AMV BBDO & Spark Foundry win 2026 IPA Effectiveness Awards Grand Prix

Presented at this evening's (Thursday 1 October) IPA Effectiveness Awards ceremony, the Grand Prix-winning paper, The Superpower In-store, tells the story of how Currys confronted an uncomfortable truth. As the UK's last major bricks-and-mortar technology retailer, it risked becoming increasingly irrelevant as consumers shifted online.

AMV BBDO and Spark Foundry identified a powerful insight at the heart of the challenge. While more consumers were buying technology online, they were increasingly being left to make complex and often expensive purchasing decisions without expert help. The agencies described this as a "crisis of unassisted selling".

Rather than viewing physical stores as a weakness, the agencies recognised that Currys possessed something online retailers could not easily replicate: thousands of knowledgeable colleagues capable of helping customers navigate increasingly complicated technology choices with confidence.

This insight became the foundation of Beyond Techspectations, a distinctive creative platform that used unexpected humour to celebrate and showcase the expertise of Currys colleagues. Positioning Currys as the antidote to online confusion and frustration, the campaign turned expert human advice into a compelling point of difference and made colleague expertise the hero of the brand.

Alongside the creative transformation, the agencies helped re-engineer Currys' marketing approach around long-term return on investment, moving the business beyond short-term supplier-led planning cycles and creating the conditions for sustained growth.

The result was a powerful combination of trust, expertise, humour and long-term thinking that transformed business performance. The campaign generated £500m in incremental revenue over two years, increased market share by 1.1 percentage points, delivered a 44% increase in long-term ROI and returned Currys to growth, cementing its position as the UK's most-preferred technology retailer.

The IPA Effectiveness Awards entries were rigorously analysed by Technical and Industry judging panels comprising leading strategists and econometricians to evaluate the commercial payback of marketing activity. The final awards were then determined by a panel of client-side marketing leaders chaired by Suzanne Quinn, UK Customer Director at Tesco.

Commenting on the IPA Effectiveness Awards Grand Prix:

Says Suzanne Quinn, Chair of Judges for the IPA Effectiveness Awards and UK Customer Director, Tesco:

“It has been an absolute privilege to chair this year’s IPA Effectiveness Awards. Throughout the judging process, we saw some truly outstanding examples of what can be achieved when exceptional creativity is combined with clear commercial ambition.

“What particularly impressed the judges about the Grand Prix winner was that it went far beyond advertising alone. It demonstrated how marketing can act as a real catalyst for business-wide transformation, earning a seat at the top table and helping drive meaningful change across an organisation. What I especially admire about this work is the way it put Currys’ colleagues at the heart of the growth story, turning their expertise into a genuine competitive advantage.

Charlie Ebdy, Convenor of Judges for the IPA Effectiveness Awards and Chief Strategy Officer UK, Omnicom Media:

“In an industry sometimes at pains to convince itself of its own ineffectiveness – where we tell ourselves that people don’t trust advertising, that it cannot or does not work in today’s cultural landscape – the renaissance of Curry’s, in the face of almost impossible odds, is a welcome rejoinder. Beyond Techspectations – a singular platform, built on a simple difference, executed with coherence, distinctiveness, and wit in a multitude of media, relentlessly optimised – shows us all what is possible in this new advertising paradigm. Congratulations on a well-deserved IPA Effectiveness Grand Prix.”

All winning case studies are available to download from the IPA website or from WARC. The IPA Effectiveness Awards are sponsored by Analytic Partners, System1, Thinkbox and WARC.

2026 IPA Effectiveness Awards winners:

Special Prizes:

Grand Prix:

• Currys by AMV BBDO and Spark Foundry: The Superpower In-store

Effectiveness Agency of the Year:

• PHD Media

Effectiveness Company of the Year:

• Omnicom

The Broadbent Prize for Best Dedication to Effectiveness:

• Specsavers

Best Not-For-Profit:

• Alzheimer's Society by Medialab, New Commercial Arts and Alzheimer's Society: How a 'cultural multiplier' generated the short and really long-term income to fight dementia

Best Small Budget:

• NHS Blood and Transplant by VML: Waiting to live: Shining a light on children waiting for a transplant

The President’s Prize for Creative Effectiveness:

• Andrex by Omnicom and PHD Media: Getting Andrex back on a roll: How confronting toilet truths unlocked a bold new chapter of growth

The Channon Prize for Best New Learning:

• Nationwide by Mother and Wavemaker London: Marketing and finance: Pioneering a new kind of alliance

Gold Awards:

Global Market:

• Specsavers by MG OMD and Specsavers Creative: The serious value of humour

Not-For-Profit:

• Alzheimer's Society by Medialab, New Commercial Arts and Alzheimer's Society: How a 'cultural multiplier' generated the short and really long-term income to fight dementia

Single Market:

• Andrex by Omnicom and PHD Media: Getting Andrex back on a roll: How confronting toilet truths unlocked a bold new chapter of growth
• Currys by AMV BBDO and Spark Foundry: The Superpower In-store
• Lurpak by Wieden+Kennedy London and Arla: How Lurpak has led a category for 19 years, by thinking outside it
• Nationwide by Mother and Wavemaker London: Marketing and finance: Pioneering a new kind of alliance

Silver Awards:

Not-For-Profit:

• NHS Blood and Transplant by VML: Waiting to live: Shining a light on children waiting for a transplant

Single Market:

• AJ Bell by Pablo London: Clear as a bell: The stupidly simple strategy that made AJ Bell the talk of the town
• Great Western Railway by adam&eve\TBWA: Consistency starts here: How committing to a single campaign idea paid back for Great Western Railway
• Volkswagen by adam&eve\TBWA and PHD Media: The power of people like you: How popularity paid back for Volkswagen

Bronze Awards:

Not-For-Profit:

• Capita, for the British Army by Droga5 and EssenceMediacom: You Belong Here: Sharpening belonging for the next generation of Army recruits

Regional Market:

• Škoda by AMV BBDO and PHD Media: Škoda Elroq: From complexity to confidence – how Škoda unlocked Europe’s EV market

Single Market:

• Admiral by McCann Bristol: Ahoy Admouth! The power of a fluent world to create emotional connections
• Confused.com by Leo UK and Zenith UK: From chasing efficiencies to growing efficiently: How Confused.com made the whole system work harder
• easyJet by VCCP, T&P London and Kepler: Not a campaign, a creative system for the modern era of algorithmic media
• Gousto by the7stars: Gousto rewrote the rules of DTC growth by building a brand before chasing performance
• Jaffa Cakes by adam&eve\TBWA and MG OMD: How a modern brand-building strategy reignited an age-old debate about Jaffa Cakes
• Madrî Excepcional by Ogilvy UK and Carat: “You don’t need history, to make history”: How Madrí Excepcional became a £1bn brand in 5 years
• SMARTY mobile by The Gate London, Zenith UK and VodafoneThree: Less Malarkey. More SMARTY: How a flanker brand reignited growth in a shrinking market
• Vitality by VCCP: Life, not death