Goafest 2026 closed with a familiar industry ritual: tallying metals, debating creative momentum and identifying which agencies managed to translate fragmented consumer attention into award-winning work.
But beneath the celebration at the Snapchat Presents Abby One Show Awards Powered by Z5 & Mediakart, the results also reflected broader shifts underway across India’s advertising business. Campaign craft is no longer confined to television or print-led storytelling.
This year’s winners emerged from categories spanning ‘Social Content & Influencer Marketing’, ‘Brand Experience & Activation’, ‘Creative Commerce’, ‘Use Of Data, Branded Content & Entertainment’ and ‘Integrated campaigns’ are areas that increasingly shape how agencies compete for relevance and revenue.
The final day recognised work across ‘Video Craft’, ‘Audio & Radio’, ‘Outdoor, Print, Still Digital’, ‘Audio-Visual TV’, ‘Audio-Visual’, ‘Digital & OTT’, alongside newer ecosystem-driven disciplines. Across categories, the dominant pattern was difficult to ignore: agencies that combined technology, culture, creators, commerce and immersive experiences outperformed those relying purely on traditional creative formats.
Among the standout performers, Leo India emerged as the most awarded agency of the festival, while PepsiCo India secured the coveted Client of the Year title. At the network level, Publicis Groupe topped the rankings, underlining the growing concentration of creative and strategic capabilities inside large holding companies.
Leo’s multi-category sweep
Leo India’s performance defined much of the evening’s narrative. The agency was named ‘Creative Agency of the Year’ after securing a total of 134 awards, comprising 1 Grand Prix, 12 Gold, 44 Silver, 57 Bronze and 20 Merit awards. Beyond the overall tally, Leo India also won ‘Brand Experience & Activation Specialist Agency of the Year’ with 8 Gold, 4 Silver and 3 Bronze Awards.
The agency further strengthened its position in ‘Branded Content & Entertainment Specialist Agency of the Year’, securing 1 Grand Prix, 2 Gold, 4 Silver and 1 Bronze Award for a total of eight awards in the category.
Collectively, the results reflected how creative competition is increasingly shifting towards integrated experiences, content ecosystems and culturally responsive storytelling rather than isolated campaign executions.
Anupriya Acharya, CEO of Publicis Groupe South Asia, linked the group’s performance to both scale and business effectiveness. “Winning the inaugural ‘Creative Network of the Year’ is a powerful recognition of the breadth, consistency and impact of our creative work. Alongside Leo India’s continued ‘Agency of the Year’ momentum, this win reflects more than a strong awards season; it signals the scale of ideas being built across our agencies for a wide repertoire of clients, with work that delivers both creative excellence and business impact,” she said.
Leo India also finished second in ‘Social Content & Influencer Marketing’ with 13 awards, demonstrating how creator-led campaigns and platform-native storytelling have become central to mainstream agency operations rather than peripheral specialisms.
The broader significance of Leo India’s performance lay not only in the volume of metals, but in the spread across categories. Traditional distinctions between advertising, experiential, entertainment and digital work continue to collapse as agencies increasingly compete through interconnected consumer ecosystems.
Acharya also pointed towards India’s expanding role inside global creative networks. “What is especially exciting is that India is no longer just creating for local markets; our teams are helping shape global solutions and setting new benchmarks for creative effectiveness worldwide,” she added.
Rajdeepak Das, chief creative officer, Publicis Groupe South Asia and chairman, Leo South Asia, framed the network’s success as evidence of broader organisational alignment across agencies and clients.
“Winning the ‘Creative Network of the Year’ is deeply gratifying because it reflects the culture of excellence we have incubated throughout our creative agencies,” Das said. “Across categories and clients, our focus has been on solving real problems, shaping culture, and building work that drives business value.”
PepsiCo India tops client rankings
While agencies competed for creative dominance, the ‘Client of the Year’ category offered a clearer picture of which marketers consistently backed award-winning work across disciplines. PepsiCo India emerged as the winner with 1 Grand Prix, 4 Gold, 9 Silver, 9 Bronze and 8 Merit Awards.
The result reflected how large marketers are increasingly distributing creative investments across multiple platforms, formats and audience ecosystems rather than relying on singular flagship campaigns.
Amitesh Rao, CEO-South Asia at Leo, connected the agency’s wins to deeper client-agency partnerships. “The ‘Creative Agency of the Year’ win comes on the back of 6 specialist agency awards including Technology, Health, Direct, Digital, Brand Activation and Brand Experiences,” Rao said. “That's an incredible body of work across brands, categories, teams and geographies.”
