The Effie US winners were announced at the 2026 Effie Awards US Gala, held in New York City on May 27.

The Grand Effie was won Uber Eats and Special US – along with PHD, O Positive, Exile and Pariah, the award recognising the year’s most effective marketing effort, for their Football is for Food campaign. 

At a time when sports marketing is more crowded than ever, Uber Eats transformed football fandom into a powerful growth platform for the brand – reframing one of America’s biggest cultural passions through the lens of food delivery. Using sharp strategic positioning, entertainment partnerships, and culturally resonant creative, the campaign succeeded in driving both business results and brand impact at scale. The campaign earned additional honours throughout the night, including Gold awards in Delivery Services and Brand Integration & Entertainment Partnerships.

“The Effies exist to celebrate work that works. Work that clearly illustrates how effectiveness comes from the combination of strong strategy, creative courage, and results that move business forward,” stated Traci Alford, Global CEO, Effie Worldwide. “This year’s Grand winner exemplified that balance beautifully – demonstrating how brands can tap into culture in a way that truly speaks to the consumer.”

The Grand Effie is selected from the year’s top-scoring Gold Effie winners. This year’s contenders reflected the expanding definition of modern marketing effectiveness – spanning entertainment, healthcare, beauty, streaming, food, and breakthrough science. Together, the work demonstrated how effective marketing can drive sustained business growth, reshape consumer perceptions, and create cultural impact across categories and audiences.

This year’s Grand Effie contenders, alongside Uber Eats, included:

• Colossal Biosciences for The First Dire Wolf Howl in over 10,000 Years
• Kenvue and BBDO New York for Neutrogena Remembers, with OneVue and Alison Brod Marketing + Communications
• Novartis and Merkley + Partners for Your Attention Please, with Ketchum, The Marketing Arm, Publicis Groupe, and Moxie Pictures.
• Pantene, Procter & Gamble, and Grey New York for Unexpired Pantene, with Marina Maher Communications and VML.
• Pringles, Kellanova, and FCB New York for Call of the Mustaches, with Weber Shandwick, Starcom Media, Momentum, and MJZ.
• Tubi and Mischief @ No Fixed Address for How Tubi Broke Category Conventions To Break Through In Streaming,with VaynerMedia.
  

Mischief @ No Fixed Address had another standout year across multiple categories, with wins for Coors Light, Chili’s, e.l.f. Cosmetics, JCPenney, Tubi, and eos. Heinz and The Kraft Heinz Company across several categories, including a Gold Effie for Mustard x Mustard, which also earned top honours in Multicultural marketing.

Mastercard and McCann XBC earned top recognition for Abracadabra: From Fan To Featured, winning Gold in Engaged Community – Services and additional honours across youth and social categories.

Novartis’ Your Attention Please campaign emerged as a major winner in Health & Wellness, taking home Gold in Rx – Consumer/DTC and additional recognition for disease awareness and education.

Last Prisoner Project’s The Pen to Right History earned Golds in both Social Good – Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and Social Good – Non-Profit categories, underscoring the growing impact of purpose-driven work rooted in measurable outcomes.

This year’s Gold winners in Sustained Success were:

Tubi for How Tubi Broke Category Conventions To Break Through In Streaming

The Ajinomoto Group for How Ajinomoto Changed America’s Minds about MSG

A notable win in Non-Profit was ReSurge’s Closing the Gap by Ogilvy Health and Papaya Films, a Bronze for reframing reconstructive surgery as a life-saving intervention through powerful storytelling. The campaign, supported by donated PSA billboard placements from Outfront Media, achieved remarkable year-over-year gains – during the campaign period a rise of 227% in new supporters, a 490% increase in new donor revenue, and a 215% surge in website traffic.

ReSurge needed to fundamentally reframe how the public understood its work. Reconstructive surgery is not cosmetic.  The gap in global surgical access is not a niche concern, it is one of the largest neglected health crises in the world, carrying 30% of the global burden of disease – three times more than Malaria, TB, and HIV/AIDS combined. Closing the Gap was built on real life experiences and authentic storytelling. The campaign centred on

real survivors including acid attack survivors and human rights advocates Muskan Khatun and Natalia Ponce de León, both recipients of the US Secretary of State’s International Women of Courage Award, whose experiences illustrated the life-altering consequences of surgical access denied and surgical care received. Rather than relying on emotional appeal alone, the campaign reframed this global issue through genuine understanding. 

“This year’s winners demonstrated the power of effectiveness across every category, from global brands and challengers to non-profits and emerging platforms,” noted Traci Alford.  “What united them were bold ideas, fresh thinking, and a distinct ability to create impact in unexpected ways. Tonight’s winners have shown us that effectiveness can come from anywhere and take many forms.”

The Effie Awards also revealed the yearly rankings for most effective agencies, networks, holding companies, marketers and brands:

• Most Effective Agency Offices: 1) Mischief @ No Fixed Address; 2) McCann; 3) VML
• Most Effective Independent Agencies: 1) Mischief @ No Fixed Address; 2) Special Group; 3) Alison Brod Marketing + Communications
• Most Effective Agency Networks: 1) McCann Worldgroup; 2) VML; 3) BBDO Worldwide
• Most Effective Holding Companies: 1) Omnicom 2) Interpublic (IPG); 3) WPP
• Most Effective Brands: 1) Uber Eats; 2) Chili’s; 3) Last Prisoner Project
• Most Effective Marketers: 1) Kraft Heinz Company 2) Uber; 3) Brinker International

All 2026 Gold-winning campaigns are eligible to compete in next year’s Global Best of the Best Effie Awards, where the world’s most effective marketing efforts will compete for Global Grand Effies and the Iridium Effie.

See the full list of 2026 winners HERE.