Brands
ABBY Awards 2026 open entries as global tie-up with The One Club deepens
MUMBAI: The Advertising Club has opened entries for the 57th edition of the Abby Awards 2026 Powered by The One Club | The One Show, reinforcing its partnership with the global creative organisation ahead of Goafest 2026.
Positioned as the region’s benchmark for creative and marketing excellence, the Abbys will recognise work produced between 1 April 2025 and 28 February 2026 across creative, media and broadcaster and publisher categories. Submissions will remain open until 2 March 2026.
Organisers said the awards would continue to follow a rigorous judging process aligned with international standards, with senior industry leaders forming the jury and greater client participation expected across evaluation stages.
Abby Awards 2026 chairperson Ajay Kakar, said the strengthened collaboration with The One Club would take Indian and South-east Asian creativity to a wider global audience. He added that the awards were being reimagined with closer industry involvement, a stronger jury line-up and expanded opportunities for regional talent to gain international recognition.
The Advertising Club said the Abbys remain the only industry-led awards platform in the region, designed to celebrate excellence across advertising, media and marketing disciplines
Brands
Faber-Castell India appoints Sunaina Haldar as director – marketing
With stints at Tata, SleepyCat and ADF Foods under her belt, Haldar is primed to redraw Faber-Castell’s brand story
MUMBAI: Faber-Castell India has poached Sunaina Haldar from ADF Foods, appointing her director – marketing as the German stationery brand looks to muscle up in a category that is rapidly reinventing itself around creativity and self-expression.
Haldar hit the ground running. “My first couple of weeks have been incredibly energising, understanding consumers, visiting markets, engaging with retailers and immersing myself into the world of Faber-Castell Group,” she said.
She arrives with considerable firepower. At ADF Foods, Haldar ran marketing across India and international markets for a portfolio spanning Ashoka, Aeroplane, Camel and ADF Soul. Before that, she was vice-president – marketing at direct-to-consumer mattress brand SleepyCat, where she helmed brand, content and performance marketing. Her résumé also includes a stint leading marketing, new product development and CRM for Tata SmartFoodz at Tata Consumer Products, no small proving ground.
Between corporate roles, Haldar also operated as a fractional CMO for early-stage startups, building marketing strategy and operational structures from scratch, a signal that she knows how to move fast with limited resources.
With 18 years straddling FMCG, D2C and the startup world, Haldar now takes the reins at a brand that has long owned the classroom but is clearly hungry for the living room. In a stationery market where the pencil has become a lifestyle statement, Faber-Castell has picked someone who knows exactly how to sell that story.
