The Advertising Club has introduced new categories and awards for the 57th edition of the ABBY Awards 2026. The awards have continued their partnership with The One Club and The One Show.
The awards platform has added two new network-level honours — Creative Network of the Year and Media Network of the Year. It has also introduced Creative Client of the Year and Media Client of the Year awards, recognising clients whose brands have secured the highest cumulative points across Creative and Media ABBY categories.
The Advertising Club has also introduced Independent Agency of the Year as a new recognition category for ABBY Awards 2026.
The governing council of the awards has invited creative leaders, jury members, agencies and industry stakeholders to help shape this year’s format and categories in line with evolving global creative standards and industry trends.
The awards platform has also introduced two new digital-focused Creative ABBY categories — Social Content & Influencer Marketing, and Creative Commerce, Use of Data and B2B.
Further, the earlier Green ABBY, Red ABBY and Diversity, Equality & Inclusivity categories have been merged under Sustainable Development Goals within Creative ABBY.
The Advertising Club has stated that, beginning with the 2026 edition, trophies for winning work in both Creative and Media ABBY categories have been presented jointly to agencies and clients on stage.
Goafest 2026 has been scheduled to take place on May 20, 21 and 22, 2026 at Taj Cidade de Goa Horizon.
Dheeraj Sinha, President, The Advertising Club, and CEO, McCann India, said, “Abbys are the most definitive creative and media awards platform in India, now in their 50 th year. This is the only award show by the industry and for the industry. This year we’ve made several upgrades to the award platform, we’ve brought in a big four as a process consultant, introduced new categories to align the awards to modern marketing. And most importantly introduced trophies for the client and the client of the year trophy. I am excited about the Abbys 2026 and look forward to a great awards season.”
Ajay Kakar, Chairperson, ABBY Awards 2026, said, “As the industry grows more global, our benchmarks must evolve too. This year’s updates to the ABBY Awards Powered by The One Club | The One Show bring a more inclusive and internationally aligned framework. We look forward to celebrating work that competes at the highest level.”
