August 13 2026, 10:49 pm | BY Ricki Green | No Comments
The winners of the 47th AWARD Awards were announced tonight at a ceremony at Sydney Town Hall, with New Zealand agencies enjoying a standout night. McCann was named Agency Network of the Year, with McCann New Zealand’s 21-medal haul — tied for the highest total of the night — playing a major part in that result. Motion Sickness, meanwhile, took home more gold than any other agency in the show.
Across the show, 34 gold pencils were awarded across 23 different campaigns, with a further 84 silver and 156 bronze pencils handed out. New Zealand agencies claimed 14 of those 34 golds between them.
Motion Sickness had the standout evening of any company in the show, winning seven golds — the most of the night — plus one silver and eight bronze, for a total of 16 medals. Six of those golds came from Whānau Ora’s ‘The Māori Roll Call’, across Direct Response Integrated Campaigns, Integrated Campaign, TV Commercial Campaigns, Advertising & Marketing Communications, Equality and Creative Strategy. The seventh came for The New Zealand Herpes Foundation’s ‘Make New Zealand The Best Place In The World To Have Herpes’, in Creative Effectiveness.
McCann New Zealand matched Bear Meets Eagle On Fire for the most medals of the night, taking home 21 in total — two gold, four silver and 15 bronze. Both golds came from Kimberly-Clark’s ‘Expensive Sh*t’ for Best Use of Events and Stunts and Live Experiences. The agency also picked up strong hauls from Goodman Fielder’s ‘Fantasy Herd’ and ‘The Molenbergathon’ and New Zealand Transport Agency – Waka Kotahi’s ‘Booze Maths’ and ‘Speed Demons’.
Pitchblack Partners took home two golds — for Griffin’s Snacks’ ‘One chip for every Kiwi’ (Integrated Campaign) and Burger King’s ‘Want fries with… that?’ (Retail).
Colenso BBDO won two golds, both for Delivereasy — ‘Crippled Pigeons’ and ‘Killer Bees,’ both in Best Radio or Audio Script Writing, Individual — plus four silver and one bronze, spanning further Delivereasy work (‘Street Condoms’ and a second nod for ‘Crippled Pigeons’) and Skinny’s ‘Skinny For Life’.
Assembly picked up a gold for Headway’s ‘Diary of a Head Injury’ in Sound Design, adding a silver and two bronze from the same campaign.
This year’s Production Company of the Year went to The Sweetshop, which picked up a total of 10 medals — two silver and eight bronze — across ‘Get Your Pickle On’ (Picklebet), ‘It’s Better With Spark’ (Spark), ‘We Go There’ (SBS) and ‘Booze Maths’ (Waka Kotahi | NZTA).
Supernormal also had a strong night, picking up four medals — two silver and two bronze — all from Whānau Ora’s ‘The Māori Roll Call’. The silvers came for TV and Cinema Commercials, with bronze for Casting for Film Advertising and Achievement in Production.
The Tuesday Club picked up two silver for Westpac Australia’s ‘Double You’ in Sonic Branding and Original Composition.
Across the Tasman, Bear Meets Eagle on Fire was named Agency of the Year, McCann took Agency Network of the Year, and Special Australia received the night’s top honour, the Grand Award, for Uber Eats’ ‘Build Your Own Super Bowl’.
Says Jury President Samira Ansari: “It was such a privilege to serve as the AWARD Awards Jury President this year, and I was, as ever, impressed by the work from the networks and especially from the thriving independent agencies across the region.
“The Grand Award was a hugely ambitious undertaking, executed brilliantly. Uber Eats turned its mobile app into its own media channel, connecting content and entertainment directly to commerce. What makes me especially proud is that this is industry-defining work, executed on advertising’s biggest stage, the Super Bowl, and it’s coming from our region. Bravo.”
Says AWARD Chair Mandie van der Merwe said: “This year, creativity called and our winners answered. Congratulations to every Gold, Silver and Bronze winner. Your work stood up to the scrutiny of some of the best creative minds in our region and earned its place among the ideas, craft and creativity shaping Asia Pacific. Winning at AWARD is hard. It should be, as that’s what makes it mean something.
“To our Special Award winners, congratulations. You represent the people, companies and creative partnerships pushing our industry forward and raising the standard for all of us.
“Finally, a huge thank you to our Jury President Samira Ansari, our Jury Chairs and every judge who gave their time, experience and very strong opinions to the process. The debate is rigorous because the standard matters. Thank you for protecting it and for helping us recognise the work that stood out in 2026.”
DOWNLOAD THE FULL LIST OF WINNERS
DOWNLOAD THE SPECIAL WINNERS
