President’s Pick: Amy Lanzi, Creative Commerce Lions

This is a wonderful example of creatively repurposing something that generally gets taken for granted: the humble product shot. Through a smart, seamless redesign of K.Lynn’s shopping site, this work brought much-needed awareness to an important issue while driving action. It’s also a case where a brand and a purpose align beautifully.

When you think of Oreos, you almost can’t help but think of milk. This work cleverly capitalises on that symbiotic association – as well as the cookie’s previously unnoticed resemblance to one of the cornerstone tools of commerce: bar codes. The result? A playful use of tech that drove impressive sales. Delicious.

Anyone who has ordered dinner via an app has fallen victim to the dreaded paradox of choice. And the indecision driven by the endless scroll is even worse when you’re hungry. This Grand Prix winner found an ingenious way to tackle that problem by leveraging an interesting insight, mobile tech and AI – and managed to stand out in a crowded category in the process.

I love it when brands meet people where they are by using a media channel in a new, creative way – and that’s exactly what this does. It’s a heavy lift to get millennials to engage in personal finance conversations, and this platform converted gamers’ attention into a meaningful engagement with the topic.

It’s one thing to drive online sales in an online environment. It’s even more challenging to use an online experience – in this case, a branded digital playground – to drive in-store sales. But in the wake of the pandemic, when footfall had declined among Gen Z, KFC did just that by creating a vibrant online community that reminded this key audience why they loved the brand.

One of the most exciting things about AI is its potential to produce a higher calibre of creative at scale. Here, it was harnessed it in an impressive fashion to drive awareness and sales for over 8000 small businesses – hot dog and hamburger stands – all across the country.

There’s broad awareness that unrecycled plastics are creating environmental problems all over the globe, especially in one of the world’s most densely populated countries. To help address this issue, Unilever established an entirely new way to sell its products at scale, leading to 150 litres of sales per hour.

Can a playlist be shoppable? This proved it can. There are so many interesting connections here – between brands and culture, and music and commerce. It’s also an example of really studying and understanding audience behaviour to drive sales.

This work managed to make an old household pantry staple cool and buzzworthy – which in itself is impressive. By tapping into culture, it connected with Gen Z in a hilariously authentic way, leading to crazy sales!