The first day of the ABBY Awards at Goafest 2025 spotlighted some of the advertising industry’s leading players across media and publishing. This year marked the 57th edition of the awards, with more than 70 clients and representatives from over 20 institutes participating in the festival. The ABBY Awards received between 2600–3000 entries from the creative side, taking the total number of entries across categories to 3971. Around 300 entrants participated this year.
Dominating the Media ABBYs were four standout agencies: EssenceMediacom, Wavemaker India, Tribes Communications, and Mindshare India. EssenceMediacom clinched the coveted title of Media Agency of the Year, securing a total of 14 metals, including 5 Golds, 6 Silvers, and 3 Bronze awards.
Wavemaker India followed closely with 11 wins comprising 7 Golds, 2 Silvers, and 2 Bronze awards. Tribes Communications also secured 11 metals and took home the only Grand Prix of the evening for Kansai Nerolac Paints’ ‘The Barefoot Journey’ campaign, while Mindshare India finished with a total of 10 metals.
Among the newly introduced categories, WPP Media won Network Agency of the Year with 37 metals, while The Coca-Cola Company was named Client of the Year with 8 metals under its belt.
Altogether, 97 Media ABBY awards were presented on the opening day.
In the Publisher ABBYs segment, Jagran Prakashan Ltd was crowned Publisher of the Year after bagging 8 metals. Among them were 3 Golds for Dainik Jagran’s ‘People without a Name’ and ‘The Day the Roof Fell’ campaigns.
The Hindu Group won a Gold for its ‘Written by Journalists’ campaign, while ABP Pvt Ltd. secured a Gold for Anandamela’s ‘Golpo Jadur Ashor – By the Kids, for the Kids’ campaign.
A total of 21 Publisher ABBYs were awarded during the day’s proceedings.
