Indian agencies bag five Golds at Montreux Festival 2026

New Delhi: Indian agencies won five Gold awards and seven finalist honours at the 36th Golden Award of Montreux Festival, held in Switzerland in April 2026. The Montreux Festival, regarded as one of Europe's leading creative award platforms and often seen as a precursor to Cannes Lions, recognises excellence across advertising, design, digital, media and branded communications. Unlike many global award shows, the festival presents only Gold and Finalist honours, with no Silver or Bronze categories. Among the Indian winners, Tribes won Gold in the Spatial Communication category for HSBC's The Living Hexagon. BC Web Wise secured Gold in the Best Use of Branded Content category for Tata Power's Tanvi the Great. Tree Design won Gold in the Direct Marketing & Activation category for Tata Tea Premium's India's Tea and the Unique Art of its States, while Mathrubhumi took Gold in the Events category for Kappa CULTR 2026. Young & Hungry rounded off India's Gold tally with a win in the Design category for DeVans Gin Bottle Packaging. Indian agencies also earned seven finalist honours. Havas was recognised in the Poster category for its JBL campaign, while White Rivers Media picked up two finalist honours for DS Group's Pulse Jagannath Yatra and Scream for Pulse in the AI & Creative Systems and Digital, Interactive & Experience categories, respectively. Enormous received a finalist honour in the Poster category for NPCI's Art of Progress. Tree Design earned another finalist recognition for Tata Tea Gold's Durga Puja Ltd Edition in Packaging Design, while Mathrubhumi was recognised for its Edakkal Caves Documentary created for OBSRV. Hashtag Orange also made the finalist list for Zuno General Insurance's Safar Yeh Chill Wala in the Digital Innovation category. Internationally, BETC Paris won Ad of the Year for its work for CANAL+, while Serviceplan Group Germany was named Agency of the Year.