Now in its 57th year, The ABBY Awards are attempting to balance legacy with reinvention as the advertising and media ecosystem undergoes rapid transformation. At a time when creativity, media, technology, and marketing effectiveness are increasingly intersecting, this year’s edition is placing a sharper focus on credibility, industry participation, and categories that reflect how modern marketing is evolving.
The awards, which continue to position themselves as the country’s only industry-run honours platform, have expanded participation across agencies, clients, and new-age platforms while also introducing structural changes to keep pace with how modern marketing is being built and evaluated today.
In a conversation with Marketing Mind, Dheeraj Sinha, President, The Advertising Club, and CEO McCann India and Ajay Kakar, Chairperson, ABBY Awards 2026, shed light on the evolving direction of the awards, the larger effort to preserve their legacy while raising the bar on credibility, and how this year’s edition is being positioned as a more contemporary and globally aligned platform.
This year’s ABBY Awards powered by The One Show will see participation from around 300 agencies, clients, and companies, alongside a Creative ABBY jury comprising 243 judges across 22 categories. The awards will also feature 22 jury chairs spanning Creative and Media, including four international jury chairs.
Preserving awards’ legacy while raising the bar on credibility
Sinha highlighted that The Advertising Club is the largest and longest-serving platform in the country’s advertising industry. Naturally, a huge amount of legacy comes with the platform itself, and that legacy extends to the award shows it curates, whether it is EFFIEs, EMVIEs, or ABBYs.
“This year specifically, TAC has broad-based its committee, with several client partners and new-age platforms coming on board. If you look at TAC’s identity, the positioning is clear – the aim is to become the beacon for an industry that is at the cusp of dramatic change,” he mentioned.
Keeping this in mind, the team came together and discussed how to preserve the 50-year legacy of ABBYs in India while also transitioning it meaningfully into today’s times, Sinha added.
Furthermore, he elaborated, “You will see that we have actively reached out to the creative community and conducted a deep roundtable with Chief Creative Officers from across the country. These are professionals who participate in global awards, win at international platforms, and often serve as jury chairs themselves.”
Those detailed conversations led to several changes in the ABBYs this year. First and foremost, the focus has been on upgrading the credibility of ABBYs as a platform by bringing in EY as a full process consultant. Earlier, EY’s role was limited to auditing the awards, but this year the firm has been involved throughout the entire process.
Sinha stressed, “For any award system, it is extremely important to remain above board and retain the credibility of the industry. ABBYs is unique in the sense that it is the only award show run by industry professionals themselves. Most of the people involved already have their own day jobs, and they come together in a non-profit organisational capacity to run these awards. While that itself adds credibility, having a Big Four firm like EY involved throughout the process further strengthens trust and transparency.”
In addition, several new categories have been introduced to reflect the way modern marketing is being built today.
Sinha went on to add that the larger effort is to preserve the legacy of the awards while making them hugely credible and truly above par. At the same time, the focus is on upgrading the platform so that it remains completely in tune with the way marketing is evolving globally, as well as how award platforms across the world are evolving.
Building on Sinha’s point, Kakar highlighted, “If you look at a brand, it is ultimately about remaining contemporary. And if we are the industry award, with the industry itself being built on brands, then we have to do the same.”
“This is the 57th year of our awards, and for an award to have survived for 57 years, there has to be something meaningful in it. At the core of our belief is the idea that it is a gold standard. It is the only award in the country that is truly for, of, and by the industry. What that essentially means is that we are here to promote the industry’s work and the industry’s future – not a bottom line,” he added.
New categories join The ABBY Awards 2026 ecosystem
Kakar mentioned, “Another constant has been the association enriching itself year after year through partnerships like The One Club and The One Show. This year, you will also see more active participation from them at Goa. At the same time, one thing that has remained constant for us is the need to keep reinventing ourselves.”
