Mumbai: The Advertising Club (TAC) has released the official Creative Abby 2026 shortlist, unveiling 845 shortlisted entries across 22 major categories and 200 sub-categories ahead of the awards ceremony at Goafest 2026. Now in its 57th year, the Creative Abbys — widely regarded as the Oscars of Indian advertising — reflect a year in which purpose-led storytelling, technological innovation, and cross-platform integration defined the country’s most ambitious brand communications.
Johnson’s Baby’s “Project Golden Minute” leads all campaigns with 32 shortlist mentions, appearing in categories spanning television, digital video, radio, integrated, public relations, health, brand experience, and direct. The campaign’s sweeping presence across virtually every medium underscores its status as the most comprehensively executed piece of advertising on the Indian market this cycle.
Britannia’s “The Pride Pact” follows closely with 22 shortlist mentions, while The Photographic Society of India’s evocative “If Only” series has earned 17 shortlistings across print, film, digital, and design categories. P&G Whisper’s “Project Early Periods” and Dhurandhar from Jio Studios B62 Studios round out the top five with 16 and 15 mentions respectively.
Flipkart and Photographic Society of India Lead Brand Rankings
Among advertisers, Flipkart emerges as the most shortlisted brand of the year with 47 entries — spread across print, still digital, outdoor, audio-visual TV, digital video, integrated, social content, digital, technology, direct, brand experience, and public relations. Campaigns including the “Namibia x Flipkart WC 2026” cricket collaboration, the “Big Billion Days 2025 – YahaanKuchBhiHoSaktaHain” festive campaign, and the platform innovation entry “Flippin Amazin” represent the breadth of Flipkart’s creative ambitions this year.
The Photographic Society of India, with 41 brand-level entries, ranks as the second most shortlisted brand overall — a remarkable achievement for a non-FMCG advertiser. Its single campaign, “If Only,” a series of powerful photographic essays exploring moments frozen in time, has permeated virtually every creative category from print craft and outdoor to digital, video craft, social content, SDG, and branded content.
Johnson’s Baby follows with 32 brand entries, HDFC Mutual Fund with 24, and Britannia with 22, rounding out the top five most shortlisted brands. Notably, Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) appears across the shortlist under two slightly varied brand name formats — “Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI)” and “Battlegrounds Mobile India” — which when combined account for 27 entries, placing it among the most active brands of the year across digital, technology, branded content, and video craft categories.
Mountain Dew’s “Darescore,” HDFC Ergo’s “Playable” ad, and Lenovo India’s “Gamers on Duty” each secured 14 shortlist mentions, placing them among the year’s most recognised individual campaigns. Lay’s “Project Mitti” earned 12 mentions, Signature Packaged Drinking Water’s “Mangrove Regeneration Pledge” earned 13, and Goel TMT’s “Band Baaja Bitiya” closed with 10.
Two New Categories Reflect Industry Evolution
This year’s edition introduced two new creative verticals — Social Content & Influencer Marketing, and Creative Commerce, Use of Data & B2B — reflecting the maturation of influencer-led communication and commerce-integrated creativity as serious craft disciplines. Together, these two new categories account for 92 entries in the shortlist, making them among the most heavily contested additions of the year. Both drew competitive entries from brands including Garnier Men, Myntra, Dhurandhar (Jio Studios), Flipkart, and Razorpay.
The Sustainable Development Goals Abby also underwent significant restructuring, with the former Green Abby, Red Abby, and Diversity Equality Inclusion (DEI) categories merged into a single consolidated category, signalling a more holistic approach to socially conscious advertising.
The Three Biggest Categories by Volume
Digital & Digital Craft (Category 8) is the largest section of the shortlist by a clear margin with 79 entries, reflecting the dominance of digital as the primary arena for creative ambition in Indian advertising. Social Content & Influencer Marketing (Category 10) and Video Craft (Category 20) are tied as the second-largest categories with 68 entries each — the former underscoring how creator-led content has become a mainstream craft discipline, and the latter signalling the industry’s growing investment in the technical quality of filmmaking.
Purpose-Driven Work Sets the Tone
Across the shortlist, campaigns centred on social impact, public interest, and community purpose account for a disproportionately large share of entries in the most competitive categories. P&G Whisper’s “Project Early Periods” appears in 16 sub-categories spanning integrated, digital, public relations, health, sustainable development, and branded content — reflecting a campaign that has resonated with juries on both creative and societal grounds.
Lay’s “Project Mitti,” which focuses on soil conservation, is shortlisted across 12 categories. The Mangrove Regeneration Pledge by Signature Packaged Drinking Water appears in 13 categories — one of the most cross-format purpose campaigns of the year — from audio and outdoor to PR and brand experience. Hero MotoCorp’s “Prayers for Safety” combines road safety advocacy with multi-format creative execution, earning shortlistings in outdoor, direct, and brand experience.
Durex’s bold entries — including “The Other G Spot” and campaigns tied to the IPL and Father’s Day — have earned 12 shortlistings in digital, integrated, audio-visual, health, and public relations, reflecting a brand unafraid to engage with sensitive health conversations in public-facing media.
Technology and AI Emerge as Creative Forces
The Technology category sees some of the year’s most inventive ideas. UltraTech Cement’s campaign — “Empowering 1.9 Billion Logons via 1.9 Billion UltraTech Logos” — uses artificial intelligence to generate a personalised logo for every Indian, earning shortlistings in Technology, PR, and Sustainable Development Goals. Closeup’s “New LoveTune with Personalised AI Videos” and Amazon Prime Video’s audacious “Launched an Election on Your Phone for PanchayatS4” campaign are also among the standout technology entries.