The ‘Client of the Year’ category has grown in significance over recent years as brands increasingly demand measurable commercial outcomes alongside creative recognition. Winning campaigns today often sit at the intersection of commerce, data, creators, entertainment and participation-led engagement.
Independent agencies hold their ground
Even as holding companies dominated network tallies, independent agencies continued demonstrating competitive strength. Enormous was named ‘Creative Independent Agency of the Year’ with 96 awards, including 5 Gold, 22 Silver, 31 Bronze and 38 Merit Awards.
The agency also finished runner-up in ‘Branded Content & Entertainment Specialist Agency of the Year’ with 1 Grand Prix, 3 Gold, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze Award. Its strongest showing came in ‘Social Content & Influencer Marketing’, where Enormous secured 17 awards overall.
The results reinforced how independent agencies are increasingly finding competitive advantage in creator-led communication, platform-native storytelling and culturally agile campaigns — areas where speed and flexibility often matter as much as scale.
Meanwhile, Flipkart Internet finished runner-up overall with 34 awards, while Krafton secured third place with 25 awards.
The spread of winners also highlighted how technology, gaming and commerce brands are increasingly influencing India’s creative economy. As digital-first sectors expand advertising investments, categories such as social content, commerce integration and audience participation continue gaining prominence inside award ecosystems.
Production craft and experiential work gain prominence
The Abbys also reflected the growing importance of production quality and experiential storytelling within modern advertising. Good Morning Films was named ‘Video Craft Specialist of the Year’ with 8 Gold, 4 Silver and 2 Bronze Awards, totalling 14 awards.
The recognition pointed towards rising expectations around visual execution, cinematic storytelling and production sophistication as brands increasingly compete across short-form video, streaming and digital platforms. Mothership Productions followed with 3 Gold, 3 Silver and 3 Bronze Awards, accumulating nine awards overall.
Meanwhile, the ‘Brand Experience & Activation Specialist Agency of the Year’ category further reflected the industry’s migration towards immersive consumer engagement models. Leo India topped the category, while McCann India secured the runner-up position with four Silver Awards.
McCann India also featured prominently in the overall ‘Creative Agency of the Year’ rankings, finishing third with 42 awards.
The emphasis on activation-led work mirrors larger shifts inside marketing budgets. As consumer attention fragments across devices and platforms, brands increasingly seek participation-driven experiences capable of generating both cultural relevance and measurable engagement.
Networks consolidate creative scale
At the network level, Publicis Groupe emerged as ‘Creative Network Agency of the Year’. The network accumulated 172 awards overall, comprising 1 Grand Prix, 14 Gold, 51 Silver, 77 Bronze and 29 Merit Awards.
Omnicom Media finished second with 74 awards, while WPP secured third place with 16 awards. Havas Worldwide India also featured among the leading network performers.
The network rankings reflected a broader industry reality: large holding companies continue consolidating capabilities across data, production, commerce, media and creative functions as clients demand integrated solutions rather than siloed campaign execution.
At the same time, the spread of specialist category winners showed that fragmentation remains equally central to advertising’s future. Agencies are increasingly competing not only on scale, but on adaptability across influencer marketing, entertainment partnerships, retail ecosystems, immersive experiences and creator economies.
Beyond the medals themselves, the Abby Awards 2026 offered a snapshot of how India’s advertising ecosystem is evolving. For the third day alone, 499 entries were shortlisted for jury discussions involving 115 judges and 12 Jury Chairs. Of those, 367 entries received awards, including Merit recognitions.
The overall metal breakup included 27 Gold, 80 Silver, 122 Bronze and 138 Merit Awards, with 46% of shortlisted entries receiving a medal. Agencies submitted work across nearly 130 unique brands, reflecting the expanding diversity of sectors now competing aggressively through creativity-led differentiation.
The categories themselves also illustrated how rapidly the industry’s centre of gravity is shifting. Traditional formats such as print, outdoor and television continue to matter, but increasingly alongside creator ecosystems, commerce integration, immersive activations and data-led storytelling.
By the end of Goafest 2026, the winners revealed less about isolated campaigns and more about the changing architecture of advertising itself. Creative success is no longer determined solely by a television script, a print visual or a digital film. It increasingly depends on how effectively agencies and brands navigate fragmented attention spans, creator economies, platform algorithms, experiential engagement and cultural participation — often simultaneously.
The Abbys this year reflected an industry still adapting to that complexity, even as it continues rewarding the agencies and marketers most capable of turning fragmentation into coherent brand narratives.
