Schbang has won the Digital category at Cairns Hatchlings 2026, the Asia-Pacific creative competition held at the Cairns Convention Centre in Australia. The win marks a notable recognition for Indian creative talent on an international platform known for its high-pressure, time-bound format.
Cairns Hatchlings is structured as a 24-hour creative sprint, where finalists receive a brief and are required to move from ideation to execution and live presentation within a single day. This year’s brief was led by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and supported by the UN Foundation, under the campaign platform ‘Reunite for Humanity’. It challenged participants to design culturally relevant ideas to mobilise the private sector and the public across Asia-Pacific to collectively raise USD $23 billion and support 87 million lives in 2026.
Schbang’s Digital category entry was led by Priyanka Gohil and Aman Aragonda, who identified a central tension within the brief: while digital connectivity has expanded globally, it has also contributed to increasing social and economic divides. Their response focused on using artificial intelligence as a unifying mechanism to bridge this gap.
The proposed idea positioned AI as a connective layer between donors and communities in need, specifically targeting the 87 million people identified as being offline and in critical need. The concept suggested enabling direct visibility of impact for donors while channelling funds towards humanitarian initiatives under the UN framework.
The judges described the work as “a seriously impressive piece of strategic reframing and problem solving, unique and fresh.”
Gohil, a product designer, said, “The brief was about solidarity, but the digital world is doing the opposite. It's pulling people further apart. We wanted to flip that. What made this harder was that I am a product designer and Aman is a graphic designer - neither of us works on campaigns day to day. This was completely out of our comfort zone. But we used every insight we had from our industry, stayed up through the entire 24 hours, and trusted the strategy we had built.”
Aragonda added, “We did not sleep for a single minute. The moment the 24 hours ended, we were straight into our presentation. But the exhaustion didn't matter because we had built something we believed in. We started from a very difficult reality, designed the entire flow of our presentation to be strategic from start to finish, and even asked the judges for feedback at the end. That kind of conviction, I think, is what carried us through.”
Dipshika Ravi, national creative director at Schbang, said, “Winning is one thing. But what makes this special is the idea Priyanka and Aman brought to the table. Using AI not as a tool for the privileged, but as a bridge to those who have nothing. That kind of thinking, done in 24 hours, on a brief of this magnitude, is what Schbang is built on. I could not be more proud of them and of what this team represents.”
Schbang also placed another team in the finals of Cairns Hatchlings 2026, with Beverly Coutinho and Sneiden D’souza competing in the Publishing category. The dual finalist presence highlights the agency’s broader creative capability across disciplines.
Founded in 2015, Schbang is a creative, media and technology transformation company with offices across Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi-NCR, London, Amsterdam and Stockholm. The company has a team of over 1,200 members and delivers integrated solutions across creative development, strategy, film production, design, content, data science and media planning and buying.
Schbang is a Google Premier Partner and also works with platforms including Adobe, HubSpot, MoEngage, Shopify, ONDC and Zoho. It has previously featured on LinkedIn’s Top 25 start-up list and the Financial Times’ High Growth Companies in Asia Pacific ranking, and has developed campaigns for brands including Jio, Britannia, Fevicol, Ashok Leyland, Garnier, Cipla, Finolex Pipes, Crompton, Philips, Kaya Skin Clinic, London Dairy, Johnson & Johnson Baby, Mattel and ASUS.
