Awards Wrap: Kantar’s 2026 Advertising Effectiveness Awards winners are in, Taryn Hunter Sharman wins Woman of Stature Award for Entrepreneur 12 South Africans on Cannes Lions jury of the Year,

The Media Online’s weekly column delivering news of award wins, entries, competitions, dates to note and winners in the media.

Kantar’s 2026 Advertising Effectiveness Awards: the winners are in

CeraVe, Heinz and McVitie’s have taken the top honours at Kantar’s 2026 Advertising Effectiveness Awards, celebrating the world’s most effective, results-driven advertising, and the only global awards judged on the reactions of real people.

Across 36 winning brands and four categories – campaigns, digital and social, TV, and print and outdoor – this year’s results reinforce a simple truth: when creative and media work together, advertising works harder.

The winners prove that when creative and media decisions work together, brands can deliver greater impact, and it also highlights three lessons CMOs can learn from the world’s most effective advertising:

2026 Kantar Advertising Effectiveness Awards: The top performers globally

Digital and social

TV

Print and outdoor

Overall campaign

Download the full report to see all the winners.

Taryn Hunter Sharman wins Woman of Stature Award for Entrepreneur of the Year

Taryn Hunter Sharman, entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and founder and managing director of Faith & Fear (Pty) Ltd, has been named the winner of the Woman of Stature Award in the Entrepreneurship and Business category – an honour that reflects not just a career, but a deliberate approach to building businesses that create access for others.

Faith & Fear, the Johannesburg-based advertising and communications consultancy she co-founded, operates on a distributed model that deliberately creates opportunity for women-owned businesses and independent specialists. The agency works with some of South Africa’s most recognised brands – including Profmed Medical Scheme, Liberty, and RMB – and has built a reputation for work that is both commercially rigorous and culturally intelligent.

But Hunter Sharman’s impact extends beyond client work. In 2026, Faith & Fear won a Gold SABRE Award, and a silver Loerie for Profmed finDR – a platform connecting unemployed junior doctors to understaffed healthcare facilities – a campaign that demonstrated what happens when business strategy and social purpose are genuinely aligned.

She is also the author of Fearocious – a framework that repositions fear not as an obstacle, but as a teacher. It is a philosophy she lives professionally and shares widely as a keynote speaker.

“I’ve spent a long time thinking about what it means to build something that lasts,” she said. “Not just a business that performs but a model that opens doors for other people. This recognition affirms that those two things are not in conflict. You can be commercially excellent and genuinely purposeful. That’s the only kind of business I’m interested in building.”

Twelve South Africans on Cannes Lions jury

The Cannes Lions 2026 juries have been revealed, and South Africa has 12 jurors at the Festival of Creativity. They are:

• Audio & radio: Jabulani Sigege, group executive creative director, Machine_
• Creative data: Veli Ngubane, chief creative officer, Avatar
• Creative effectiveness: Mpume Ngobese, managing director, Joe Public
• Creative strategy: Neo Makhele, chief strategy officer, Ogilvy South Africa
• Digital craft: Stephanie Mazingi, creative managing director, Havas South Africa
• Direct: Khethiwe Makhubo, creative group head, McCann Joburg
• Entertainment Lions for Gaming: Danni Pinch, executive creative director, Accenture Song
• Glass: The Lion for Change: Suhana Gordhan, chief creative officer and founder, LoveSong
• Media, Dashni Vilakazi: managing director, The MediaShop
• Print & Publishing, Nkgabiseng Motau: co-founder and chief creative officer, Think Creative Africa
• Sustainable Development Goals: Bogosi Motshegwa, founder, CEO, and chief strategy officer, Thinkerneur
• Social & Creator, Khangelani Dziba: brand communications consultant, Independent

Mark Awards launches new partnership category

The Independent Agency Search & Selection Company (IAS) has announced its sponsorship of the Mark Awards’ Partnering for Growth Award, created to recognise the collaborations that build brands over time, not just the work they produce.

The Mark Awards were established by Mark Lives to celebrate what creativity-led award shows often miss: innovation, technology, effectiveness and real commercial impact. After drawing more than 300 entries in their inaugural year, the 2026 edition returns with sharper focus and stronger momentum.

