InMobi will play host to the initiative’s planned Cannes Lions activations.
The initiative is set to challenge and inspire the Festival to rethink current attitudes to neurodivergent members within the industry, centred in particular on Neurodiversity & Technology, Neurodiversity & Work, and Neurodiversity & Creativity.
More details on the specific Cannes Lions activations will be announced shortly.
“Different Minds was created to bring this conversation into one of the industry’s most visible and influential spaces,” said Steven Beckwith, co-founder of Different Minds.
Dayna Moon, co-Founder of Different Minds, added: “With the support of our partners, we’re creating a platform that not only raises awareness, but helps the industry better recognise the value of neurodiverse talent in shaping its future.”
As founding supporting partners, Equativ, Seedtag, and InMobi are helping to bring early momentum, visibility, and credibility to the launch of Different Minds and its broader mission to foster a more inclusive, informed, and forward-looking industry.
Sarah Pettitt, Senior Group Business Director, UK & INTL, Seedtag, said: “At Seedtag, we’ve built our technology around a simple but powerful idea: that the most meaningful way to connect with someone isn’t to know who they are, but to understand the moment they’re in.
“That same logic applies to how our industry must think about neurodiverse talent. Without different minds, you don’t get different outcomes — you get the same ones, dressed up differently.
“AI and innovation give us the tools to stop asking ‘who is behind the screen?’ and start asking ‘what are they capable of?’ — amplifying unique ways of thinking at scale and turning what was once overlooked into an undeniable force for progress.
“Different Minds exists to make that case loudly, and Cannes is exactly the right stage to do it.”
JC Peube, Chief Operations Officer, Equativ, said: “The future of the adtech industry depends on our ability to solve complex problems, and you simply cannot solve them with uniform thinking.
“At Equativ, we’ve seen firsthand that our most resilient leadership and innovative outcomes stem from a mosaic of different perspectives.
“We are proud to support Different Minds because neurodiversity is a vital, yet often overlooked, component of a truly inclusive workplace. This conversation matters now because the next era of industry innovation will be defined by how well we empower every type of mind.”
Nigel Ashton, Director of Agency Partnerships, Europe and Global, InMobi, said: “At the beating heart of adtech lies one fundamental truth: people who think differently and are motivated to act to effect change when it comes to some of the advertising landscape’s development. This is impossible without a core of people who are hardwired to think differently when it comes to the problems in the industry.
“We are proud to be supporting Different Minds’ call to arms at this year’s Lions; neurodiversity has always been part of creativity and adtech innovation, and it deserves consistent support.”
Different Minds is rooted in the belief that neurodiversity should be more visible, better understood, and more meaningfully supported across the industry.
By convening conversations and community around this work, the initiative aims to help move awareness into action and encourage more inclusive thinking across culture, leadership, collaboration, and opportunity.
The Cannes launch marks the beginning of a broader effort to build momentum around these issues on a global scale and to create an enduring platform for engagement, advocacy, and progress.