Bear Meets Eagle on Fire named Agency of the Year at AWARD Awards; McCann wins Agency Network of the Year, Special Australia takes home Grand Award; Motion Sickness wins most Gold
The winners of the 47th AWARD Awards were announced tonight at a ceremony at Sydney Town Hall, with Bear Meets Eagle on Fire, McCann NZ and Motion Sickness some of the biggest winners of the night.
Bear Meets Eagle on Fire was named Agency of the Year, McCann took Agency Network of the Year, and The Sweetshop was named Production Company of the Year, while Special Australia received the night’s top honour, the Grand Award, for Build Your Own Super Bowl for Uber Eats, produced by Revolver x Biscuit Filmworks.
Across the show, 34 Gold pencils were awarded across 23 different campaigns, with a further 84 Silver and 156 Bronze pencils handed out.
Bear Meets Eagle on Fire and McCann New Zealand collected the most metal, both winning a total of 21 trophies apiece.
Bear Meets Eagle On Fire scored two golds – one for Telstra ‘Villains’ and one for Telstra ‘The Girl & Ghost’ in addition to five silver and 14 bronze.
McCann New Zealand won two golds for Huggies ‘Expensive Sh*t’ plus four silvers and 15 bronze.
Motion Sickness had a huge evening scoring the highest number of golds with seven in addition to one silver and eight bronze. The creative company won six golds for Whānau Ora ‘The Māori Roll Call’ and one for The New Zealand Herpes Foundation ‘Make New Zealand The Best Place In The World To Have Herpes’.
Other agencies had reason to celebrate throughout the evening, including Leo Australia, which took home three Golds Pencils, two for Suncorp ‘Haven’ and one for Suncorp ‘Building A More Resilient Australia’, plus three Silver and seven Bronze Pencils.
VML Australia scored one Gold, six Silver and eight Bronze Pencils.
In addition to the Grand Award, Special Australia took home one Gold, four Silver and six Bronze Pencils.
Howatson + Company took home one Gold, six Silver and six Bronze Pencils.
Droga5 ANZ was awarded two Gold, three Silver and one Bronze.
TBWA Australia scored two Gold and six Bronze Pencils.
Colenso BBDO took home two Gold, four Silver and one Bronze.
Agencies with two golds apiece:
Bear Meets Eagle On Fire for Telstra ‘The Girl & Ghost’ and Telstra ‘Villains’
McCann New Zealand for Huggies ‘Expensive Sh*t’
Colenso BBDO for Delivereasy ‘Crippled Pigeons’ and Delivereasy ‘Killer Bees’
Droga5 ANZ for Special Broadcasting Service ‘The Ad that Could Only be Seen on SBS’
Pitchblack for Griffin’s Snacks ‘One chip for every Kiwi’ and Burger King ‘Want fries with…that?’
TBWA\Australia for mycar ‘The Sunburnt Car’
Agencies with one gold apiece include:
Assembly (NZ) for Headway ‘Diary of a Head Injury’
Citizen Jane Casting for Didi ‘Didi – Yes I DiDi’
Electric Sheep Music for DiDi ‘Yes, I DiDi’
Howatson+Company for SELLEYS ‘If You Can Take It, It’s Yours’
KARMA for BMW China ‘Bless My Wish’
Level Two for Spark New Zealand ‘Spark NZ’s ‘It’s Better With Spark”
Revolver for Telstra ‘The Girl and The Ghost’
Rumble Studios for The Truth About Addiction & Stories of Hope Australia ‘The Losing Sound’
Special Australia for Uber Eats ‘Build Your Own Super Bowl’
The Glue Society for Channel 4 ‘Fountain of Filth’
The Nine Shanghai for China UnionPay ‘Pick Up Garbage To Protect Qinghai-Tibet Plateau’
VML Australia for 1001 Optometry ‘Magnif-eye’
Production Company of the Year went to The Sweetshop, which picked up a total of 10 medals — two silver and eight bronze — across ‘Get Your Pickle On’ (Picklebet), ‘It’s Better With Spark’ (Spark), ‘We Go There’ (SBS) and ‘Booze Maths’ (Waka Kotahi | NZTA).
Says Jury President Samira Ansari: “It was such a privilege to serve as the AWARD Awards Jury President this year, and I was, as ever, impressed by the work from the networks and especially from the thriving independent agencies across the region.
“The Grand Award was a hugely ambitious undertaking, executed brilliantly. Uber Eats turned its mobile app into its own media channel, connecting content and entertainment directly to commerce. What makes me especially proud is that this is industry-defining work, executed on advertising’s biggest stage, the Super Bowl, and it’s coming from our region. Bravo.”
Says AWARD Chair Mandie van der Merwe: “This year, creativity called and our winners answered. Congratulations to every Gold, Silver and Bronze winner. Your work stood up to the scrutiny of some of the best creative minds in our region and earned its place among the ideas, craft and creativity shaping Asia Pacific. Winning at AWARD is hard. It should be, as that’s what makes it mean something.
“To our Special Award winners, congratulations. You represent the people, companies and creative partnerships pushing our industry forward and raising the standard for all of us.
“Finally, a huge thank you to our Jury President Samira Ansari, our Jury Chairs and every judge who gave their time, experience and very strong opinions to the process. The debate is rigorous because the standard matters. Thank you for protecting it and for helping us recognise the work that stood out in 2026.”
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