The new Partnering for Growth Award reflects that shift. Rather than rewarding a single campaign or short-term burst of success, it recognises partnerships that have helped build brands over time through shared ambition, strategic alignment and strong execution.

Johanna McDowell, CEO of IAS, says the category speaks directly to what many businesses need most right now: relationships that create real value. “Great marketing rarely happens in isolation. It happens when clients and agencies challenge each other, trust each other and stay focused on outcomes. Too often, the spotlight falls only on the final piece of work, not on the partnership that made it possible. This award changes that, and we’re proud to support it.”

The One Show announces 80 Finalists from Middle East & Africa

The One Club for Creativity has announced the entries from 51 countries and regions that have been selected as finalists for The One Show 2026, including 80 from Middle East & Africa.

All finalists will win Gold, Silver, or Bronze Pencils or Merits, to be announced during Creative Week 2026 on 14 May, and celebrated atThe One Show 2026 awards ceremony on 15 May at Cipriani Wall Street in New York.  

Ogilvy South Africa Cape Town leads the region with 15 finalists, including 13 for its work on “Vaseline Verified” for Vaseline. Accenture Song South Africa Cape Town has 13 finalists, all for “The Philipstown WireCar Grand Prix” on behalf of The Philipstown WireCar Foundation.  Giant Films Cape Town has seven finalists, including five also for its work on “The Philipstown WireCar Grand Prix”.

Three agencies have six One Show 2026 finalists: Impact BBDO Dubai, including three for AnNahar Newspaper “The Untaught History Edition”; Joe Public Sandton, including two for Breast Cancer UK “Street Nipples”; and Promise Johannesburg, all for AfriSam “Unwanted Sites”.

Six agencies have one finalist each: Edelman Johannesburg, Horizon FCB Dubai, Landor Dubai, M+C Saatchi Abel Johannesburg, The Odd Number Johannesburg, and VML South Africa Johannesburg.

Middle East & Africa’s 80 finalists count by country is South Africa with 48, UAE with 18, Saudi Arabia with 7, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan with four each, and Turkey with three.

Mzansi’s high school war cry champions announced on 5FM

After weeks of pure fire, unmatched school pride and the loudest gees in the country, the champions of the 2026 #5FMWarCryChamps, proudly brought to you by Standard Bank, were officially crowned live on 5FM’s 5 Breakfast with Nick Hamman this week.

After an overwhelming response and massive, impassioned public support that flooded social media channels, the Top 10 across Girls’, Boys’ and Co-Ed categories were revealed on air last week. Each winning school walks away with a whopping R20 000 in cash, courtesy of 5FM and Standard Bank. 

GIRLS’ SCHOOLS – TOP 3

• Winner: St Stithians Girls’ College
• 2nd Place: Parktown High School for Girls
• 3rd Place: Jeppe Girls

BOYS’ SCHOOLS – TOP 3

• Winner: Parktown Boys
• 2nd place: St Stithians Boys
• 3rd place: Christian Brothers’ College Boksburg

CO-ED SCHOOLS – TOP 3

• Winner: Sacred Heart College
• 2nd place: Trinityhouse Little Falls
• 3rd place: Fourways High School

African Foundation honoured by Commonwealth

Ivor Ichikowitz, Chair of the Ichikowitz Family Foundation, has received the Commonwealth Award for Youth Impact 2026 in recognition of the Foundation’s work advancing youth development through the African Youth Survey, one of the most ambitious and wide-ranging research programmes focused on the views, aspirations and frustrations of young Africans.

The award was presented at the Commonwealth Youth Summit at Oxford University this weekend. Awarded by the Commonwealth Youth Council and the Commonwealth Leadership Academy, the honour recognises individuals and organisations whose work is helping to drive meaningful progress in youth development across the Commonwealth.

Ichikowitz received the award for the impact of the African Youth Survey, the Foundation’s biennial research initiative which has become the most trusted and extensive major source of evidence on what young Africans think about politics, economic opportunity, governance, migration, security, identity and the future of the continent.

The Foundation also confirmed today that Africa Youth Survey 2026 will be released on 25 May 2026, Africa Day.