Ampersand Advisory and Digital Symphony take top honours at the MARKies and Agency of the Year Awards

Ampersand Advisory continued its remarkable run at the Agency of the Year Awards 2026, retaining the Overall Agency of the Year title for a third consecutive year while also dominating the MARKies Awards.

The independent agency emerged as the night's biggest winner, collecting five Gold, 11 Silver, four Bronze and six Local Hero trophies at the Agency of the Year Awards. The haul underscored another standout year for the agency, with wins spanning content, experiential, media, mobile, performance and sustainability marketing, alongside recognition for emerging talent.

Among its victories were 'Content Marketing Agency of the Year', 'Experiential Marketing Agency of the Year', 'Media Agency of the Year', 'Mobile Marketing Agency of the Year', 'Performance Marketing Agency of the Year', 'Sustainability Communications Agency of the Year' and 'Rising Star', highlighting the breadth of its capabilities across the marketing spectrum.

Sharing second place in the Overall Agency of the Year rankings were Digital Symphony, which earned seven Gold, one Silver and seven Local Hero trophies, and Yellow Leads, with six Gold, two Silver, two Bronze and three Local Hero trophies.

Digital Symphony, however, claimed one of the evening's most coveted honours, emerging as 'Overall Local Hero' after topping the local agency rankings with seven Local Hero trophies, complemented by seven Gold and one Silver award. The agency impressed judges with work across analytics, CRM and loyalty, digital, lead generation and programmatic marketing, further strengthening its reputation as one of Malaysia's leading homegrown agencies.

Ampersand Advisory secured second place in the Overall Local Hero rankings, while BLWN rounded out the podium with four Gold, two Bronze and four Local Hero trophies.

The celebrations did not stop there.

At the MARKies Awards 2026, Ampersand Advisory once again proved its creative and strategic prowess by retaining both the Overall Creative Ideas MARKie and Overall Media Usage MARKie titles for the fourth consecutive year.

The agency amassed eight Gold, eight Silver and four Bronze trophies in the Creative Ideas track, alongside six Gold, four Silver and four Bronze trophies in Media Usage. Winning campaigns including "Fake vs Real M. Nasir", "Funseekers Collection: A Cross Border Collab That Took Off", "The Story That United a Nation: Driving 23% Sales Growth" and "ICON for an ICON: How we drove 7% market share growth" showcased the agency's ability to blend bold creativity with measurable business results.

GO Communications finished second in the Overall Creative Ideas MARKie rankings with three Gold and one Bronze trophy, while Yellow Leads secured third place with one Gold, three Silver and two Bronze trophies.

In the Overall Media Usage MARKie standings, Mindmade Creative Communications claimed second place with four Gold, one Silver and one Bronze trophy, while Digital Symphony completed the top three with two Gold and two Silver trophies.

Together, the Agency of the Year Awards and MARKies Awards celebrated the agencies, campaigns and talent driving Malaysia's marketing industry forward, recognising excellence across creative thinking, strategic planning, media innovation and business impact.

View the complete list of Agency of the Year Awards 2026 winners here, and explore the full list of MARKies Awards 2026 winners here.

Continuing to uphold the integrity of the awards, this year's MARKies programme featured an entry cap alongside a live judging day, where finalists presented their work directly to a panel of 29 senior client-side marketers from leading organisations including Air Selangor, Burger King Malaysia, Lotus's Stores (Malaysia), PepsiCo Malaysia, Unifi (Telekom Malaysia) and ZUS Coffee.

The celebrations culminated on 16 July at Le Méridien Petaling Jaya, where Malaysia's marketing community gathered to honour the year's best work. Advertising + Marketing Malaysia extends its sincere appreciation to the esteemed judging panel for their expertise, dedication and commitment to a rigorous evaluation process. Special thanks also go to official beer partner Heineken Malaysia for helping make the evening's celebrations even more memorable.

Congratulations once again to all finalists and winners for continuing to raise the bar for Malaysia's marketing industry.