• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, June 20, 2018

Well, here’s a first. Xbox and McCann London, along with a bunch of affiliated agencies, won the first-ever Grand Prix award at Cannes for creative ecommerce work.

The slickly edited video for the campaign presented at the awards ceremony Wednesday night goes by in a blur. But judging from one stat in the clip, the campaign is likely to win an Effie, if it already hasn’t. Controller sales were up 350%.

Directly as a result of the campaign? Who knows, no detailed look at the attribution model was presented. But the jury seemed convinced the campaign was worthy of a top prize.

Also, the creative potential of virtual reality is undeniable, exemplified by “A VR experience for William Patrick Corgan,” which won the Grand Prix for the digital craft category.  

The entry, featuring Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins fame, is essentially a music video, produced with all the bells and whistles that the bleeding edge of technology can offer. Viacom Next, Isobar and director Danny Bittman created a hologram of Corgan's performance of the song "Aernoaut.”

While this particular effort seems mostly like a brilliant branding effort for Corgan, the video is really something to behold — and great food for thought for advertisers that want to engage potential customers, not chase them away.

Check out the Cannes Lions website to see all of the winners so far.