Mumbai: The Advertising Club (TAC) has released the official Media Abby 2026 shortlist, featuring 438 shortlisted entries across 28 categories from 373 unique campaigns representing 232 brands. The Media Abbys — the counterpart to the Creative Abbys — recognise excellence not in the advertising idea itself, but in how media is planned, bought, deployed, and innovated. The 2026 edition reflects an industry at an inflection point, where artificial intelligence, real-world activation, and cross-platform integration have simultaneously matured into distinct and contested disciplines.
UltraTech Cement leads all brands with 18 shortlist entries — appearing across Activation, OOH, Integrated Media, Social Media, Micro Marketing, Gaming, Mobile, Data & Analytics, Emerging Technology, AI in Media Planning, and Branded Content. Its campaigns range from a large-scale anamorphic beach installation and a nationwide election-themed cement branding drive, to an AI-powered demand prediction engine that identifies potential home builders village by village before they have even started searching. The breadth of UltraTech’s media presence across the shortlist is unmatched this year, making it the standout brand story of the Media Abbys 2026.
Cadbury and Mondelez India collectively account for 17 entries when their portfolio brands — Cadbury Silk, 5Star, Oreo, Dairy Milk, Bournvita, Gems, Brownie, Milkinis, and Crispello — are considered together, making the Mondelez portfolio the most shortlisted FMCG group in the list. HDFC Mutual Fund follows with 16 entries, Thums Up and Coca-Cola India combined with 15, and Amazon (Prime Video and .in combined) with 12 — rounding out the top five most shortlisted brand groups.
Integrated Media and Activation Lead by Volume
The Innovative Use of Integrated Media (Category 22) is the single largest section of the shortlist with 45 entries — a clear signal that multi-channel orchestration has become the defining capability of modern media practice in India. Brands shortlisted in this category range from Amazon Prime Video’s nationwide manhunt activation for its series “The Family Man,” to UltraTech’s nation-building media platform, Horlicks Chhoto Byomkesh’s content-led integration, WhatsApp’s encryption awareness campaign, and Volkswagen’s “For All Your Ands” clustered city takeover.
Close behind, Innovative Use of Activation (Category 3) draws 44 entries — the second largest category — confirming that on-ground, experiential, and real-world media is reclaiming strategic primacy in an era of digital saturation. Entries here include Coca-Cola’s FIFA Trophy Tour, Netflix India’s Stranger Things “Upside Down” reality takeover, Hero MotoCorp’s “Prayers for Safety” roadside activation, HDFC Mutual Fund’s “Barni Se Azadi” financial freedom activation, Mercedes-Benz’s AMG Guinness World Record event, Swiggy Instamart’s city-sized Holi water gun spectacle, and Kansai Nerolac’s “The Coolest Seva” community painting initiative.
Social Media, Moment Marketing, and Branded Content Integration are each tied at 29 entries, forming the next competitive tier. The Moment Marketing category is particularly telling — featuring brands like Maggi, Netflix, HDFC Mutual Fund, Amul, Berger Paints, Protinex, Spotify India, Kansai Nerolac, and Swiggy — demonstrating how real-time cultural responsiveness has become a standard expectation of media planning rather than an occasional creative flourish.
Automotive: The Most Media-Innovative Sector
The automotive sector collectively accounts for approximately 55 entries across the shortlist — the most of any industry vertical — and demonstrates the deepest investment in sophisticated, multi-format media strategy.
Škoda AUTO India leads the automotive pack with 9 entries spanning Social Media, OOH, Radio, Integrated Media, and AI in Media Operations. Its radio innovation — where Škoda cars themselves did the talking rather than a human RJ — is among the most distinctive entries in the Radio category. Its AI-engineering of media decisions and a taste-driven auto campaign on social media further demonstrate a brand pushing category conventions.
Jaguar Land Rover follows with 6 entries across Paid Search, Digital Display, Micro Marketing, Emerging Technology, AI in Media Operations, and AI in Media Planning — collectively representing one of the most technology-forward media strategies in the shortlist. Mercedes-Benz appears 6 times with entries in Activation (AMG Experience and Guinness World Record), Branded Content Integration (AMG GT 63 F1 Launch), and Integrated Media. Volkswagen (5 entries) features its “For All Your Ands” city takeover, a hyperlocal dealer growth engine, and an AI-led evaluation journey for the Taigun. Hero MotoCorp (8 entries) spans Activation, OOH, Direct Response, and Cause Marketing with “Prayers for Safety.”
