Advertising Club Madras announces MADDYS 2026 winners

CHENNAI: Chennai’s advertising fraternity gathered this week to prove that, four decades on, simplicity still beats spectacle. The Advertising Club Madras handed out its 44th MADDYS awards under the theme keep it simple, silly, and the results suggest the industry took the brief seriously: 157 awards, three grand prix, and a set of winners that spans scrappy independent boutiques and India’s largest agency networks in equal measure.

The scale of the contest is the first thing worth noting. More than 110 agencies and clients entered work judged by six jury chairs and 23 industry practitioners across a two-stage process, a rigour that gives the 26 gold, 44 silver and 69 bronze awards handed out real weight rather than participation trophy inflation. Three names dominated the agency honours: Digitally Inspired Media took both the digital and media agency of the year titles, Be Positive 24 Innovation Design claimed creative agency of the year alongside the design and print craft specialist award, and Happy Unicorn Creative Communications swept the regional pride Tamil category while also picking up film and audio craft specialist honours. Winning across two or three categories in one night is not luck; it points to agencies with genuinely deep creative benches rather than a single standout campaign.

The client of the year honours tell their own story about who is investing seriously in advertising right now. The Ramco Cements Limited took the creative client crown, The Hindu Group won digital, and JioStar India picked up both media and regional pride Tamil client honours, an unusually broad haul that reflects the scale of its television and streaming ambitions in the south. Individual craft was recognised too, with Haridas Balakrishnan Nair picking up both copywriter of the year and, jointly with Gokul Raj, Art Director of the Year—a rare double that marks him out as the night’s standout individual talent.

Surej Sinha, president of Advertising Club Madras, made the point that mattered most: independent creative boutiques stood shoulder to shoulder with the country’s largest agency networks this year, proving good ideas can come from anywhere. That is not just a nice line for an awards speech; it is a genuine signal about where Indian advertising’s creative energy is concentrated right now, in smaller, nimbler outfits willing to bet on a simple idea well executed rather than scale for its own sake. With Kavitha Srinivasan, secretary of the club, already promising an even bigger MADDYS 2027, the bar for next year’s simplicity has just been set considerably higher.