Cannes Jury Spotlight: Gabriela Lungu

At Cannes Lions, the world’s premier festival recognizing creative excellence, thousands of entries pour in from countries worldwide. Behind the scenes, a carefully selected panel of judges reviews the work that will ultimately take home a coveted Cannes Lion.

Joining the ranks of the industry’s most recognized and respected creative professionals, Gabriela Lungu, Global Creative Director at VMLY&R Commerce, is serving as a juror for Creative eCommerce Lions.

Gabriela is the global creative director at WPP’s VMLY&R COMMERCE based in the UK. She is also the founder of WINGS Creative Leadership Lab (www.wings-lab.com), which helps companies from all over the world elevate their creativity through training and workshops.

She has nearly 25 years of integrated expertise in marketing and communications, and is one of the few creative leaders who have worked successfully in ATL/brand advertising; PR/consumer, corporate, digital, and social; BTL/activation, experiential, and creative commerce; and client-side in brand marketing. She is a multiaward-winning creative director and a creative entrepreneur with strong business acumen, building an agency from zero to hero and selling it to Publicis Groupe in 2013, when it was one of the most awarded agencies of its kind.

She was UK and EMEA chief creative officer for Weber Shandwick, and UK and EMEA creative partner for Airbnb at TBWA\London, to mention just some of her recent roles prior to joining VMLY&R COMMERCE. 

Gabriela is often invited as a speaker, tutor, and moderator at major international and local industry events such as Cannes Lions School, D&AD Academy and the Festival of Marketing. She has judged A-list competitions; was jury chair for the Clio Awards, Dubai Lynx, and Eurobest; and has been part of the juries of Cannes Lions, D&AD, the EFFIEs UK, the Campaign Big Awards, Ad Stars Asia, and Lürzer’s Grand Slam.

Describe creativity during the pandemic in one sentence.  

Creativity in the pandemic was the solution because new times demand new ideas, new methods and new solutions. 

What makes you passionate about the category you were nominated to judge?   

At VMLY&R COMMERCE, we believe that commerce holds the most untapped creative potential to grow brands and people. I’m always interested to see work that is actually making great use of this potential. 

What do you hope to take away from judging at Cannes?  

Massive professional envy from all the “Gosh, I wish I thought of that” ideas. Later, I’ll turn it into motivation for doing even braver work in my own agency. And inspiration from the debates with my brilliant fellow jurors. We have clients as well as creatives in the jury, so I’m sure there will be some interesting conversations.