Hyundai (8 entries) is particularly active in Sponsorship and Sports Marketing, having backed the ICC T20 World Cup 2026 and the 70th Filmfare Awards as title sponsor — both of which appear across multiple sub-categories. Royal Enfield (5 entries) demonstrates a sharp micro-search strategy using programmatic play and a vernacular-first regional approach, alongside a unique Zomato fuelling collaboration and a branded content travel series.
HDFC Mutual Fund: Financial Services’ Most Diversified Media Story
Among financial services brands, HDFC Mutual Fund’s 16 entries represent the most strategically diverse media investment in its sector. Campaigns including “Barni Se Azadi,” “Mutually Funded,” “Sheconomist,” “Everyday Economist,” “DivyaDeep,” “Million Litre SIP,” “Invest Like a Woman,” and “When Dharma Met Karma” are collectively shortlisted across Activation, Integrated Media, Moment Marketing, Commerce, Innovation in Media Buying, Micro Marketing, and Cause Marketing.
Shriram Finance (5 entries) is another financial services standout — with entries ranging from a community-focused campaign for truck drivers (“For a Community India Depends On, But Rarely Sees”) to a small-budget safety corridor campaign in Gujarat that turned 24 lakh lives into a media moment. Axis Max Life, Canara HSBC, Kotak811, and LIC Housing Finance each bring singular entries in Data & Analytics and Integrated Media, collectively signalling that financial services has matured beyond traditional media formats into precision-engineered, data-led brand communication.
AI Arrives as a Media Discipline
Two new dedicated AI categories debut in the 2026 Media Abbys, and collectively draw 13 entries — a number that understates the true AI footprint, since AI-powered executions also appear in Emerging Technology, Data & Analytics, Mobile, and Digital Display categories.
Category Innovative Use of AI in Media Planning — features Thums Up’s AI-led Thunderwheel precision play that turned a cricket booking moment into a brand interaction, Mahindra Thar’s contextual intelligence campaign, Sprite’s end-of-day chill targeting system, Tata Motors’ AI-powered decision engine, and UltraTech’s home builder identification model.
Category Innovative Use of AI in Media Operations & Content — features Škoda’s AI-engineered media decisions, Volkswagen’s passive-to-active evaluation journey for the Taigun, Nivea Soft’s AI-scaled creator strategy, Marriott Bonvoy’s personalised travel recommendation system, and Amul’s notable entry — a team that, by the brand’s own description, could not have existed without AI at its core.
OpenAI / ChatGPT emerges as a notable presence with 5 shortlist entries — appearing in Social Media, Branded Content Integration, and Integrated Media. Campaigns covering ChatGPT’s WPL cricket moment, its Women’s Cricket integration, and its embedding into everyday Indian media moments position OpenAI as both an advertiser and a media platform in its own right — a first for the Media Abbys.
Swiggy and Amazon: Platform Brands Redefine Media
Among platform and tech brands, Swiggy Instamart (7 entries) and Amazon (12 combined entries) demonstrate how digital-native platforms are now generating some of the most inventive media thinking in the country.
Swiggy Instamart’s entries span a photochromatic mango print ad that changed colour in sunlight (a collaboration with Hindustan Times), a Stranger Things Netflix crossover activation, a Mother’s Day “Add to Cart” stunt, a city-sized Holi water gun spectacle, and a protein pull-up challenge — collectively making Instamart one of the most culturally agile brands in the shortlist across Print, Activation, Commerce, and Small Budget Big Impact.
Amazon Prime Video’s 8 entries stand out for creative media strategy: reading audience emotions with AI to recommend content, turning Zepto grocery shopping into a manhunt for “The Family Man’s” Srikant Tiwari, converting chai and samosa stalls into Prime Video streaming moments, and transforming “The Traitors” into a weekly gaming hype engine — all shortlisted across Mobile, Commerce, Integrated Media, Gaming, and Innovation in Media Buying.
Standout Category-Specific Stories
Innovative Use of Print (12 entries) sees some of the year’s most tactile and inventive thinking. WhatsApp’s “Encrypted Even on Paper” physically demonstrated encryption through a print execution, while Swiggy Instamart’s photochromatic mango ad changed colour based on sunlight exposure. DS Corporate’s plantable print ad, Asian Paints’ colour canvas innovation, and Škoda’s print that children completed are all entries that challenge the assumption that print is a passive medium.
