Mumbai: The ABBY Awards 2025 Powered by One Show has received over 4,000 entries from more than 230 agencies. The event takes place during Goafest 2025.
“This is the 56th year of the Creative Abby and 16th year of the Media Abby – an institution that has long celebrated the best in Indian advertising. Over the last four years, our partnership with The One Show has taken the Abbys to a new level, giving it global stature and scale. With world-class judging standards, a sharper international lens, and the credibility of one of the most respected creative institutions in the world, this collaboration has given the awards a renewed sense of purpose. Today, the Abby Awards are not just a celebration of excellence in India – they are a stepping stone to global recognition.
“That’s clearly reflected in the response this year, with over 4,000 entries from more than 230 agencies across creative, media, PR, health, and other disciplines – the highest in the last five years. We’ve also added several new sub-categories in AI and tech, and introduced three new categories in Media Abby to keep pace with the evolving landscape. With an international jury at the festival and a three-day celebration makes the ABBY more global and richer in depth, and also bolder, braver, and built for the future,” said Rana Barua, President of The Advertising Club and Group CEO of Havas India, South East and North Asia
Ajay Kakar, Chairman, Awards Governing Council, The Abby Awards, and Managing Committee Member, The Advertising Club said, “There are two parts of what you are going to see, what I call buy one get one free. Goafest offers you all the leadership sessions, the inspirational sessions and then you have The ABBY Awards 2025 Powered by One Show.
“We have 233 entities which have participated in the awards. The participants comprise of 233 entities across Creative 164 and Media 69. This includes Ad Agency, Creative Agency, Media Agency, Clients, Digital and Technology Agencies, Video Film Production, Content Production, all of that.
“As far as the entries that have come from this, it’s an all time high. It’s the highest ever which is 4076 entries of which 2678 is Creative and 1398 is Media. Last year it was 3506n and this time it is about 15% higher. Despite what people talk about the year, despite what people talk about pressure, financial, budgets, whatever the participation has improved a lot.”
He added that across the last three years there has been McCann, DDB Mudra, VML, Lowe Lintas, BBH, Grey Group, Talented. “And what is more important is not that these agencies are participating through entries. They are also participating as Jury which shows that they are lending their name to our brand because they believe in our brand. And of course, they are also participating through entries and in person at the Goa Fest.”
Jury: He noted that there are 25 Jury Chairs and three of them are international who’s who. 1. Youri Guerassimov, CEO and CCO of Marcel Paris (also joining for a keynote at Goafest 2025) 2. Bjorn Stahl CCO of Uncommon 3. Francesco Poletti CCO of Le Pub, Publicis Italy
“In total we have 401 Jury members. 35% are women and 65% are men.” He however added that diversity is important in terms of ideas. “I am not talking about gender but diversity of ideas, diversity of inputs is always welcome. So, we have diversity as far as international and domestic is concerned. We have creative and media diversity. We have gender diversity. We have specialist agencies versus generic agencies diversity.”
New Categories: He noted that there are three new categories under media. “One is small budget, big impact. Second is sports marketing and the third is micro marketing. And in creative, in the last two years we have added several new subcategories under digital and technology because we knew with the advent of AI, VR and AR, we needed to do that.
“Also, we rebranded radio as audio because things like podcasts are also growing and we must recognise the growing trend.”
He was asked that with companies expecting marketing to drive actual ROI and often engagement on its own is not enough whether this is putting creative agencies under pressure? “For me, that’s a personal question. But I just feel that creativity is a means to attract attention which is a means to attract business. So, if you don’t attract my attention, you are not going to attract my wallet. So, I think creativity is important and it needs to be celebrated.”
Total Entries – 4076
Creative – 2678
Media – 1398
Shortlists – 1756
Creative – 1265
Media – 491
Total Participants – 233
Creative – 164
Media – 69
Juror – 401
Juries – 376
Jury Chairs – 25
Ratio – Male: Female – 65%: 35%
– Returning agencies in the last 3 years: McCann, DDB Mudra, VML, Lowe Lintas, BBH, Grey Group, Talented
– Entries received from agencies, client brand companies, digital and technology agencies and client brand companies, content and video film production companies, design and direct firms, publishers, media agencies, broadcasters
– Fourth Year of Partnership with The One Show
– 56-year-old award
– 23 creative and 24 media categories
1. Small budget, Big Impact
2. Sports Marketing
3. Micro Marketing
In the last two years, the awards show has added several new sub-categories in digital and technology with the advent of AI and VR/AR. Also radio has become audio and podcasts being added to make audio more relevant to both agencies and production houses.
