The shortlist for the 2026 APMC Star Awards has been announced. The Awards reward and showcase outstanding marketing within the experiential, brand activation, sponsorship and promotional marketing industries in Ireland.
Entries were judged by a panel of experts from across the marketing industry including Ian McColl, MD of therefour; Peter Kerr of MRM Marketing UK, IMPACT and the IPM; Jimmy Murphy, Deputy Managing Director of Connelly Partners; Mags O’Reilly, Brand Communications and Sponsorship Manager in An Post; Muiris Ó Riada, International Marketing Director at Proximo and Paul Miley, CEO of Paysafe Group.
For 2026, Allied Global Marketing (AGM) leads the way with 19 nominations followed by Verve the Live Agency and BITEMARK, also part of the Verve with 12 nominations between them. goosebump also shortlisted 12 times, closely followed by CMS Marketing with 10. CMS partnered with OLIVER and OMD for two further nominations.
Invention, part of WPP Media also had a strong showing with eight nominations as did Mixtape with seven. Elsewhere, InSight Marketing and The Brill Building were both strongly credited too, as were Backup Marketing. New entrants Legacy Communications and Wilson Hartnell also made the line-up.
The announcement of winners will take place in The Grafton Suite of the Westbury Hotel, on Thursday, April 16. TV and radio presenter Anna Daly will be the MC for the night.
The 2026 Star Awards are sponsored by IMJ, Element London, Hayes Solicitors, Fillit, Return2Sender, McCul Clothing, global, Session Hire and Horizon Digital Print.
Qualifying winners from the Star Awards will be eligible to enter the EACA IMPACT Awards in Europe, where Irish agencies have a strong record of success.
The full shortlist is available HERE
For more information, or to book tickets to the event, visit www.apmc.ie/awards or email Karen Neville: karen@apmc.ie
