Creative eCommerce Lions: Cannes 2021 Decoded

FCB Inferno in London triumphed with a Grand Prix and a Gold Lion in the Creative eCommerce category, impressing the judges with its ‘Raising Profiles’ work for The Big Issue and LinkedIn.

Vendors of The Big Issue saw their living erased when Covid led to empty streets, which inspired the brand to recreate its sales model on LinkedIn. Using location data from the platform, vendors were able to reach their regular customers and to interact with other social media users to boost sales, leading to a 325% rise in vendor sales and income, and 400% growth in magazine sales.

Draftline Bogota was also awarded a Grand Prix, with a campaign for AB Inbev brand Tienda Cerca that helped local convenience stores to build an eCommerce presence in the wake of the pandemic. This led to 60,000 stores registering during the first week, enabling customers to share their location through WhatsApp and, with a single click, to place their orders with their local grocer.

There was also success for Ogilvy London, which collected a Silver Lion with its ‘Bootiques’ work for Boots. This involved creating personalised messages for shoppers, with more than 130,00 variations, and enabling millions of loyal customers to build their own Bootique stores and share them across social channels.

Creative Salon asked Gabi Lungu, global creative director, VMLY&R Commerce, and a juror for the Creative eCommerce category, for her views on what defined the winning entries this year, and how brands can prepare best to enter in future.

What trends did you identify in the category?

The pandemic restrictions had a massive impact on business in general, so it was interesting to see first-hand how companies and brands pivoted in this unprecedented time using the power of creativity and eCommerce.

This year it wasn’t necessarily about the depth of innovation, but about innovation in this exceptional context. It wasn’t solely about the technology either, but rather the profound human and cultural insights behind the tech. We’ve seen many entries showing how businesses switched from bricks and mortar to online in record time, how the events industry survived by harnessing the power of eCommerce tools, and how the travel industry introduced new digital experiences to satisfy people’s need to travel without leaving one’s house.

But probably the biggest theme of this year was the help that many brands have decided to offer to “everyday people” - ordinary individuals and small businesses across the world that needed that uplift. Ecommerce has provided a wonderful platform for brands with social purpose to prove they can walk that talk and scale up their “do good” actions. It was both moving and refreshing to see this solidarity.

How can brands best succeed in this category next year?

No more gimmicks. It takes far more than a clever online promotion to win a Lion in Creative eCommerce.

Award-winning work will create long term change and impact beyond transaction. Brands that realise the potential of commerce channels as a space for creativity are poised to deliver new, emotional-driven experiences with impact. It’s work that doesn’t favour one channel over the other but rather blends online and the offline across the entire customer journey.

Award-winning creativity will reflect the permanent shift in how we live, buy and connect; placing humanity at the centre.