2026 Effie Awards SA name Women for Change Marketer of the Year and Joe Public Agency of the Year

The Grand Effie, the highest honour recognising South Africa’s most effective campaign of the year, was awarded to Edelman South Africa and Women for Change for “The Unburied Casket” in the Non-Profit category (Image: @Bizcommunity)

Women for Change were also named South Africa’s first Effie Marketer of the Year.

After being named the Independent Agency of the Year and Agency of the Year at the Loeries only 10 days ago, Joe Public was recognised as the Effie Agency of the Year.

This is the first time in South Africa that Effie has recognised organisations whose work has made its mark across the programme through these two new titles: Marketer of the Year and Agency of the Year.

These recognitions celebrate performance across a body of effective work and are determined by the points earned through the year’s Effie finalists and winners, using the Effie Index methodology.

A record year for entries

The Awards, hosted by the Association for Communication and Advertising (ACA), took place at The Venue, Melrose Arch, and celebrated the ideas, strategies and measurable results that define marketing effectiveness.

Following another record year for entries, the programme recognised 45 finalists and awarded 27 trophies: one Grand Effie, four Gold, 10 Silver and 12 Bronze.

“This year’s winners demonstrate the extraordinary possibilities when a clear understanding of the challenge meets bold creativity and rigorous measurement.

The work shows how effective marketing can build businesses, shift behaviour and make a meaningful contribution to society.

We congratulate the agency and client teams behind these achievements and look forward to building on this momentum in 2027, continuing to champion work that proves its impact,” says Gillian Rightford, ACA executive director for Effie South Africa.

All the winners

AWARD	AGENCY	CLIENT	BRAND	CAMPAIGN	CATEGORY
Grand	Edelman South Africa	Women For Change	Women For Change	The Unburied Casket	Non-Profit
Gold	Edelman South Africa	Women For Change	Women For Change	The Unburied Casket	Social Good - Brands / Positive Change
Gold	Clockwork	The Salvation Army	The Salvation Army x National GBV Command Centre	Escape It	Non-Profit
Gold	Joe Public	Uber Eats South Africa	Uber Eats	Own the Hours Others Abandoned	Delivery Services
Gold	Edelman South Africa	Women For Change	Women For Change	The Unburied Casket	Non-Profit
Silver	McCann Joburg	SA Heart Association	SA Heart® (South African Heart Association)	Check My Beat: Heart Health Tracks	Small Budgets - Non-Profit, Products, Services
Silver	Joe Public	Uber Eats South Africa	Uber Eats	Own the Hours Others Abandoned	Marketing Disruptors
Silver	KAMuses Consultancy	KFC South Africa	KFC Africa	Add Hope The Biggest Hunger Hack	Social Good - Brands / Positive Change
Silver	Clockwork	The Salvation Army	The Salvation Army x National GBV Command Centre	Escape It	Social Good – Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Silver	Joe Public	Chicken Licken	Chicken Licken	Nothing to Bite Into. Everything to Talk About.	Restaurants
Silver	Joe Public	SAB (AB InBev)	Castle Milk Stout	The Revealing Pour: A print ad that went beyond ink and paper.	Media Innovation - Emerging & New Channels, Existing Channels / Media Effies
Silver	Ogilvy	KFC South Africa	KFC South Africa	Obsessively Building KFC's Taste Platform to Unlock a New Generation of Fanatics	Sustained Success - Products, Services
Silver	Ogilvy and Ogilvy Singapore	Unilever South Africa	Vaseline PJ	How Vaseline Rewrote the Rules of Trust in the Social Era	Marketing Disruptors
Silver	Ogilvy	Volkswagen Group, South Africa	Volkswagen South Africa	Forever Golf - How VW Turned a 47‑Year Nickname Tradition into a Record‑Breaking Golf 8 Launch.	Engaged Community
Silver	Ogilvy	Audi South Africa	Audi	TikTok Test Drive: How Audi turned TikTok's scroll into a steering wheel	Social Media
Bronze	KAMuses Consultancy	KFC South Africa	KFC Africa	Add Hope The Biggest Hunger Hack	Corporate Reputation
Bronze	Clockwork	The Salvation Army	The Salvation Army x National GBV Command Centre	Escape It	Media Idea / Media Effies
Bronze	Clockwork	The Salvation Army	The Salvation Army x National GBV Command Centre	Escape It	Small Budgets - Non-Profit, Products, Services
Bronze	Joe Public	SAB (AB InBev)	Castle Milk Stout	The Revealing Pour: A print ad that went beyond ink and paper.	Small Budgets - Non-Profit, Products, Services
Bronze	Joe Public	Takealot	Takealot	Takealot: the marketing case for hyperlocal marketing	Multicultural - Products, Services
Bronze	Ogilvy	Google	Google	What Happens When Search Never Leaves The Gen Z Feed?	Youth Marketing
Bronze	Joe Public	SAB (AB InBev)	Flying Fish	Out Of Your Home: How We Made Flying Fish impossible to ignore	Media Innovation - Emerging & New Channels, Existing Channels / Media Effies
Bronze	Ogilvy	YUM Brands	KFC South Africa	When Everyone Went Cheap, KFC Went Bottomless	Seasonal Marketing - Products, Services
Bronze	Promise Group	SAB (AB InBev)	Castle Lite	The Draught Story	Sustained Success - Products, Services
Bronze	Boundless	South African Breweries	South African Breweries	Forever Committed	Corporate Reputation
Bronze	Ogilvy	Volkswagen Group, South Africa	Volkswagen South Africa	Forever Golf - How VW Turned a 47‑Year Nickname Tradition into a Record‑Breaking Golf 8 Launch.	Brand Content & Entertainment
Bronze	Ogilvy	SAB (AB InBev)	Carling Black Label	Carling Black Label - Be The Champion Coach: reimagined as the highest-stakes fan mechanic in SA football	Engaged Community