MAM
Cheil India elevates Pradeep Tiwari to client service director
Promotion follows years leading Samsung retail projects in north India
GURUGRAM: Pradeep Tiwari has been elevated to client service director at Cheil India, marking the latest step in a steady climb through the agency’s ranks.
In his new role, Tiwari will focus on strengthening client partnerships and sharpening integrated retail execution across key markets. This is a priority as brands demand tighter alignment between strategy and the storefront.
Over the years, he has held a series of leadership positions at Cheil India, most recently as account director. He oversaw large-scale retail project management and led exclusive store execution for Samsung across North India, working across ATL, BTL, marketing and operations to deliver cohesive campaigns on the ground.
Before Cheil, Tiwari worked with HNI Corporation and ONEPWS Private Limited, building expertise in project planning, vendor management, QA/QC and turnkey delivery.
The promotion underscores Cheil India’s emphasis on experienced leadership as retail environments grow more complex and execution-led differentiation becomes harder won.
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.
