EMVIES 2026: HUL, Mindshare lead a 57-Gold night

01 · India’s media effectiveness scorecard for 2026

The Advertising Club’s EMVIES 2026 closed with a clear message: the best work in Indian media is being measured, not just admired. Announced on 23 October 2026, the awards recognised excellence in media strategy, innovation, research and effectiveness—and the top of the leaderboard reads like a who’s who of integrated thinking.

Hindustan Unilever Limited took Best Media Client of the Year. Mindshare was named Best Media Agency of the Year, and WPP Media won Best Media Agency Network of the Year. The night’s highest honour, the Grand EMVIE, went to Wavemaker India and Colgate (Palmolive) Pvt. Ltd. for the Colgate Oral Health Movement in the Best Digital Strategy category.

02 · What the scoreboard says

Beyond the marquee wins, the numbers show how deep India’s media capabilities now run:

• 1 Grand EMVIE
• 57 Gold EMVIEs
• 74 Silver EMVIEs
• 91 Bronze EMVIEs

The Young EMVIE of the Year awards went to Zenith’s Chitwan Sharma and EssenceMediacom’s Aditi Salian—a reminder that the next generation of media planners is already being tested on strategy, not just buying power.

Dheeraj Sinha, President of The Advertising Club, said the winners reflect the industry’s ambition and strategic rigour, and that the awards continue to spotlight work that pushes media’s boundaries. Punitha Arumugam, Chairperson of the EMVIES Committee, pointed to the combination of strong insights, innovation and effectiveness as the common thread across winning work.

03 · Why this matters for CMOs

For brand leaders, EMVIES results are less about trophies and more about benchmarks. The case studies from this stage answer a practical question: where is Indian media effectiveness heading? The answer, judging by the winners, is campaigns that connect a sharp insight to a channel plan and a measurable business outcome.

WPP’s double presence—Mindshare as agency of the year and Wavemaker taking the Grand EMVIE—also signals how integrated network capabilities are being rewarded. The Colgate Oral Health Movement winning in digital strategy is a useful prompt: behaviour-change briefs can win when the media logic is built around sustained impact, not one-off reach.

For your next campaign, use the EMVIES framework as a pre-flight checklist. Set effectiveness metrics before launch, ask your media agency to document the insight and the investment logic, and make sure the results can be attributed to business outcomes. That is the discipline judges reward—and it is the same discipline boards remember in annual reviews.

Source: Indian Advertising Media & Marketing News – exchange4media

Mad About Marketing Desk The strategists and writers at Mad About Marketing, writing up what we see in the work every week.