Race to creative glory: The publishers & media contenders

Goafest has always been more than just an industry gathering by the beach. It is where advertising, media, marketing, and creativity come together to reflect on the future of communication, with the ABBY Awards standing at the heart of this celebration. This year, the spotlight shines on the Publisher & Media ABBYs, where contenders are pushing boundaries through breakthrough storytelling, creativity, technology-led solutions, and culturally resonant campaigns.

As anticipation builds around the final winners, IMPACT gets up close with some of the biggest contenders in the Publisher & Media categories—the names redefining media excellence and setting new creative benchmarks at Goafest 2026.

Kartik Sharma
CEO, Omnicom Media India

“This year, all agencies across Omnicom Media have secured shortlists - reflecting the scale, diversity, and evolution of modern media thinking. The shortlisted work was built on sharp strategic thinking, strong collaboration, and a clear understanding of what would genuinely move the needle and deliver measurable business impact for brands.

Creative Effectiveness will remain firmly at the centre of industry conversations, as brands increasingly look beyond visibility metrics towards ideas that can influence behaviour, drive growth, and create long-term value. It’s also encouraging to see the overall standard of work continue to rise, and we wish everyone participating the very best."

Uday Mohan
COO, Havas Media India & Havas Play

“We’re entering campaigns this year across media, innovation and sports marketing categories. The work reflects the kind of thinking we genuinely believe in, ideas rooted in culture, business impact and audience behaviour, not just award narratives. The expectation is simple: if the jury values effectiveness backed by strong execution and relevance, the work should stand out. We’re confident about what we’ve put forward.”

Vivek Das
Chief Digital Officer, Madison Media

"This year’s Goafest theme, ‘Reset for Growth’, resonates deeply with us. For a long time, we have all been running hard, but much of that movement has been in the same direction, more campaigns, more channels, more platforms, and more bursts of activity. Yet, despite all of this, growth conversations with clients have only become more challenging. The structural reset the industry truly needs and one that has already begun is the shift from campaigns to systems. To drive consistent growth, brands need stronger growth systems that go beyond media signals and tap into deeper category and consumer truths, enabling smarter decisions while continuously learning and evolving over time. This is precisely what Madison 3.0 is about, with GPS as our growth planning system and MBrain as the agentic orchestration system that powers GPS. The intelligence layer, trained on our institutional knowledge, case studies, MMM intelligence, and some of the strongest global frameworks customised for India, creates a system that becomes sharper with every brief and every outcome, compounding strategic advantage over time. For us, ‘Reset for Growth’ is not just a theme — it is a journey we have already undertaken."

Manish Solanki
COO and Co-founder, TheSmallBigIdea

"We started TheSmallBigIdea with the belief that a small idea, told right, can move the world. This year at the ABBY Awards, we are backing a campaign that embodies exactly that. The ‘Easiest Exam’ was born from a truth too many women in this country quietly live with–early detection saves lives, but awareness is still a privilege. Our all-women team didn't just make a film, they showed up for every woman who has never been told that ‘Do Haath. Teen Minute. Ek Aasaan Sa Exam’ could change her life. When work carries that kind of purpose, it stops being just a campaign; it becomes a conversation the world needs to have."

Sundar Kondur
Chief Revenue Officer of The Hindu Group

“This year, we are proud to send a diverse set of campaigns to the ABBY Awards across publisher categories, including Written By Journalists, No Tobacco Day, Kerala For All, Made of Chennai, and Care Community Conversation. These campaigns reflect our focus on credible storytelling, meaningful audience engagement, and purpose-led communication. For us, the ABBYs are not just about recognition, but about benchmarking impactful work that drives creative and editorial innovation.”

Uday Jadhav
CEO, Sakal Media Group

“The ABBYs continue to celebrate creativity, innovation, and meaningful storytelling across platforms, and we are excited to be participating this year in the Publisher ABBY category for Best Client-Brand Activation or Display Advertising Innovation by a Publisher. We have submitted our campaign created for Star Pravah’s show ‘Anandi’, which used a unique Braille-based tactile print innovation to create a more inclusive and engaging audience experience. We believe the campaign stands out because it brought inclusivity and innovation together through a tactile Braille solution that created a deeply emotional, experiential, and impactful form of brand communication. Such a print innovation is extremely unique and difficult to replicate in the digital medium, while also reinforcing the relevance and sustenance of traditional media alongside the rapidly evolving digital world.”

Mayura Shreyams Kumar
Director–Digital Operations, Mathrubhumi Group

“We are participating in this year’s ABBY Awards with entries in Social Film, Use of AI, and Online Only Video under the Creative ABBYs. Our submissions include an anti-drug awareness campaign and the MBIFL promotional campaign, both driven by meaningful storytelling, cultural relevance, and innovative digital execution. I believe our campaigns deserve recognition because they combine strong creative thinking with meaningful impact.  While the anti-drug campaign focused on emotional awareness, the MBIFL campaign celebrated literature through engaging online-first formats, both blended in  creativity with purpose, reflecting the evolving language of modern advertising.”

Sagnik Ghosh
Head–Creative Strategy, Innovations, Trade Marketing and Branded Content, The Times of India

“The ABBY Awards have always been a vibrant celebration of the ideas, people, and creative courage shaping the future of brands and storytelling in India. Each year, it is inspiring to witness the fresh talent and thinking that continues to define the evolving marketing landscape. At The Times of India, we are constantly striving to unlock new ways for brands to form meaningful connections with consumers, and with multiple innovations making the shortlist this year, it is encouraging to see that we are moving in the right direction. In our campaigns, we always try to make our work stand out because we closely observe the best practices seen at platforms like the ABBYs and constantly push ourselves to do even better. Awards like The ABBYs are important because they not only recognise excellence, but also inspire the industry to keep pushing the boundaries of imagination, impact, and meaningful communication.”

- Compiled by Antora Chakraborty