Winners of the first edition of Manifest Play, a sports marketing awards and summit, were revealed on 9 April through an awards evening held in Mumbai.

A total of 16 winners and seven runners-up were awarded across categories at the event for which Havas Play was the title sponsor.

In the 'Best Brand Integration (Broadcast)' category, Swiggy bagged a win for its 'Playground' entry. The entry also won in the ‘Best Sponsorship Of A Tournament’ category.

Tata.EV's 'Shatter Glass, Shattered Norms' entered by FCB Kinnect bagged wins in the 'Best Brand Integration (on-ground)' and 'Best Sports PR' categories.

In the 'Best Brand Integration (On-ground)' category, DreamSetGo was the winner for its 'DreamSetGo x Queensland Tourism' campaign. DreamSetGo was also the runner-up in the 'Best Sports Promo' category for its 'Paris Olympics 2024' campaign.

In the ‘Best Promo (Sports) category, the winner was PKL on Star Sports, entered by Boot Polissh Films.

The winner in the 'Best eSports Brand Integration' category was My11Circle’s ‘Ek Crore Se Hi Toh Shuruaat Hai, Toh Socho Kitni Badi Baat Hai’ entered by DViO Digital. 

In the ‘Best eSports IP’ category, the Artsmith Concepts and Visions was the winner for its entry 'College Rivals Season 2'.

Standard Chartered's 'SC Cup 2024' entry bagged a win in the 'Best Marketing For A Sports IP' category. 

In the 'Best Talent Partnership' category, the winner was Dr Agarwal’s Eye Hospital for ‘Sachin Tendulkar in the Lobby’ entered by Sun City Studios. 

The winner in the 'Best Sports Podcast' category was IVM Podcast's ‘A Century of Stories'.

In the 'Best Sports PR Campaign' category, Artsmith Concepts and Visions' entry titled 'PVMA - Announcement of PV Sindhu as Brand Ambassador' was also a winner.

In the ‘Best use of athlete’ category, there were two winners - Adidas '#YouGotThis' entered by Method Productions and Fireboltt for ‘MS Dhoni and MC Stan' entered by Sun City Studios.

Fancode won the 'Best Sports OTT Platform'.

JioStar, Wavemaker and Colgate's 'Indian Sweets League' entry was the runner-up in the 'Best Brand Integration (Broadcast)' category. JioStar (along with Red Bull) was also runner-up in the 'Best Sponsorship of a Tournament' category. 

Adfactors' entry titled 'Building SA20' was the runner-up in the 'Best Marketing For A Sports IP' category.

Global Sports' 'Pro Pickleball League' was winner in the 'Best New Sports IP' category.

Kho Kho World Cup 2025 was runner-up in the ‘Best New Sports IP’ category.

In the 'Best Talent Partnership' category, the runner-up was Firebollt for ‘MS Dhoni and MC Stan' entered by Sun City Studios.

Fancode’s ‘For Sports Fans, By Sports Fans' entered by MSL was runner-up in the 'Best Sports PR Campaign' category.

Prior to the awards, a sports marketing summit was organised by Manifest. 

At the event, experts discussed the opportunity for India to become a multi-sporting nation.

Leander Paes was the guest of honour at the summit and awards.

A panel each focusing on upcoming leagues, talent in sports, and brands discussed the same. Coverage of the same will be available in the next issue of Manifest, which can be pre-ordered here.

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Pictures from Manifest Play Sports Marketing Summit and Awards