Maddys 2025 goes global, gets glossier

MUMBAI: The Advertising Club Madras is bringing the heat with the 43rd edition of Maddys, giving India’s longest-running advertising awards a slick new sheen – and a global passport. This year’s rebooted avatar doesn’t just honour great work, it redefines the very format with new categories, a heavyweight jury, a transparent scoring system, and an international welcome mat.

Themed ‘AI vs AI – Awesome Ideas vs Awesome Ideas’, Maddys 2025 goes all in on the creative wars in a tech-saturated world – and the stakes are high.

For starters, it’s going international. The awards will now invite entries from across borders, aligning themselves with global benchmarks. With 155 categories across six streams – Creative, Digital, Media, Design & Print Craft, Film & Audio Craft, and Regional Pride (Tamil) – this isn’t just a celebration, it’s a campaign for creative excellence.

The 2025 edition also introduces Grand Prix honours, a one-day celebration that starts with breakfast and ends with a cocktail, and a robust, two-tiered judging system scored on Strategy & Insights, Originality & Creativity, and Execution & Impact – minus the fluff of performance metrics.

The dream jury team includes:

. Karthi Marshan, former Kotak CMO, and Senthil Kumar of VML India co-chairing Creative MADDYS

.  Ajay Gupte of Wavemaker chairing Media

.  Dr. Apurva Chamaria of Google helming Digital

.  Filmmaking duo Gayatri & Pushkar chairing Film & Audio Craft

.   Santosh Padhi of Into Creative on Design & Print Craft duty

.   Chocka of OPN taking charge of Regional Pride Maddys

Process czar Gokul Krishnamoorthy returns as honorary jury convenor and process auditor, ensuring the judging stays squeaky clean and crystal clear.

Aside from bragging rights, agencies and clients can win titles across streams. Grand Prix winners bag 30 points, with Gold (15), Silver (7), Bronze (3), and Shortlists (1) rounding out the leaderboard — all contributing to the prestigious “Agency of the Year” and “Client of the Year” crowns across categories.

From art directors to Tamil-language storytellers, from global digital campaigns to handcrafted print ideas — Maddys 2025 isn’t just turning up the volume, it’s tuning into the future. Ready, set, pitch.