Howatson+Co crowned Australian Agency of the Year in The Work 2026; ATime&Place, VML, Today The Brave, Sunday Gravy and BMEOF make top six

Howatson+Company has taken out the Australian Agency of the Year title in Campaign Brief’s The Work 2026 with 25 Acceptances. VML was crowned New Zealand Agency of the Year, leading the NZ agency pack with 20 Acceptances. This year The Work received an impressive 4,230 entries from the Asia-Pacific region

245 ad agencies and production companies in Asia-Pacific submitted entries to Campaign Brief’s The Work 2026. This is up from 241 agencies and production companies that entered in 2025.

This is the 24th year of Campaign Brief’s The Work, recognised as a true record of creativity for the region, featuring the very best advertising of the year from Asia, Australia and NZ.

This year there were 4,230 entries overall (slightly down from 4,349 from last year, but up from 4,189 entries in 2024), with the most entries coming from Australia (947), Thailand (815), India (739), Philippines (692), Malaysia (260), Taiwan (176), China (144) and Singapore (126).

For the first time Howatson+Co has taken out the Australian Agency of the Year title with an impressive 25 Acceptances, closely followed by ATime&Place at #2 with 24, VML at #3 with 23, Today The Brave at #4 with 22, Sunday Gravy at #5 with 21 Acceptances and Bear Meets Eagle on Fire at #5 with 14. Akcelo is at #7 with 13, while Kerfuffle and Ogilvy share the #8 spot with 12, and 2045 is at #10 with 11 Acceptances.

Connecting Plots and Showpony share the #11 spot with 10 Acceptances apiece, followed by Dig at #13 with eight Acceptances. Sharing the #14 spot is KWP+Partners and Rare, Perth with seven, followed by Bureau of Everything and 303 sharing the #16 spot with six. Sharing the #17 spot with four Acceptances are SickDogWolfMan, Communicado, Good Drinks Australia, Taboo and The Brand Agency.

Notable work from Howatson+Co included Selleys ‘If you can take it, it’s yours’; Seasol ‘Dirty Old Secrets’; Yates ‘National Gardening League’; Sydney Jewish Museum ‘InCommon’; Vodafone ‘’First night only’ and ‘Vodafone is back’; The Australia Financial Review ‘It’s not for everyone’; and Honda ‘How to break a Honda’.

Notable work from ATimePlace included Suzuki ‘Jimny Junior’, ‘Jimny FlexXL’; Suzuki Fronx ‘Live like you’re in a car ad’; ‘Life is out there’; ‘Good clean dirty fun’; ‘Feels like fun’; ‘Woohoo’; ‘Aw Yeah’, ‘Mothers Day Cars’; ‘Official Merchandise of the Melbourne Storm’; Balter ‘Under pressure’, and ‘Pub publishing’.

Notable work from VML included 1001 Optometry ‘Magnif-eye’; Kit-Kat ‘Commuter Camo’ and ‘Have a better break’; Monash University ‘Every second makes change’; Anglicare ‘Christmas isn’t always pretty’ and ‘Being homeless is hard work’.

Notable work from Today The Brave included Advocate Ultra Chew ‘Dogs are gonna dog’; Wendy’s ‘Redhead Redemption’; Bargain Car Rentals ‘Australia’s Ultimate Airport Dad’; True North ‘Immersive Adventure’; University of Sydney ‘Celebrating 15 years’; TMRW ‘Punk Healthcare’; and Wendy’s ‘Trash Talk’.

Notable work from Sunday Gravy included DiDi ‘Yes I DiDi’, ‘Tow’, ‘Yes I summer’, ‘Sapporo ‘Win this fish’ and ‘Supper Club Chisai’; Cuttable ‘3.1 billion ads’; Coopers ‘Old Mates’ and ‘Coober Pedy Classic’; Square ‘Service still matters’; KFC ‘One true zinger’; and Ego ‘Elucent Packaging’.

Notable work from Bear Meets Eagle on Fire included Telstra Telstra ‘Wherever we go again’, ‘Villains’, ‘Strikethrough’, ‘The Girl and Ghost’ and ‘Satellite Messaging’; Bankwest ‘Just Enough Bank’ and ‘Worries’; and AWARD ‘Creativity is Calling’.

Notable work from Akcelo included Rugby World Cup ‘Go All Out’; McDonald’s ‘Squid Game: Dare to Play’; McDonald’s ‘You know where’; McDonald’s ‘Grimace’s very important world tour’; Doritos ‘Halloween Hijack’ and Anytime Fitness ‘Find your fitphoria’.

Notable work from Kerfuffle included Picklebet ‘Get your pickle on’; Woodstock ‘The Woodlife’; Drinkwise ‘Drinking? Drink Mindfully’; and Open Way ‘Red Tractor’.

Notable work from Ogilvy included Wheelchair Rugby Australia ‘Officially Unsponsored’; The Matildas ‘This is how we waltz’; and Coca-Cola ‘Together’.

Notable work from 2045 included Represent ‘The Longest Runway’; NBA Store ‘Slam Pay’; Mitchell & Ness ‘AFL – Emotional Baggage’; Bupa ‘The No Board’ and ‘Health Stories’.

VML was crowned New Zealand Agency of the Year, leading the NZ agency pack with 20 Acceptances, followed by TBWA\New Zealand at #2 with 18, McCann at #3 with nine, Federation at #4 with eight and Dentsu in the #5 spot with four Acceptances.

VIEW THE WORK 2026 (active from Friday September 18)

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