For the first time in its history, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity awarded medals in retail media—a sign that commerce-driven creativity has fully arrived on the global stage.

These inaugural honors recognize campaigns that not only captured attention but also converted it, blending media innovation with tangible shopping outcomes. From grocery chains tying loyalty programs to reusable bags, to household brands extending coupon life spans through tech, the winners showed how retail media can be both strategic and surprisingly inventive.

Here's a look at the trailblazing campaigns that took home Cannes Lions’ first retail media medals.

Gold in Media: The Rewards Bag by Ta-Ta

Uruguayan grocery chain Ta-Ta worked with VML to tie its loyalty program to reusable bags, encouraging shoppers to bring back reusable bags linked to their shopper IDs, which could unlock personalized discounts. The campaign resulted in a 62% increase in registered customers—and a 92% reduction in new bag sales.

Silver in Media: Preserved Promos by Ziploc

Ziploc worked with VML to create a campaign that extended the expiration dates on coupons. Shoppers need to upload coupons to an app and have Ziploc items in their cart to unlock the savings. The campaign resulted in a 14% lift in new buyers for Ziploc.

Silver in Creative Commerce: Price Packs by PENNY

German discounter PENNY created a private label brand with product prices on the packaging to demonstrate its commitment to price stability. The resulting products saw 94% positive customer feedback.

Bronze in Media: Certified Toasters by Vogel’s

New Zealand bread brand Vogel’s created a formula to calculate the perfect formula for toasting a slice of bread at each toaster sold at The Warehouse retailers. Then they launched media OOH and in-store, incorporating Vogel’s stickers to advertise the bread on toasters at the retail company. The partnership increased Vogel’s sales by 64% and toaster sales by 8%.

This was originally featured in the Retail Media Weekly newsletter. For more marketing insights, statistics, and trends, subscribe here.