Innovative Use of Cinema (7 entries) includes Tata Power’s “Tanvi the Great,” Cadbury Brownie’s viral debut, Kia Carens Clavis’s 4DX integration, and Teacher’s Packaged Drinking Water’s cinematic storytelling — reflecting brands that are treating the cinema hall not as a reach medium but as an immersive brand environment.
Small Budget, Big Impact (23 entries) is one of the most diverse and democratising categories in the shortlist, with brands including Shell, Ardent Alcobev’s Dram Bell Whisky, Castrol Autocare, Saridon, HSBC Bank India, Wonder Cement, Shaadi.com, and Eurogrip competing for recognition without the advantage of large spends. Shell’s International Day of Sign Languages entry and Wonder Cement’s “Helmets for Humanity” road safety campaign are among the most purpose-driven entries in this category.
Sports Marketing (11 entries) centres on cricket — IPL 2025, ICC T20 World Cup 2026, and WPL 2026 — with Hyundai, Amul Protein, De Beers, Thums Up, Tata Capital, Crompton, and Maruti Suzuki all entering. Amul’s double entry — “How Amul Mastered the Fandom to Conversion Game” and “70 Brands Bought the IPL, Amul Protein Played In It” — is one of the more self-aware and witty framing strategies of the year. De Beers’ “Real Diamonds of the Week” IPL sponsorship, which recast cricket’s best performers as the tournament’s real diamonds, stands out for category disruption.
Cause Marketing (11 entries) features Tata Power, Airtel 5G Plus, Aditya Birla Group, Kansai Nerolac, Wonder Cement, Namma Yatri, Tata Capital, and Nivea — reflecting how cause-driven communication has become embedded in mainstream media strategy rather than treated as a peripheral CSR obligation.
Innovation in Media Buying (9 entries) features one of the year’s most genuinely inventive executions: Zepto x Lakme’s shadow ad, which used a precision-cut stencil and natural sunlight to project a brand message onto sand — contextually placing a sun protection message in the very environment that made it relevant. Bisleri’s “New Model of Brand Love — When Product Becomes Media,” HSBC Bank’s “Living Hexagon,” and Škoda’s AI-engineered buying decisions are among the other standout entries.
Kansai Nerolac: The Understated Multi-Category Performer
With 7 combined entries across two campaigns — “The Coolest Seva” (3 entries: Activation, OOH, Cause Marketing) and “The Barefoot Journey” (3 entries: Moment Marketing, Micro Marketing, Small Budget Big Impact) — Kansai Nerolac Paints emerges as one of the Media Abbys’ more surprising over-performers. Both campaigns are rooted in community service and cultural sensitivity, suggesting a brand that has found a consistent and media-generative brand purpose platform. A seventh entry, “Seva Mein Perma” in Branded Content Creation, completes its shortlist presence.
Brands Making Their Mark Across Emerging Categories
Birla Opus Paints is shortlisted three times for its “Indian Colours League” — one of the most talked-about IPL media integrations of the year. By transforming IPL team colours into a paint brand narrative and creating what it describes as “37 stories of colour,” Birla Opus appears in Audio Visual, Branded Content Integration, and Sponsorship — demonstrating that a paint brand can own the most-watched media property in India by reframing the sponsorship around colour rather than cricket.
Indriya Jewellery (Aditya Birla Jewellery) is shortlisted 5 times — in OOH, Digital Display, Mobile, Micro Marketing, and Branded Content — for its AI-powered Bridal Studio and a cinema projection activation called “Aasmaniyat,” reflecting an ambitious media launch strategy for a new premium jewellery brand.
Netflix India (5 entries) demonstrates how a streaming platform uses physical media to drive digital subscription intent — with an OOH landscape hijack, a billboard heist, a Stranger Things real-world takeover, and an orchestrated social media cultural movement for “Games Don’t Stop.”
Looking Ahead
The Media Abby 2026 awards will be presented alongside the Creative Abbys at Goafest 2026. With 438 entries across 28 categories — including two new AI-dedicated verticals debuting this year — the 2026 shortlist is a definitive record of how Indian media has evolved from channel planning into a multi-disciplinary practice that now encompasses data science, artificial intelligence, real-world experience design, and moment-led cultural responsiveness.
The overarching story of the 2026 Media Abby shortlist is one of convergence — between digital and physical, between planning and creativity, between technology and human insight. Brands that are shortlisted across five or more categories are not doing so by accident: they are the ones that have built integrated media philosophies rather than campaign-by-campaign executions, and the awards are increasingly designed to recognise exactly that ambition.
