Creative Commerce: Cannes 2023 Decoded

Ketchum London has been awarded one of the four Gold Lions in the Creative Commerce category at Cannes Lions 2023 for its 'Iceland Food Club' campaign

The Creative Commerce Lions recognize and celebrate innovative and creative online and offline strategies.

In collaboration with Iceland Foods, Ketchum created a campaign to help those most affected by the cost-of-living crisis. The Iceland Food Club introduced a unique and ethical credit solution, providing affordable and flexible micro-loans ranging from £25 to £100 to customers nationwide, enabling them to acquire essential everyday items.

The campaign launch saw 50,000 sign-ups within the first week, aiding 20,000 customers in its first three months and helping over 10,000 in December 2022 alone.

McCann London was awarded a Bronze Lion for its 'Smart Plants' work with Plant Drop.

'Smart Plants', led by University of Oxford botanist Dr Chris Thorogood and utilizing open-source NASA data, redefined the online shopping experience for houseplants by focusing on their intelligent, pollution-absorbing properties rather than their visual appeal.

The Grand Prix ultimately went to Wunderman Thompson Riyadh for its work with the delivery app, Hungerstation and 'The Subconscious Order'.

The campaign tapped into people's subconscious minds to help them order food when they just can’t figure out what they’re in the mood for.

Gold Lions also went to FCB Toronto, Goodby Silverstein & Partners San Francisco and VMLY&R New York.

17 Lions were awarded in the Creative Commerce category: 1 Grand Prix, 4 Golds, 4 Silvers and 8 Bronzes.

The Judges said...

Debbie Ellison, Global Chief Digital Officer at VMLY&R Commerce, gave us her thoughts:

• What were the key trends/reflections in the Creative Commerce Lions category?

This was only year two for the Creative Commerce Lions (re-positioned from the Creative E-Commerce Lions, an important evolutionary change which I am proud to say our agency helped champion). We could see exciting evidence of the ongoing Commerce Revolution – an array of brilliant, breakthrough ideas, the best of which successfully balanced brand-building and sales-getting to drive growth for businesses.

Across all entries, commerce is being reinvented in all kinds of interesting ways to build consumer loyalty and drive conversion. Here are three key themes in how commerce continues to be redefined with creativity at the core.

1. Platforms Reinvented – What is a store? For KFC in China, it was a virtual one that enabled ordering in the metaverse and delivery in real-life in the most entertaining way. Fans could even create their own revenue streams in the experience - building even more love for the brand amongst peers. For eBay in the US, it was a pop-up sneaker store that rewarded sneakerheads for wearing their kicks out the front door (over grass, gravel and concrete), rather than being subjected to over-inflated prices driven by sneaker bots.

2. Products Reinvented – Two of my favourite cases caused consumers to completely re-evaluate the core product. One was “Dream Bars” which was a new and different way to view and experience lottery tickets through creating ice cream flavours that tasted "Rich" - cue a yacht and Fendi-bag flavours. The other was Lunchables, a staple of US school lunches. “Lunchabuilds” created 31 unique food builds – from dinosaurs to baseball diamonds – using only the product. As product perceptions were successfully changed, sales grew 38% year on year.

3. Promotions Reinvented – Promos have been the mainstay of commerce forever, but “Oreocodes” was one winner which looked at the tactic in a fresh and contemporary way. (Full disclosure – this example is from my agency, but I excluded myself from judging it, and it scored highly across jury rooms). The insight was that milk and Oreo cookies go together naturally, and that any milk carton barcode (yes - coconut, oat and soy included!) could be turned into a mobile-scannable Oreo offer – redeemable in-store. The activation was a catalyst for growth – reimagining price promotions to drive increased trips, unit and dollar sales.

• What advice would you give to marketers wanting to win a Creative Commerce Lion next year?

Creative Commerce is all about helping consumers go from ‘brand love’ to ‘brand buy’, reducing friction with creativity along the path to purchase. For those brands eyeing success in 2024, I urge you to consider ways to reduce the friction for those jurors reviewing the entries in this growing category (this year saw a 30% increase in Creative Commerce submissions). When you are deep-diving into hundreds of cases, the clearest, simplest entries will stand out. It’s a friendly reminder that the case submission is often as important as the work itself in enabling conversion.

So, two tips from me to make your case easy to pick from the “shortlist shelf” and make it “frictionless to buy”:

1. Crisply articulate the creative idea – what is it, in a nutshell, why is it different, and why should I care?

2. Clearly outline the objectives and impact – what is this idea’s reason for being, what did you set to achieve and how did it perform? (Metrics are critical.)

• What led to your decision in selecting the winning Grand Prix in the Creative Commerce Lion category?

We awarded “The Sub-Conscious Order” because it was not only a business transformational idea, but it serves as inspiration to our industry on what Creative Commerce could deliver for both brands, and importantly, create meaningful value to its customers. Hungerstation harnessed biometric technology as an enabler of creativity to solve a real need in reducing choice complexity, that quite possibly will change the way we navigate categories and choose products forever. We were unanimous in our decision as this case demonstrated how Creative Commerce can influence from the very moment of inspiration right through to purchase, in a fun, engaging and useful way.