ACKO Drive Awards Celebrate India’s Best Automotive Marketing Minds at the 2026 Marcom TOTMs

ACKO Drive, the automotive content and intelligence brand of ACKO, concluded the 2026 Marcom TOTMs — The One That Matters — on June 5, bringing together India’s best automotive marketing, communications, and advertising professionals for a night that put the people behind the campaigns front and centre.

In a category that has long celebrated the machines, the Marcom TOTMs have been the only major honours to recognise the people and ideas behind them since the inception of the ACKO Drive Awards in 2023. The 2026 edition reinforced that distinction — across 22 categories spanning campaign films, digital innovation, PR excellence, community programmes, and individual leadership.

In just four years, the TOTMs have earned the trust of OEMs, automotive enthusiasts, and consumers through an uncompromising focus on credibility and independence. The TOTMs are powered by Grant Thornton Bharat as the Knowledge Partner, ensuring a research-led, transparent, credible, and unbiased evaluation framework. Grant Thornton structures the jury scoring and aggregation process with audit-like rigour, making the TOTMs the most methodologically robust auto awards in the country. Hence, the title of India’s most credible automobile honours.

The TOTMs are now ranked 8th across the Asia & Africa regions for reach, recall, and impact amongst all automotive awards in the region, placing India firmly on the global automotive map.

Recognising What Actually Drives the Automotive Business

The 2026 ACKO Drive Marcom TOTMs were structured around three pillars:

• Creative Excellence: Films, campaigns, and brand storytelling that resonate with audiences — work that earns attention and builds brand equity in India’s most competitive consumer market.
• Digital Innovation: AI-driven strategies, data-led campaigns, and phygital experiences that have transformed how automotive brands engage with consumers.
• Business Impact: PR excellence, CMO leadership, and Brand of the Year accolades that measure the commercial and reputational outcomes of great marketing.

This year’s edition also introduced new categories including Brand of the Year, PR Agency of the Year, and Best Community Programme — recognising the full spectrum of work that shapes automotive culture in India.

A Gathering of India’s Finest Marketing Minds

The Marcom TOTMs were evaluated by a jury of senior practitioners drawn from across advertising, marketing, PR, and communications — people who have built campaigns, run agencies, and shaped editorial standards in the industry they were asked to judge. Deliberations ran across three rounds: May 19 and May 20 for PR & Communications and Marketing & Advertising respectively, and a final round with shortlisted nominees on June 2, 2026. Grant Thornton Bharat oversaw the structured evaluation throughout.

The ACKO Drive Marcom TOTMs Jury

Abhay Dange — Corporate Communications & Public Affairs Professional; nearly three decades shaping communication and reputation in India’s premium mobility industry

Abhishek Gulyani — Managing Director India and Head of Corporate Affairs, Asia Pacific, Zeno Group

Ajay Gahlaut — Independent Creative, with a quarter century of experience

Anita Sharma — Senior Marketing Communications Professional; 30+ years across Fortune 500 mandates

Ashish Chakravarty — Managing Partner & Chief Creative Officer, Garage Worldwide; formerly Executive Director and India Head of Creative, McCann Worldgroup

Gaurav Dudeja — CBO, Kinnect; 24+ years in agency leadership

Nandini Dias — Independent Strategic Advisor & Board Director; 25+ years in the advertising industry

Nikhil Chawla — Columnist and Creator; 15+ years as an automotive and technology expert

Paarul Chand — Editor-in-Chief and Business Lead, PRmoment India; co-author, A Question of Trust: The CEO’s Guide to Strategic Communications

Sandeep Nair — Co-Founder, David & Who; Author, The Story Map; brand strategist with expertise in positioning and communication strategy

Siddharth Vinayak Patankar — Editor-in-Chief, ACKO Drive; Chair, World Car Awards

Yogendra Pratap — Editor-in-Chief, Auto Today

The 2026 Marcom TOTMs Honour Roll

Campaign & Creative Awards

Best Creative Ad Film (Bike): Bajaj Chetak – Fully Life Proof
Runner-Up: Royal Enfield Bullet 650 – The Ballad of the Bullet

Best Creative Ad Film (Car): Mahindra Thar – Toll of Duty
Runner-Up: Škoda Octavia – RS with Rishab Sharma

Best Social Media Campaign (Bike): Vida – Vida Vaka Voom
Runner-Up: TVS – Are You A Raider Bro?

Best Social Media Campaign (Car): Mahindra XUV 7X0 – Women’s Day

Best PR Campaign (Bike): Joint Winners: Classic Legends – Roadster Red Wolf launch & Royal Enfield – Flying Flea launch
Special Mention: Ultraviolette – Fast Forward India

Best PR Campaign (Car): VinFast – VF6, VF7 launch
Runner-Up: Renault – Duster launch

Best Innovation (Car): Nissan – Magnite Kuro Amazon Box
Runner-Up: Mercedes-Benz – Dream Days

Best Integrated Campaign (Bike): Bajaj – GoGo: Ek Charge Mein

Best Integrated Campaign (Car): Volvo – Most Ignored Painting/Car Part
Runner-Up: Mercedes-Benz – Dream Days

Best CSR Initiative: Hyundai – Samarth
Runner-Up: Honda India Foundation – Project Swabhiman
Special Mention: Volvo – The Reverse Project

Best Creative Use of Data: Mahindra – Unlimit Yearbook for eSUV Customers

Best Use of AI in Marketing/Sales: Hero – Dealer Creative Studio
Runner-Up: Mahindra – XUV 700 Showreel

Best Community Programme (Bike): Classic Legends – Nomads

Best Community Programme (Car): Mahindra – Club Challenge

Individual & Brand Awards

Best PR Team of the Year (Bike): Classic Legends
Runner-Up: Raptee

Best PR Team of the Year (Car): Hyundai Motor India
Runner-Up: Škoda Auto India

Marketing Disruptor of the Year: Škoda Auto India

Brand Ambassador of the Year: Pankaj Tripathi for Hyundai India

Marcom Person of the Year: Manjari Upadhye, Mahindra

PR Agency of the Year: Adfactors PR

Brand of the Year (Bike): Royal Enfield

Brand of the Year (Car): Hyundai Motor India

Jury’s Choice: Best Presenter: Sandeep Fernandes, Škoda Auto India

Siddharth Vinayak Patankar, Editor-in-Chief, ACKO Drive; Chief Creative Officer, ACKO; and Chair, World Car Awards, said: “The TOTMs have spent four years earning the trust of an industry that does not give it easily. That trust comes from one thing: an uncompromising commitment to recognising what genuinely matters. Once again this year, with the Marcom honours, we did something we have always believed in — we turned the spotlight on the silent heroes of the automotive world. The marketers, communicators, and storytellers give machines their soul. They craft the narratives that make people fall in love with a car or bike before they ever sit in one, the campaigns that make a brand feel human, the ideas that turn a product launch into a cultural moment. The TOTMs remain the only major automotive honours in India to recognise that this work deserves a stage of its own. And if the quality of entries this year is any indication, India’s automotive marcom talent is not catching up to global standards — it is setting them.”