Toyota’s Experiential Museum (tem) demonstrates the growing importance of phygital brand experiences, earning shortlistings across digital craft, brand experience, technology, and video craft. HDFC Ergo’s “Playable” entry — an interactive, game-based ad format with 14 shortlist mentions — appears across technology, direct, PR, and brand experience categories, positioning it as one of the year’s most innovative format experiments.
Automotive Sector Punches Above Its Weight
The automotive segment produced some of the year’s most creatively distinctive work. Škoda Auto India’s multi-campaign approach — encompassing “Octavia RS – Sorry For The Heartbreak,” “Fans, Not Owners,” and the witty “Doda, not Škoda” — has earned shortlistings across integrated, still digital, print craft, and retail categories. The Non-Owner’s Manual for the Octavia RS appears in print copywriting, still digital copywriting, and design copywriting sub-categories, making it one of the more craft-forward automotive entries in recent years.
Ralson Tyres is a surprise recurring name in the audio-visual TV and digital video categories, appearing six times with its “Built Better” campaign across both tyres and bicycles. TVS Raider’s “Raider Bros” and CEAT’s “Built for Grip” further demonstrate the sector’s creative ambitions.
Publishers Make a Strong Showing
The Publisher Abby accounts for 36 shortlisted entries across five sub-categories, and sees the Indian print media industry put forward its most creative self-promotional and client-activation work of the year.
Dainik Jagran dominates with 16 entries, the highest of any publisher, with campaigns that leverage investigative journalism as a creative device. “The Scam Stops Here,” “People without a Name,” “The Day the Roof Fell,” and “1000 Tons, 10 Days, One City, One Reckoning” reflect a publication using its own editorial authority as a brand asset, shortlisted across both the newspaper marketing (22a) and CSR/cause-related marketing (22c) sub-categories.
The Hindu Group is shortlisted across three sub-categories — “Written by Journalists” in newspaper marketing, “Stub the Habit” in CSR, and the dual entries of “Made of Chennai” and “Made of Chennai powered by Casagrand” in native branded content — the latter highlighting hyper-local identity as a powerful brand-building platform. The Times of India appears in 22a with the emotionally resonant “I Am Kolkata, Amar Para,” and in 22d with a peel-off print innovation developed in partnership with Coinswitch.
Hindustan Times leads the client activation sub-category (22d) with four distinct shortlistings: a photochromatic ink experiment created for Swiggy Instamart, a lenticular print innovation for WhatsApp, a birthday blast activation for Myntra, and a collectible art piece for the Museum of Art — collectively positioning HT as the most technically innovative publisher in the shortlist. Sakal Media’s Braille innovation, created for Star Pravah, is among the most inclusive and purposeful print executions of the year.
Anandamela, the iconic Bengali children’s magazine, is the sole entry in the printed magazine category (22b) with its “Golpo Jadur Ashor — By the Kids, For the Kids” campaign.
Broadcaster Abby: Zee Network’s Year
The Broadcaster Abby accounts for 19 shortlisted entries and is firmly the Zee Network’s territory in 2026, with Zee Kannada, Zee Bangla, Zee Marathi, and Zee Cinema collectively accounting for the majority of shortlistings across program launch, fiction promo, reality show promo, regional promo, and movie premiere categories. Zee Kannada alone accounts for 10 of the 19 Broadcaster Abby entries. The World TV Premiere of Pushpa 2: The Rule on Zee Cinema appears in two sub-categories. Star Sports and JioHotstar represent the sports programming sub-category, while Nickelodeon’s “Bittu Bahanebaaz” is the only children’s channel shortlisted.
Craft in Focus
The Video Craft and Print Craft categories reflect the industry’s sustained investment in technical excellence. With 68 entries, Video Craft is one of the largest categories in the shortlist, spanning direction, editing, cinematography, music, sound design, animation, and casting.
Jaquar’s “Heist” earns craft shortlistings in direction, editing, cinematography, and casting. Cadbury Silk’s “AI Doesn’t Know” appears in direction, editing, cinematography, music, and casting — making it one of the most craft-recognised films of the year. Sleepy Cat’s “Slap Facial” is an unexpected multi-craft presence in direction, editing, casting, and sound categories — suggesting a sharp piece of comedic filmmaking that caught jury attention. Johnson’s Baby’s “Project Golden Minute” appears across every Video Craft sub-category, completing its sweep of the full shortlist.
The Young Maverick Abby category, designed to celebrate emerging individual talent with 22 entries, sees creatives named personally against campaigns for Flipkart, Sting, Lenovo, P&G Whisper, Spotify, and BGMI — signalling a healthy pipeline of new creative voices in Indian advertising.
Looking Ahead
The Creative Abby 2026 awards will be presented at Goafest 2026, where Gold winners across the 12 core creative verticals will also contend for Grand Prix honours in their respective categories. A newly introduced Client of the Year award — recognising the brand whose campaigns collectively earn the most points — is expected to generate significant attention given the dominant performances of Flipkart (47 entries), The Photographic Society of India (41), and Johnson’s Baby (32) across this year’s shortlist.
With 844 entries spanning 22 major categories and 200 sub-categories, the 2026 shortlist is a vivid snapshot of Indian advertising at a moment of genuine creative ambition — where brands are increasingly willing to invest simultaneously in craft, purpose, technology, and storytelling across every available platform.
