EA wins most effective campaign for Apex Legends Japan, successful campaigns characterised by strong integration of creative and media
CeraVe, Heinz and McVitie’s lead the Kantar 2026 Advertising Effectiveness Awards, which celebrate the world’s most effective, results‑driving advertising. The only global awards to crown its winners based on the reactions of real people: the awards recognise 36 brands across four categories – campaigns, digital and social, TV, and print and outdoor.
The ‘campaigns’ category is a new addition to the awards this year, based on Kantar’s media effectiveness intelligence, and reflecting the increasing integration of creative and media in advertising. The inaugural winner of the world’s most effective campaign is gaming brand EA / Apex Legends for its Japan ‘Apex Legends S22’ campaign. Kantar’s experts hailed it as a standout example of applying the lessons of previous campaigns and well-considered channel selection; despite its scale the campaign deliberately avoided broadcast TV, anchoring instead around PlayStation ads and streaming and social channels. These reinforced each-other, creating a cumulative impact across channels.
The winners are determined by Kantar’s media and creative solutions and a qualitative review by Kantar’s diverse global creative and media experts. Together, they measure consumers’ reactions to ads and campaigns to assess their effectiveness and help marketers make decisions that will quantifiably build their brands.
The winners prove that when creative and media decisions work together, brands can deliver greater impact, and highlights three lessons CMOs can learn from the world’s most effective advertising:
The blurring lines of influence
Many of the winners demonstrate the convergence of celebrities and creators, making it ever more important for marketers to understand the new reality of influence. Winners include CeraVe for its TikTok campaign where creator Anwar Jibawi created a dramatic retelling of Romeo and Juliet to sell the benefits of the brand’s Air Foam cleanser. And the Hellmann’s Mayo campaign where a cameo from actor Sydney Sweeney brought the iconic 90s romcom “When Harry Met Sally” into the 21st century, and which used creator-led and social extensions to help the idea travel beyond the flagship Super Bowl TV slot.
Something old, something new
Many of the awarded campaigns show that alchemy lies in the ability to make the new work with the old. Heinz claimed the most effective TV ad of the year with a tennis‑themed spot reprising its classic ‘It has to be Heinz’ tagline, bringing the concept up to date with a reference to 2025’s summer of sport. Volkswagen Australia tapped into the brand’s iconic 1960s print ads to launch a new platform for its Tayron model, proving that effective advertising doesn’t always need reinvention, but an openness to evolving ideas and building on previous successes.
Consistent, coherent and connected
Many of this year’s standout campaigns demonstrate the power of well-tailored creative that allows each channel to sing, while delivering results that are worth more than the sum of their parts. Savanna Premium Cider stood out, taking home awards in the print/outdoor and TV categories for its ‘Steve Jobe & The Department of Unnecessary Innovation’ campaign.
“With AI making it possible for marketing teams to churn out content at unprecedented speed and scale, it’s more important than ever for CMOs to understand what’s actually effective. Otherwise, brands are simply adding to the noise rather than making decisions with confidence. Our winners offer clear lessons from the world’s most effective campaigns, whether that’s putting your brand at the heart of culture, refreshing a proven idea from your back catalogue, or joining the dots between channels to create campaigns that are more than the sum of their parts,” said Vera Sidlova, Global Creative Director at Kantar.
“At Heinz, we approach campaigns by first establishing an overarching idea that serves as the red thread through all our communications. We then identify what matters most to consumers at different touchpoints, ensuring our message connects effectively everywhere. For this campaign, we focused on what we call ‘irrational love’ for Heinz. It’s about those moments when consumers are so lost in enjoying their Heinz tomato ketchup-loaded hotdog – to take this example – that they are not paying attention to anything else around. It’s about the true, authentic connection which consumers are telling us they have with our brands.” said Karen Owen, Chief Growth Officer, European and Pacific Developed Markets at Kraft Heinz.
