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- Punk Film was named Production Agency of the Year at the Golden Drum Festival.
- VML Czechia was the most successful Czech agency, winning seven awards.
- Leo Prague, Dentsu Creative and McCann also won gold medals.
- Young creatives from VML Czechia and Zaraguza triumphed in the Young Drummers competition.
The Czech production agency Punk Film was named Production Agency of the Year at this year’s Golden Drum 2026 International Festival of Creativity. Member agencies of the Association of Communication Agencies (AKA) took home twelve awards, including four gold medals. The jury also recognised the work of young creatives from the agencies VML Czechia and Zaraguza CZ, who received special mentions in the Young Drummers competition.
The awards ceremony for the 32nd Golden Drum Festival took place on 13 October in Portorož, Slovenia. The competition showcased creative work from 30 countries. The juries awarded a total of 43 bronze, 46 silver and 34 gold Golden Drum awards, as well as 14 Grand Prix prizes. A total of 187 entries made it onto the shortlist.
The top honour for the Czech representatives went to the production agency Punk Film, which the festival named Production Agency of the Year.
The most successful Czech agency at this year’s Golden Drum was AKA VML Czechia, a member agency of the AKA group, which won a total of seven awards for its KitKat campaign – two gold, three silver and two bronze. The “KitKat Break Billboards” campaign built on the brand’s long-standing slogan and utilised more than a hundred billboards across Prague that had been empty for several months and displayed the same placeholder image. The agency transformed them into checkpoints in an urban game: people could discover the billboards, scan them and receive a KitKat.
VML Czechia won a further two awards for its three-part series “Sensitive Content Exposed” for Médecins Sans Frontières. The jury awarded it a Golden Drum in the Print & Publishing category and a bronze in the Industry Craft category for Art Direction. The agency developed a project that draws attention to the suffering of people in crisis-hit areas. Social media platforms automatically blur some graphic photographs to protect users from disturbing content. The campaign utilised the same visual principle in reverse: the blurring became a frame that, as part of a public exhibition, revealed photographs from the organisation’s image database.
Leo Prague, part of Publicis Groupe, won four awards for its ‘Change My Mind’ (The Great Patriotic Trip) campaign: two gold and two silver Tambourines. The campaign was created for Czech Television. Its aim was to promote the broadcast of a documentary in which three Czech sceptics regarding the war in Ukraine travelled directly to the conflict zone. However, even after encountering the reality of war first-hand, none of them changed their opinion. The agency used this outcome as the main theme for its media communications, highlighting the power of Russian propaganda, which can even outweigh personal experience.
Zaraguza CZ was also successful. Its “Crashed Cans” campaign for Škoda Auto won a Bronze Drum in the Integrated group’s Profit category, which warns against drink-driving.
The creative agency Dentsu Creative succeeded with its work “Invisible Meals” (Food the world has never seen, Czech Federation of Food Banks), winning three awards in the Motion Craft category. The jury awarded it a Gold Drum in the Sound, Design & Adapted Music category, and two Silver Drums for Direction and Cinematography. The short film depicts a single mother’s daily meal preparation, yet the food itself is absent from the frame. The absence of food is intended to draw attention to hunger, which often remains hidden in everyday life. Shot on 16mm film, the film makes use of authentic sounds, minimalist music and silence.
The Czech delegation also enjoyed success in the Young Drummers competition for young creatives, in which the jury awarded two Special Mentions to entries from AKA member agencies. The first went to Olga Ricart from VML Czechia for her work ‘Seamlessly Different’. The second goes to Zaraguza CZ, where the duo Gesui Mirzo and Andrea Cabajová succeeded with their entry “Trip Happens”.
The Mastercard “Here to Stay” campaign also took home an award; it helps Slovakia make better use of migrants’ skills and address labour shortages. The digital tool links labour market data with career opportunities. The project was a collaboration between McCann Poland and McCann Prague. In addition to gold, silver and bronze, the campaign also won the special Best of Social Good award.
“This year’s Golden Drum results confirm that Czech agencies can succeed against international competition across various areas of advertising – from integrated campaigns and digital communication to film production and creative craftsmanship. I’d be delighted if next year saw even more Czech agencies keen to test their mettle against colleagues from across the European region,” says Radana Čechová, Executive Director of AKA, adding: “But what pleased me most of all this year were the Czech ‘young guns’. Not only the work itself, which earned them a place on the shortlist, but above all their enthusiasm, interest and willingness to devote time and energy to their work, show that we have a solid foundation to build on in the next generation of creatives. And that is good news for the future of our industry.”
All the award-winning entries are available in the official Golden Drum gallery.
Source: mediaguru.cz