166 Blue and 7 Baby Black Elephants handed out at the Indian Kyoorius Creative Awards: Piyush Pandey receives Master of Creativity award
The 2025 Kyoorius Creative Awards, presented by ZEE, were handed out last night at Mumbai’s Jio World Convention Centre in front of an audience of over 1700 professionals from India’s marketing and communications industry.
Awards by Kyoorius do not follow a hierarchical structure – there are no golds, silvers or bronze medals. Instead, only the work that deserves recognition wins an Elephant. In total 7 Baby Black Elephants, 166 Blue Elephants, 3 Purple Elephants were awarded.
This year, Kyoorius received over 4000 entries from over 500 entrants, the highest ever in their history. 1124 entries made it to the First List after the first round of judging.
514 entries emerged as winners of the Baby Elephant. A total of 60 unique agencies, 177 campaigns, and 116 brands were awarded Baby Elephants. Out of the 514 Baby Elephants, 166 entries were elevated to Blue Elephants and were presented last night. A total of 37 unique agencies, 80 campaigns, and 62 brands took home Blue Elephants.
Three agencies scored Zee Equality Purple Elephant Awards – Ogilvy India for “Beti Bann Ke Aana”, Talented India for “Avani’s Gold” and Shikha Gupta for “Museum Of Boobs”.
Seven standout entries rose as nominees for the rare and revered Black Elephant, the highest honour at the Kyoorius Creative Awards. While the award remained elusive this year, each nominee was recognised with a Baby Black Elephant. These nominees are:
● “Best Birthday Gift” for Pran Foods | Tasty Treat by Grey Bangladesh
● “Beta Stayfree Le Aana” for Kenvue | Stayfree by DDB Mudra Group
● “Dabba Savings Account” for ESAF Small Finance Bank by McCann Worldgroup India
● “Desi Oon” for Centre for Pastoralism by Studio Eeksaurus Productions
● “Nature Shapes Britannia” for Britannia Industries by Talented
● “Write for Rights” for Mumbai Press Club by Famous Innovations
● “Neeraj” for Samsung by LoudMouth Film
The 166 Blue Elephants saw many agencies making visits to the stage on the night.
Ogilvy India picked up 33 Blue Elephants; Talented India scored 15 Blue Elephants in addition to their Baby Black and Purple Elephants; Famous Innovations walked away with 13 Blue to go with their Baby Black; DDB Mudra and Enormous were awarded 10 Blue, with Grey India picking up 8 and McCann Workgroup, Digitas and Havas awarded 5 each.
Kyoorius also celebrated living legend and a true giant of Indian advertising, Piyush Pandey, with the Master of Creativity award. A name that needs no introduction, Pandey has shaped the way India thinks, feels and communicates through ideas that have stood the test of time. The award honours his unmatched ability to tell stories with heart, humour and deep cultural understanding. Instituted in 2018, the Master of Creativity award recognises individuals who have continually inspired the industry and raised the bar for creative excellence.
“Massive congratulations to all the winners! From time-honoured legends to fearless young disruptors, what truly stood out this year was the incredible spectrum of brands that stepped up. And the work? It mirrored that energy and diversity. At Kyoorius, we’ve always believed in championing pure, honest creativity, no rankings, no politics, just the work. That’s the soul of the Elephants. And that’s why they still matter deeply to the industry,” said Rajesh Kejriwal, founder and CEO of Kyoorius (pictured above).
Kyoorius invited an all-star jury of over 65 creatives to judge. Jury Presidents included Prasoon Joshi (McCann Worldgroup), Kainaz Karmakar (Ogilvy India), Rajdeepak Das, (Publicis Groupe & Leo), Ashish Khazanchi (Enormous), Paul Nagy (VML APAC), Binaifer Dulani (Talented), Rahul Mathew (DDB Mudra Group), Surjo Dutt (Dentsu Creative India), Geet Rathi (Independent Creative Director) and Anupama Ramaswamy (Havas Creative India). View the full jury here.
The Kyoorius Creative Awards 2025 was presented by ZEE, with Luxury Experience Partner Glenmorangie and is supported by Indian Creative Women. The Spotlight partners were The Hindu and Tribes Group. The venue was the Jio World Convention Center, Mumbai.
All winning work can be viewed here
