ANZ Agencies Dominate CommsCon Awards 2026, Set APAC Benchmark

The 2026 CommsCon Awards ceremony at Crown Sydney recognized We Are Different, Agent99 PR, and Herd MSL as the night's top agency winners, with Orizontas' Vanessa Liell named PR Leader of the Year before an audience of more than 300 communications professionals.

ANZ Agencies Claim Top Honors at Sydney Ceremony

We Are Different secured multiple wins, including Launch/Relaunch Campaign of the Year for "Jack's Rides," developed with The Zoo Republic for Jack Daniel's, and Best Use of Research and Strategic Planning for "The Life-Changing Loo Roll," created for Kleenex.

Why Traditional PR Fails Against Organized Indigenous Advocacy

Resource companies face a new communications reality as organized Indigenous groups outmaneuver traditional PR tactics. The Murujuga campaign shows why CMOs must rethink stakeholder engagement in Asia-Pacific.

Mission MediaMission Media

Orizontas, alongside Rethink Everything, won the newly introduced Best Use of Strategic Communications category for "This is World Heritage," produced for Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation. The category, which recognizes work that builds reputation and long-term public trust, was one of two new additions to the awards program this year.

The other new category, Non-Traditional Campaign of the Year, covers communications work focused on behavior change, customer experience, and innovation. Organizers also removed "Highly Commended" rankings entirely, creating a binary win-or-no-win structure that raises the competitive bar with no consolation tier.

ANZ Performance at Regional Level Signals Competitive Shift

The CommsCon results follow a strong run by ANZ agencies at the PR Awards Asia-Pacific 2025, the region's most established PR competition, now in its 24th year. That event drew 243 shortlisted entries across 54 categories, with competition from Singapore, China, Australia, and New Zealand.

TBWA\New Zealand claimed the Grand Prix for Agency of Excellence at that event, winning multiple Golds in Experiential PR and Sports/eSports. Ogilvy APAC was the most awarded agency overall, collecting 12 metals including five Golds.

Australian agencies also performed strongly. Weber Shandwick Australia won Gold in Best Use of Influencers/Celebrities for its "Bring Your DNA Game" campaign for Ancestry. Publicis Groupe ANZ won Gold in the same category for "The Codral Cold & Flu Forecast." Independent agency Thinkerbell secured two Bronzes without global holding company backing, one in Integrated Marketing and one in Sports/eSports.

Havas Red Australia won Best Use of Owned Media at CommsCon 2025 for Tourism Tasmania's "Odd Jobs" campaign, which reached one billion people through an earned-first content and social approach with no paid amplification.

PR Awards Asia-Pacific 2026 Adds AI Categories Ahead of Next Cycle

The PR Awards Asia-Pacific 2026, marking the competition's 25th edition, is now open for entries. Organizers have introduced new AI-focused categories and separated Sport and Esports into distinct tracks, reflecting how the discipline has evolved since the competition launched.

The PRCA APAC Awards 2025, held in Singapore, offered a parallel regional benchmark across 34 categories open to all APAC markets, providing Asian agencies with a direct entry point to measure their work against ANZ peers.

For Asian agency leaders tracking competitive standards, the combined picture from CommsCon and the regional awards circuit points to three areas where ANZ agencies are currently winning recognition: owned media integration, strategic communications built around reputation and public trust, and influencer campaign architecture judged on strategic depth rather than audience size alone.