Makro made every brand's ad scan into its own discount aisle

Makro Colombia had only 22 stores against 3,688 across the category and about 4% of the category media budget. Matching competitors ad for ad would have been the expensive, losing move.

The company and VML built Adscan, a shopping tool that let people scan any brand ad. Google Vision Cloud and OpenAI identified the product from Makro's stock, then generated an offer and let the shopper compare prices or build a cart.

The award entries framed the result as a media inversion: Makro could potentially save more than $1.1 million in media, forecast 20,000 new clients a year, and use $15.7 million of other brands' media budgets in its favor.

Let other brands buy the media

It converted public advertising from an awareness channel into a checkout trigger.

It played to Makro's strength as a stockist of many advertised brands.

It gave shoppers a direct economic reason to scan ads they would otherwise ignore.

A challenger can turn a competitor's scale into distribution when it links that public visibility to its own transaction layer.

Adscan launched on April 30, 2024, was nominated by Lápiz de Acero in 2025, and received a 2025 One Show Merit in Interactive, Online & Mobile Commerce.