Emir Shafri shares insights on AdFest’s newest category – eCommerce

Emir Shafri, Malaysian Executive Creative Director, was an eCommerce Lotus & Media Lotus Jury Member this year. He shares his insights from the judging process.

US$1.2 trillion. That’s the size that e-commerce sales in APAC are expected to balloon to (Fitch Solutions). That’s right, trillion with a ‘T’. Inspired by this challenge, ADFEST launched the eCommerce Lotus category this year, to celebrate the very best in e-commerce–led creativity.

The jury was chaired by Mitsuyaki Nakayama, Global President of dentsu X London, who led a diverse jury from different markets, with expertise ranging from creative leaders, to e-commerce heads, to data & analytics directors.

So, how did the work fare? Some ideas seemed to have e-commerce as an afterthought. A supporting sales channel. However, Nakayama shared, “The entries that really stood out had e-commerce at the core of the experience.”

But that alone wasn’t enough. Some entries seemed to focus on the “coolness” of e-commerce tech, without a meaningful connection to the end user. “Tech for tech’s sake,” as jury member Anthony James, Executive Director of Trinity Consulting Services Sydney noted.

To avoid this trap, one tip jury members had was to dig deeper into human insights. “We have all these tools that allow us to study people at a much deeper and broader level than ever before. We need to start seeing data and insights as the partners, rather than the enemies to creativity,” shared jury member, Joy Castillo, Data & Analytics Director of Omnicom Media Group Philippines.

Indeed, the work that stood out this year had people at the heart of everything, every step of the way – from a people-centric problem, to people-centric insights, to people-centric solutions, to an intuitive, people-centric experience.

The other common theme amongst the work that stood out was its ability to use deep insights to solve business challenges in an impactful, sustainable way. “The most exciting ideas employed design thinking to solve problems in an insightful, egoless way. For me, it represents the evolution of our role from creative executors to creative problem solvers,” commented jury member, Sherri Maxwell, Executive Creative Director of McCann Worldgroup Bangkok.

While there weren’t many entries that made the cut in the end, the only way from here is up. After all, with e-commerce being increasingly omnipresent in everyone’s lives, brands will need to find much more creative, insightful ways to stand out. And as they do, the quality of work entered into the eCommerce Lotus category will only get better. As Nakayama-san stated, “We’re confident that we’ll see newer, more excellent, more insightful solutions in the coming years.”