McCann India named APAC Agency of the Year at The Work 2026

MUMBAI: There are good showings, and then there is what Omnicom Advertising India just pulled off at Campaign Brief’s The Work 2026. McCann India walked away crowned APAC Agency of the Year and India’s number one agency, ranking first across the entire region with 48 acceptances, ahead of every other agency on a list spanning Asia, Australia and New Zealand. That is not a narrow win. That is a network setting the pace for an entire continent’s worth of creative competition.

TBWA\Lintas made sure this was not a one-agency story either. It landed the number two spot in India and number seven across APAC with 27 acceptances, giving Omnicom two agencies inside the region’s top ten and a combined haul of 75 acceptances between them. In an industry where creative currency is counted in exactly these kinds of numbers, that is a genuinely dominant showing for a single holding company out of one market.

What makes McCann India’s tally particularly interesting is where it came from. The 48 acceptances were built on campaigns for Stayfree, Dettol, McDonald’s India and Flipkart, brands spanning categories as different as feminine hygiene, hygiene and cleaning, quick service food and e-commerce. That spread matters. It suggests McCann India is not winning on the back of one brilliant campaign for one client, but demonstrating consistent creative range across genuinely unrelated categories, which is precisely the kind of versatility juries and clients both notice.

TBWA\Lintas told a similar story of breadth rather than depth in a single lane. Its 27 acceptances came from Steadfast, TVS Ronin, ALKEM, Closeup, Vim India, Hershey’s India, the General Insurance Council, Air India Express through Juice, an Omnicom Group company and TBWA division, and Apple through TBWA\Media Arts Lab India. That is automotive, pharmaceuticals, personal care, confectionery, insurance, aviation and consumer technology all in one list. Few agencies anywhere manage that kind of cross-category creative consistency in a single awards cycle.

Zoom out and the wider table tells its own regional story. The Work, now in its 24th year, evaluates creative excellence across film, digital, design, culture and integrated disciplines spanning Asia, Australia and New Zealand, and this year’s top 30 is a genuinely pan-regional spread. Against that competitive field, having two Indian agencies inside the top ten, with McCann India comfortably at the summit, is a proper statement of intent from Omnicom’s India operation, and a reminder that India’s creative industry is no longer punching in its own weight class regionally. It is setting the benchmark.

Top 30 agencies: Campaign Brief’s The Work 2026