“One of the biggest categories introduced this year is Client of the Year for both Creative and Media ABBYs. This has been co-created not just with the industry and TAC, but also with clients, because who is the client without the industry, and who is the industry without the client?” he added.
Kakar underlined that the idea is to recognise both the client and the agency together.
He went on to add, “We have also introduced Creative Network of the Year and Media Network of the Year, categories that did not exist earlier. These additions allow agencies to take pride in their work while also inspiring others within the ecosystem. Another addition – what one could call ‘Janata Ki Maang’ – is the Independent Agency of the Year category, because otherwise some may feel it is only a big boys’ game altogether. Beyond this, we have introduced several amalgamations and new categories. For instance, Green ABBY, Red ABBY, and Diversity, Equality and Inclusivity have now been brought together under Sustainable Development Goals with Creative ABBY.”
Kakar expanded on this, noting, “We do not just look at the number of entries coming in, but also at the quality of those entries. Two new digital-based categories have been introduced in the Creative ABBYs. The first is Social Content and Influencer Marketing.”
There is a lot of buzz around the space, but the focus is on identifying how much work is genuinely worth celebrating.
“The second set of categories introduced in the digital context includes Creative Commerce, Use of Data, B2B. At the end of the day, a large share of the money appears to be moving towards the bottom of the funnel rather than brand building,” he added.
Within the Media ABBYs, categories such as Innovative Use of Sponsorship, Innovation in Media Buying, Innovative Use of AI in Media Planning, and Innovative Use of AI in Media Operations and Content have also been introduced.
Kakar underscored that the idea is that while some things remain constant, the industry is also constantly changing – sometimes even ahead of the curve, where the buzz already exists but the body of work is yet to reach a certain scale or stature. The endeavour is to be there first, so people can recognise tomorrow, today.
Giving further insights, Kakar said, “The role of the Club is essentially that of a facilitator. The awards themselves are not “run” by the Club; they are driven by people from the industry. However, to ensure the process has an independent and highly credible third party overseeing it, EY has been brought in for the entire end-to-end process. This includes briefing the jury, engaging with the jury, checking the backend processes, handling client verification, and overseeing everything involved in the process.”
Kakar mentioned, “When you look at the participating agencies, one thing I keep reminding myself is that, contrary to perception, these are not just the “big boys’ awards.” We have around 300 agencies and clients participating, which clearly reflects the long tail of the industry. The number of entries and the number of jury members further reinforce that we remain relevant and, if I may say so, still ‘top of the pops’.”
“We also have four international jury chairs this year, which, to my memory, is an all-time high. And last but not least, we now have a timeline where the shortlists are announced well in advance, allowing more people to participate and, more importantly, get inspired,” Kakar stated.
What’s shaping ABBYs’ relevance in an industry in flux
Sinha asserted that ideas are not confined to geography – they are global by nature.
“Therefore, our effort at ABBYs is to ensure that the awards are global in the way they are conducted, whether through global juries, global standards, globally aligned categories, or globally aligned credibility standards,” he said.
He added, “In that sense, this is in no way any lesser than any other global award show. It just happens to originate from India, much like many other initiatives from the country that are now going global.”
Expanding on his thought, Kakar emphasised, “Actually, I think we’ll stay with those two words. We will continue to remain a beacon, which is our new identity, by being constant and yet ever evolving. Last year, we ourselves did not know that we would evolve in the ways we have evolved this year.”
Sinha shared that people in the industry are also launching award shows, and that is completely fine.
“But this is an award show backed by 50 years of legacy – you cannot compete with that. At the same time, what we are bringing in is ‘change with continuity.’ We are not sitting on our laurels. So when you combine consistency, legacy, and change together, it creates a very powerful proposition that is difficult to compete with,” Sinha said.
In conclusion, he underscored, “There is, for sure, evidence of remarkable change that we are bringing in – right from The Ad Club to the awards. And it is clearly visible to anyone who wants to see it.”
