Currys, AMV BBDO and Spark Foundry win IPA Effectiveness Grand Prix. Ads added £500m

Currys, AMV BBDO and Spark Foundry won the Grand Prix at the 2026 IPA Effectiveness Awards for the campaign “Beyond Techspectations”. According to the case, the work brought the UK electronics retailer £500 million in extra revenue over two years. Omnicom took Effectiveness Company of the Year, and PHD Media was named Effectiveness Agency of the Year.

AMV BBDO turned Currys store staff into the selling point

The campaign has run since August 2023. AMV BBDO built it around a problem the agencies called a “crisis of unassisted selling”: people buy complex technology online with nobody to advise them. Instead of treating its shops as a cost, Currys put its staff and their advice at the centre of the ads, often in absurd, funny scenes.

Decision Marketing reports that market share rose 1.1 percentage points and long-term return on investment improved 44%. Creative Salon adds that Currys held 16.9% of the UK and Ireland market in 2024/25 and grew like-for-like revenue 6% in the first 17 weeks of 2026/27.

Specsavers, Andrex and Nationwide also took top prizes

Specsavers won the Broadbent Prize for long-term effectiveness, and Andrex took the President’s Prize for creative effectiveness. Mother and Wavemaker won the Channon Prize for Nationwide, according to More About Advertising. Tesco UK customer director Suzanne Quinn chaired the judges.

Quinn said the winning work showed how marketing can drive change across a whole business. Omnicom’s company title adds to a busy year for the group, which won $3.3bn in new media billings in the first half. Its agency Team X this week launched the Mercedes-AMG campaign with Brad Pitt.

Currys staff advice becomes a number to track

The Currys case rests on one link: shoppers who get advice in store buy more. A retail marketing team can check the same figure in its own data this quarter: what share of sales comes from shoppers who spoke to a member of staff, and whether any ad money tells customers that this advice is there.