Commerce At Award Shows: 7 Deadly Sins, 3 Ways To Win And 1 Golden Rule 

Manuel Borde, Global Chief Creative Officer, Commerce, VML, unpacks what it takes to win commerce category awards

Once, commerce (or its predecessor, shopper marketing) wasn’t even on the radar of creative award shows. Today, it is one of the fastest growing categories, with Creative Commerce experiencing an 18% increase in submissions at the 2024 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. 

Now, reflected across all the major global and regional programmes, it’s capturing the attention of big global brands with the most creative integrated agencies rushing to enter commerce awards.

So, what makes a winner in this nascent yet exploding category of commerce? This is an important question because I’m passionate about the purity of commerce. I don’t want to see the lines of the category expand to the point that it is no longer differentiated from other categories.  Arguably, that is what has happened with Brand Experience & Activation — literally everything can be considered a ‘brand experience’ today.

On the one hand, all the work we do in advertising and communications should end up selling something. So, if you were to use the broadest definition, then pretty much anything fits into commerce, right? Not so fast. What differentiates commerce is that it is conversion-led creativity. Our job is to motivate people to act — turning browsers into buyers, or consumers into shoppers, in an instant.

Recently, I’ve had the privilege of adjudicating two of the most important creative festivals. I was the Commerce jury president at D&AD, and last month a jury member for the Creative Commerce category at Cannes. My agency has not only entered and won many commerce awards, but I’ve had a close-up view from inside the jury room; dissecting, debating and ultimately decorating the best work in the world.

In doing so, I’ve formulated the 7 Deadly Sins of Commerce Awards, 3 Ways to Win (or at least ensure your entry is in the running), and 1 Golden Rule to guide brand marketers and agencies on their entry into this space.

7 Deadly Sins of Commerce Awards 

  1. ‘The idea is for a retailer, that’s commerce, right?’ Not necessarily. Just because a brand is commerce-related doesn’t automatically make its 30-second TV spots a commerce entry. Your idea must have commerce at its core.

  2. ‘Hey, I’ve got a great idea — it’s AI.’ Let’s forget AI being presented as the main act (it’s sooooo 2023!) AI — and all tech for that matter — should be thought of as the engine behind the scenes enabling the commerce experience, from insights, through engagement, and ultimately, to conversion.  
  3. ‘I may as well stick this into commerce – the jury can figure it out.’ Throwing spaghetti at a wall and hoping it sticks is not a good strategy for winning at commerce. Stop category dumping. Make sure your entry follows the category criteria, and if there is any doubt, it’s probably not right for commerce.
  4. ‘This is a sure-fire winner — it’s for a cause.’ There are exceptions but, fundamentally, not-for-profit is not-for-commerce. The whole point of commerce is making a buck. This category’s primary reason for being is to reward work that saves the business before trying to save the world.
  5. ‘Maybe if I give this a commerce twist, it will fly.’ Bolting on a commerce component to an existing idea might help with sales, but it won’t necessarily sway the judges. We are looking for work that is commerce first — meaning that the idea, innovation, or disruption is fully about the transaction journey, method, and/or channel.
  6. ‘Creativity — in commerce as elsewhere — is a great script, a powerful line or an amazing visual.’ Creativity in commerce is a different ball game. It can go beyond what we usually judge as ‘the creative’, into solutions in other parts of the marketing mix, like price tactics, loyalty, distribution, packaging and so on — even the product and business model itself.

So those are six ‘sins’ of entering commerce awards; the seventh is just a gentle watch-out for the Award Show organisers themselves.

  1. ‘The same effectiveness and/or strategy jury will do for Commerce — just sprinkle in one or two creatives.’ Creative Commerce is a new-ish category, so the make-up of the jury is not just critical, it’s category-defining. We need jurors that fully understand the category and/or have successful work of their own. (You can’t be an expert critic on steaks if you are a vegan!) Most importantly, they must understand the potential this category has to convert while being incredibly creative.

OK, so how about tips on elevating your work to the podium?

3 Ways to Win 

  1. Convert. The first rule of commerce is to ensure your work is conversion-led. It must be laser-focused on the ‘buy button’ — gaining incremental sales is what it’s all about. When it comes to quantifying the results for award entries, bragging about the media impact and social buzz are not enough. You need to prove — and clearly document — how the iconic commerce tactic drove a measurable sales increase.
  2. Build Brand. An award-winning commerce idea should be strategic, not just tactical, with the potential not just to convert, but also to add value to the brand’s positioning and personality.
  3. Multiply Impact. Beyond any paid spend, killer commerce work must have an idea that provides a multiplier effect. And that’s not dollar dependent. Commerce is truly an ode to resourcefulness and resilience. Outside of markets like the UK and US, brands do not start each brief with a big production budget, and not everyone can aim towards a Super Bowl spot and/or getting a celebrity through the door. You don’t win necessarily with big budgets in this category; you win with creativity as the multiplier.

Finally, an amazing commerce idea is not enough on its own to get you to the winners’ podium. There is an ‘X’ factor — and that is ‘execution’.

1 Golden Rule 

Craft counts. The work that you submit for commerce awards must be beautifully executed. Craft not only counts in the judging process, but also with consumers. (Side note: it’s even more critical in a show like D&AD.) And this rule extends beyond storytelling, to the case study film and boards you enter. Put the time and care in to burnish your entry — polished work is more likely to end up with metal.

My final word of advice is to always remember that the real ‘purpose’ of commerce is sales. The juries that I oversaw and took part in focused on rewarding creativity that unapologetically rang the cash register. While categories like sustainability bring in touches of purpose within the commerce ecosystem, the main aims must be business outcomes. I will say it again, the clear message for the future: commerce work for our brands and clients must be about saving the business before trying to save the world.  And then everyone wins.



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