All finalists will win Gold, Silver, or Bronze Pencils or Merits, to be announced during Creative Week 2026 on Thursday, 14 May, and celebrated at The One Show 2026 awards ceremony on Friday, 15 May at Cipriani Wall Street in New York, says The One Club.

Ogilvy South Africa Cape Town leads the region with 15 finalists, including 13 for its work on 'Vaseline Verified' for Vaseline.

Accenture Song South Africa Cape Town has 13 finalists, all for The Philipstown WireCar Grand Prix on behalf of The Philipstown WireCar Foundation. Giant Films Cape Town has seven finalists, including five also for its work on The Philipstown WireCar Grand Prix, adds The One Club.

Three agencies have six One Show 2026 finalists: Impact BBDO Dubai, including three for AnNahar Newspaper, The Untaught History Edition; Joe Public Sandton, including two for Breast Cancer UK, 'Street Nipples'; and Promise Johannesburg, all for AfriSam, 'Unwanted Sites'.

Mermac Ogilvy UAE Dubai has five finalists, all for 'IKEA Affordable Masterpieces' on behalf of Al-Futtaim IKEA.  

With four One Show 2026 finalists each are GForce Grey Almaty, Synthesis Agency Tashkent, and VML Riyadh. CarrefourSA Istanbul has three, and two finalists each went to Leo UAE Dubai, Saatchi & Saatchi UAE Dubai, and TBWA \ Hunt Lascaris Johannesburg.

Six agencies have one finalist each: Edelman Johannesburg, Horizon FCB Dubai, Landor Dubai, M+C Saatchi Abel Johannesburg, The Odd Number Johannesburg, and VML South Africa Johannesburg, says The One Club.

Middle East and Africa's 80 finalists count by country is South Africa with 48, the United Arab Emirates with 18, Saudi Arabia with 7, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan with four each, and Turkey with three.

Globally, Rethink Toronto has the most finalists in the world with 47. Uncommon Creative Studio London has 34 finalists, followed by Apple Cupertino, FCB Chicago and VML New York with 26 each, Courage Inc. Toronto with 23, Area 23 with 21, and LePub Mexico with 20.  

This year's esteemed One Show global jury selected a total of 1 345 finalists from 51 countries and regions. The complete searchable list of finalists for The One Show 2026 is available here.

Creative Week 2026

Now in its 17th year, Creative Week is a premier annual gathering for the advertising and design industries to come together and celebrate the creative excellence showcased in The One Club's leading global awards shows: The One Show, ADC 105th Annual Awards, and Young Ones Student Awards.

This year's One Show ceremony on Friday, 15 May includes announcement of special awards such as Best of Show and Best of Discipline, the inaugural One Show Members Choice Award, as voted from among this year's top winners by The One Club membership, and 2026 Creative Hall of Fame inductees.

Other Creative Week 2026 programming includes The One Club AI Creative Challenge, exclusive Executive Creative Summit 2026, Client Pitch Competition, in person and virtual Portfolio Reviews, Type Directors Club TDC Lettering Walk, and informative daily Morning Buzz panels, concludes The One Club.

For more information, visit www.oneclub.org. You can also follow The One Club on Facebook, LinkedIn, X, Instagram, or on TikTok.

*Image courtesy of contributor