The 2026 Effie Awards South Africa winners have been announced, with the Grand Effie, the highest honour recognising South Africa’s most effective campaign of the year, awarded to Edelman South Africa and Women for Change for The Unburied Casket in the Non-Profit category.
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 |
