The 2026 AWARD Awards winners were announced at a ceremony at Sydney Town Hall on August 13. 34 Gold pencils were awarded across 23 different campaigns, plus 84 silver and 156 bronze pencils.

Special Australia received the night’s top honour, the Grand Award, for Build Your Own Super Bowl for Uber Eats.

Jury president, Samira Ansari, commented, “The Grand Award was a hugely ambitious undertaking, executed brilliantly. Uber Eats turned its mobile app into its own media channel, connecting content and entertainment directly to commerce. What makes me especially proud is that this is industry-defining work, executed on advertising’s biggest stage, the Super Bowl, and it’s coming from our region. Bravo.”

• Bear Meets Eagle on Fire was named Agency of the Year
• McCann was named Agency Network of the Year
• The Sweetshop was named Production Company of the Year

The biggest winners:

• Motion Sickness won the most golds – seven. Six were for The Māori Roll Call and one was for The New Zealand Herpes Foundation Make New Zealand The Best Place In The World To Have Herpes. The agency also won 1 silver and 8 bronzes.

• Leo Australia won 3 golds – 2 for Suncorp Haven and 1 for Suncorp Building A More Resilient Australia. The agency also won 3 silvers and 7 bronzes.

• Bear Meets Eagle on Fire and McCann New Zealand were the top winners – 21 pencils each.

Bear Meets Eagle On Fire won 2 golds – one for Telstra Villains and one for Telstra The Girl & Ghost, plus 5 silver and 14 bronze.

McCann New Zealand won 2 golds for Huggies Expensive Sh*t plus 4 silvers and 15 bronze.

AWARD chair, Mandie van der Merwe, commented, “This year, creativity called and our winners answered. Congratulations to every Gold, Silver and Bronze winner. Your work stood up to the scrutiny of some of the best creative minds in our region and earned its place among the ideas, craft and creativity shaping Asia Pacific. Winning at AWARD is hard. It should be, as that’s what makes it mean something.”

Download all winners:

Special Award Winners:

Individual Agency of the Year

• #1 Bear Meets Eagle on Fire
• #2 Motion Sickness
• #3 McCann New Zealand

Agency Network of the Year

• #1 McCann
• #2 TBWA
• #3 Leo
• #4 Howatson + Company
• #5 VML

Production Company of the Year

• #1 The Sweetshop
• #2 Finch, 2nd
• #3 Revolver, 3rd
• #4 Supernormal
• #5 Scoundrel

Music and Sound Company of the Year: Rumble Studios

Creative Leader or Leadership Team of the Year: Micah Walker, Bear Meets Eagle on Fire

Creative Director or Team of the Year: Mark Carbone, Bear Meets Eagle on Fire

Individual Creative or Team of the Year: Gaetano Perry and Tim Thach, McCann New Zealand, Winner. Tom Barker, Bear Meets Eagle on Fire, Highly Commended

Emerging Creative or Team of the Year: Gid Goldberg, Clemenger BBDO

Individual Director of the Year: Steve Rogers, Revolver

Emerging Director of the Year: Freudian Nip, Collider, Winner. Michael Gupta Photopla, Highly Commended

Marketing Team and CMO of the Year:

• #1 Telstra
• #2 Whānau Ora
• #3 1001 Optometry
• #4 Suncorp Insurance
• #5 Selleys

Producer of the Year: Emma Wright, Bear Meets Eagle on Fire

Photographer of the Year: Nick Bowers, Photoplay

In House Agency of the Year: 1house (Asahi)

Best B2B Campaign: Telstra Enterprise, Together Builds Better, +61, Bear Meets Eagle on Fire

Download all Special Awards winners: