Sandton Lifestyle Team
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2026 Effie Awards South Africa Winners Announced
Women for Change and Edelman South Africa claim the Grand Effie; inaugural Marketer and Agency of the Year honours recognise Women for Change and Joe Public
Effie Awards South Africa announced its 2026 winners at The Venue, Melrose Arch, celebrating 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, ten Silver and twelve Bronze.
Hosted by the Association for Communication and Advertising (ACA), this year’s celebration also introduced South Africa’s first Effie Marketer of the Year and Agency of the Year recognitions, awarded to Women for Change and Joe Public respectively.
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.
View highlights from “Inside the Judges’ Room with the 2026 South Africa Grand Effie Jury” HERE
“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,” said Gillian Rightford, ACA Executive Director for Effie South Africa.
Introducing Marketer of the Year and Agency of the Year
For the first time in South Africa, Effie recognised organisations whose work has made its mark across the programme through two new titles: Marketer of the Year, awarded to Women for Change, and Agency of the Year, awarded to Joe Public.
These recognitions celebrate performance across a body of effective work. They are determined by the points earned through the year’s Effie finalists and winners, using the Effie Index methodology.
New leadership for the 2027 programme
Effie South Africa also announced its incoming committee leadership and Jury Co-Chairs for the 2027 programme, which commences following the awards ceremony held on 20 October 2026.
Refilwe Maluleke, Executive Head of Marketing for Discovery Health, takes over as Effie South Africa Committee Chair, succeeding Anwar Jappie, whose tenure concludes with the 2026 programme. Neo Makhele, Chief Strategy Officer at Ogilvy South Africa, assumes the role of Deputy Chair.
The incoming Effie Jury Co-Chairs are Fran Luckin, Co-Chief Creative Officer of Boundless, and Mandisa Theko-Khitsane, Marketing Executive at Sanlam Retail Mass.
“We thank Anwar for his leadership and commitment to Effie South Africa throughout his tenure as Chair, and Refilwe Maluleke and Ahmed Tilly for their dedication and rigorous oversight as Jury Co-Chairs over the past three years. As we welcome Refilwe, Neo, Fran and Mandisa into their new roles, we look forward to the experience, perspective and care they will bring to the programme. Their collective leadership will help us build on its success, uphold the professionalism and rigour of our judging process, and ensure that strong jury oversight continues to underpin every Effie awarded,” said Rightford.
2026 Effie Awards Winners Table
| 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 | 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 |
Effie Awards South Africa is hosted by the Association for Communication and Advertising (ACA) and sponsored by Nedbank, South African Breweries (AB InBev), Unilever, Heineken Beverages, Discovery, Emeris, IAS, Eatbigfish Africa, Investec, Alt Studios, Boundless and Motion Ads.
Effie South Africa also thanks Effie Global Insights partner Ipsos, 2026 Effie Awards SA media partners Modern Marketing and Bizcommunity, and contributing organisations, Tiger Brands, Mondelēz, PepsiCo and GIB Insurance.
View the 2026 Effie Awards South Africa e-zine HERE
View the campaign reels on the Effie South Africa YouTube channel
For more information, visit the Effie South Africa website
or visit www.acasa.co.za
Join the conversation: #EffieAwardsSA
Follow @EffieSouthAfrica on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, and @EffieAwardsSA on X to keep up to date on the latest developments.
Sandton Lifestyle Team
