AD Agencies
Account Planning Group (APG) announces its board members for India Chapter
MUMBAI: The India Chapter of the Account Planning Group (APG) has announced the induction of Board Members that represent planning heads across major advertising agencies.
In keeping with its credo, the committee would work towards equipping planners and strategists with the training and inspiration they need to be bold and rigorous thinkers while also driving several initiatives for APG in India including its soon-to-be-announced Awards show.
APG members include DDB Mudra national planning head Amit Kekre, J Walter Thompson India chief strategy officer Bindu Sethi, Leo Burnett chief strategy officer of South Asia Dheeraj Sinha, Ogilvy India chief strategy officer Prem Narayan, Whyness Worldwide head of strategy and new business Roma Singhal, McCann Truth central national head, planning and executive VP and GM of McCann Mumbai Suraja Kishore, Lowe Lintas chief strategy officer S. Subramanyeswar and Publicis India chief strategy officer and managing partner Sudeep Gohil.
The APG got off to a commendable start in India at the end of 2017, and has since organised a couple of community-driven initiatives including the recently held workshop on Culture and Creativity by Whyness founder and chairman Ravi Deshpande. The committee has queued up several such workshops and training modules in the coming months, which would be hosted across key metros in India.
As of date, the APG is being led by a consortium of leading agencies from India including Ogilvy & Mather, J Walter Thompson, MullenLowe Lintas Group, Leo Burnett India, DDB Mudra Group, Publicis India, Taproot, Dentsu, Grey Worldwide, McCann Worldwide, L&K Saatchi & Saatchi, Famous Innovations, Rediffusion Y&R, Whyness Worldwide and others.
The Account Planning Group is a membership organisation that promotes smarter thinking. Headquartered in London, it is a not-for-profit organisation run for and by its members: primarily account planners in advertising agencies. It is expanding with a community of communications strategists, including media planners, channel planners, DM planners and digital planners.
AD Agencies
The Advertising Club adds new categories to Creative Abby 2026
Awards expand global focus; entries open until 6 April
MUMBAI: The Advertising Club has unveiled a fresh set of categories for Creative Abby 2026, sharpening the awards’ global edge while keeping creativity firmly centre stage.
The updated entry form, reflecting all category refinements, is now live on the Club’s website. The awards continue their partnership with The One Club and The One Show. Entries close on April 6, 2026, and eligible work must have been released between April 1, 2025 and March 31, 2026. Winners will be announced at Goafest 2026.
This year, the Abby Awards Governing Council went a step further, inviting some of India’s most awarded creative leaders and global jury veterans to help reimagine the categories and judging process. The result is a sharper, more future facing framework.
Two new categories have been introduced:
Social content and influencer marketing
Recognising the fast expanding universe of digital creators, collaborations and community building.
Creative commerce, use of data and B2B
Celebrating innovation across online and offline commerce, payment solutions, data driven channels, creative B2B and immersive brand experiences.
Both categories are designed to reward craft and quality of impact, rather than pure effectiveness metrics.
In a bid to stay relevant in a rapidly evolving digital landscape, seven sub categories within the Digital vertical have been removed after being deemed redundant.
Three social good verticals, Green Abby, Red Abby and Diversity Equality and Inclusivity, have now been merged into a single category titled Sustainability and Inclusion, bringing purpose driven work under one cohesive umbrella.
The Mobile category has been discontinued, reflecting the reality that mobile is no longer a niche medium but embedded across digital formats. The new Social Content and Influencer Marketing vertical is expected to absorb much of this work.
Acknowledging the role of marketers in driving creative excellence, a new honour titled Client of the Year has been introduced. It will be awarded to the client whose brands accumulate the highest number of points.
There is also a key change in how Creative Agency of the Year is calculated. Previously determined by points across eight traditional categories such as Print, Film, OOH, Integrated, Audio and Digital, the award will now consider performance across 18 creative categories, excluding Video Craft and Young Maverick Abby. The shift broadens the competitive canvas and reflects the industry’s expanding definition of creativity.
The Advertising Club president and McCann India CEO Dheeraj Sinha said Goafest has long stood for collaboration and creative excellence. He noted that in its 57th year, the Abby Awards continue to raise the bar and bring together the brightest minds in the business.
Abby Awards 2026 chairperson Ajay Kakar, added that the categories had been co created with leading creative luminaries for the first time. He expressed gratitude to The One Club and The One Show for supporting the judging process over the past five years and thanked agencies and clients for their consistent participation.
With new categories, sharper criteria and a broader lens on creativity, Creative Abby 2026 signals that in advertising, evolution is not optional. It is the brief.
