e Cannes Lions was a porn festival. Attendees to our gig joked that it had been a slippery slide in quality from the Film Festival to our event, and that following the Lions would no doubt be a car dealers’ conference. It was my first time at ‘Cannes’, as those in the know call it. I was equally appalled by the excess (a boat in the marina was aptly named Indulgence), thrilled by the intellectual stimulation, and charmed by the atmosphere of the French Riviera. On balance though, I came away inspired by a conference program that included the likes of the global CMO’s of P&G and Unilever, as well as Bono, and Jony Ive (head designer at Apple), and the vast array of award winning ideas. As you might expect, I actively looked at the festival through a retail and shopper marketing lens, and it was gratifying to see just how much work was either from retailers, or had a retail edge. The best was brilliant, and I thought I would share five of my retail highlights. • UK premium department store, Harvey Nichols, won the coveted Grand Prix for Film, Integrated, and Promo & Activation for its Christmas 2013 campaign, ‘Sorry I Spent it On Myself’. It was a very clever and different take on Christmas, encouraging shoppers to spend big on themselves at Harvey Nix and skimp on the family and friends with gifts like rubber bands and paper clips. Here’s a taste of the campaign. • US quick service Mexican restaurant, Chipotle, scored big for its long ad/short film (depending on your point of view), ‘The Scarecrow’. The piece preached the benefits of sustainable and organic farming. Wonderful work, if not a little creepy. Here is the original film. • Italian car brand, Fiat, won an Innovation Lion with ‘Live Store’, an interesting take on how to link digital and physical. • French supermarket, Intermarche, triumphed in the Promo & Activation category for ‘Inglorious Fruits’. This was a neat idea celebrating ugly produce. • US sports retailer, Dick’s Sporting Goods, won Gold for Film Craft, with a great ad called ‘Focus & Explode’. On top of all this, Steve Easterbrook, SVP and global chief brand officer of McDonald’s won the Creative Marketer of the Year (another retailer triumph). There were some very good presentations, also with a retail twist. Like Hakuhodo in Japan, which as part of its presentation talked about a Books & Beer concept the agency created itself. I came back from Cannes inspired with both the quality of the ideas, and the fact that retail drove a lot of the best work. Well worth adding to your conference wish list for 2015. Jon Bird is MD, global of Labstore, Y&R’s worldwide retail and shopper marketing network. Email: jon.bird@yrlabstore.com. Twitter: @thetweetailer. Blog: www.newretailblog.com.