You may have noticed that commerce categories were being highlighted in this year’s awards. Creative commerce – where creativity, culture and technology come together – has become a focus for brands and agencies.

Publicis Groupe UK has picked up on the trend and launched LeSHOP, a creative agency specialising in building brands in the commerce space.  

“In an era where every moment is shoppable, LeSHOP’s offering, which includes brand activation, retail experience and omnichannel marketing, will help clients seamlessly integrate brand and commerce. The new agency seeks to make brands unmissable wherever and whenever a purchase decision is made, to drive growth in both brand equity and commercial performance for clients,” Publicis stated.

LeSHOP, previously Publicis•Poke, uses expertise from across Publicis Groupe UK and is born out of Publicis London. It brings together brand, commerce and CRM with a team of more than 80 specialists working across 20 client brands at launch. LeSHOP has offices in London and Dublin and founding clients include BT:EE, Nomad Foods and OVO.

The creative agency will be led by Amanda Farmer, with creative led by chief creative officer, Gabriela Lungu, who moves up into the role from ECD Publicis London. Lungu joined Publicis from Jellyfish in 2023. Before that, she was global creative director at VMLY&R Commerce UK.

Since joining Publicis•Poke in 2022, now Publicis London, Farmer has led the agency’s commerce offering as chief client officer, driving impressive growth, increasing revenue and doubling the size of her team. Prior to joining Publicis Groupe UK, Farmer was chief client officer at WPP’s The Pharm, following five years at VMLY&R (now VML), latterly as managing director.

Farmer commented,“We’re in a new frontier of creativity where commerce isn’t just the transactional end of a traditional marketing funnel, today everything can be a commerce experience. Our mission with LeSHOP is to bring creativity to build brands that are not just existing in commerce, but are designed for it.”

Mark Jenkins becomes chief strategy officer of LeSHOP, and Maria McDowell, operations director. The executive leadership team has been working together since 2023 to form the new agency. LeSHOP will work as part of the Publicis Commerce practice led by Steve Ricketts, chief commerce officer. 

The launch of LeSHOP signals Publicis Groupe UK’s further commitment to scaling commerce opportunities for clients and follows Publicis Groupe’s acquisition of Mars United, the world’s largest independent commerce marketing company. Mars helps marketers make their products top choices in both online and offline shopping through its retail consultancy, commerce media expertise, and proprietary shopper intelligence platform.

Cover image l-r: Maria McDowell, Mark Jenkins, Amanda Farmer & Gabriela Lungu