2026 Kantar Advertising Effectiveness Awards
The top three winners in each category are:
Digital and social
| Brand | Title | Agency | Channel | Country | |
| 1 | CeraVe | Romeo & Juliet | Content creator: Anwar | TikTok | USA |
| 2 | Neutrogena | Derm Hero | BBDO | YouTube | USA |
| 3 | Malibu | Malibu Hero Boardroom 21s Instagram | Wieden + Kennedy London | United Kingdom |
TV
| Brand | Title | Agency | Country | |
| 1 | Heinz | Lost in Love: Tennis | Wieden + Kennedy London | United Kingdom |
| 2 | Nationwide | Scam Checker 30s TVC | Mother | United Kingdom |
| 3 | Deliveroo | Unexpected Guest | Pablo London | Italy |
Print and outdoor
| Brand | Title | Agency | Country | |
| 1 | McVitie’s | McVitie’s Chocolate Digestives 100 Years OOH Banner | Adam & Eve\TBWA | United Kingdom |
| 2 | Heinz | It has to be Heinz in the year of the horse | Good Mong Kok | Chinese Mainland |
| 3 | Savanna | Savanna Steve Jobe Quality Credentials OOH | TBWA South Africa | South Africa |
Overall campaign
| Brand | Title | Agency | Country | |
| 1 | EA / Apex Legends | Apex Legends S22 | In house team | Japan |
| 2 | Victoria | A ti, ¿quién te espera? | Wieden + Kennedy | Mexico |
| 3 | Uber Eats | Uber Get Almost Almost Anything 3.0 | Special Group | Australia |
South Africa in focus: Savanna delivers a standout global performance
South Africa’s strongest showing at the 2026 Kantar Advertising Effectiveness Awards came from Savanna Premium Cider, the world’s top cider by volume. It’s ‘Steve Jobe & The Department of Unnecessary Innovation’ campaign achieved recognition across multiple categories on the global stage.
Savanna delivered one of the most impressive overall performances of the awards, ranking third worldwide in Print & Outdoor, fourth among the Top 10 Most Effective TV ads globally, and earning a shortlisting in Digital & Social. Together, these results mark the most significant showing by a South African brand this year and place Savanna among the world’s most effective advertising.
Commenting on this, Andrea Quaye, Marketing Director, Heineken says, “Savanna has always been built on sharp cultural insight and distinctive creativity. Seeing it recognised by Kantar as one of the world’s most effective campaigns – and for memorability at scale – is a powerful validation of how long‑term brand building and creative effectiveness can work together to drive growth.”
This builds on the brand’s momentum from last year, when Savanna was shortlisted in the TV category, and reinforces the strength of South African advertising when creativity and effectiveness work together. The brand was also recognised for the Most Memorable Advertising in the 2024 Kantar BrandZ Most Valuable South African Brands report, making its debut into the ranking in 8th place and signalling strong brand equity alongside its creative success.
Kantar’s global experts cited Savanna as a strong example of connected campaign thinking, where a single culturally resonant idea is executed with clarity across formats. From high‑impact outdoor work to narrative‑driven TV and satirical digital extensions, each execution played a distinct role while reinforcing a coherent brand idea and delivering impact greater than the sum of its parts.
Special award: Effectiveness at Scale
The Effectiveness at Scale award recognises the companies that have mastered scaling production without sacrificing performance. It is awarded to Coca-Cola, the company whose advertising delivers the strongest overall effectiveness across all content tested by Kantar during 2025.
To find out more about the Kantar Advertising Effectiveness Awards and see the full list of winners, please visit: https://www.kantar.com/campaigns/advertising-effectiveness
About Kantar
Kantar is the world’s leading marketing data and analytics business. We deliver the intelligence needed to power brand growth.
We provide the signals that help organisations act quickly and confidently. We empower brands to make effective marketing decisions based on predictive evidence. And we help them craft powerful growth strategies rooted in the connection between consumers, brands and enterprise value. All this is powered by our uniquely robust human and synthetic data, our unrivalled IP, our AI-native platform and the team of global brand experts that bring this all together.
About the Awards
Over the past six years, the Kantar Creative Effectiveness Awards have become a flagship global initiative – celebrating the world’s best-performing ads through the lens of consumers. 2026 marks a pivotal evolution to integrate creative and media intelligence into one unified awards event – the Kantar Advertising Effectiveness Awards.
