Ranil De Silva – Managing Director of Leo Burnett Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan representative for the Spike Asia Festival addressing the gatherting
Eight outstanding young professionals from Sri Lanka’s advertising industry and two students have been selected to represent the country at the annual Young Spikes 2017 & Cheil Young Creative Academy at Spikes Asia 2017 from 27th to 30th September at the Suntec City. These 10 youngsters walked away with key honours at the local competition, where a high standard of competition from the industry was witnessed. The local competitions were conducted in Colombo under the auspices of Metal Factor in partnership with the industry.
The winners of the Young Spikes Digital Competition was won by Shashie Kapugamage and Johanns Rogers from Neo@Ogilvy Sri Lanka, whose brief was for the ‘Monetization of Air Pollution’. In the Integrated competition section, Chanaka Herath & Nonim Dayarathne from Geometry Global, delivered a winning campaign in response to a brief titled ‘Whistleblowers & Protesters’. The Media Competition had two minimum teams comprising Sachintha Gunawardena & Jenith Liyanagoda from Ogilvy Media and Sarah Hassanally and Dilendri Wettewe from Leo Burnett Sri Lanka who responded to the brief on the topic of ‘LGBT- Q’.
The placement to the Cheil Young Creative Academy were secured by Dulaj Perera from the University of Moratuwa, Faculty of Design and Tuan Meedin from the Academy of Multimedia Design & Technology (AMDT). These two young students will have the opportunity to attend the Young Creative Academy, which is an in-depth training programme that is made available to a small selection of students from the region. The three-day programme provides students with the opportunity to attend exclusive seminars and tutorials, where they can learn from top industry professionals and gain valuable international exposure.
Commenting on this year’s Spikes Asia winners, Ranil de Silva, the Sri Lankan Representative for the Spikes Asia Festival said, “It gives me great satisfaction to see the overwhelming response we receive from the young professionals in the industry to participate in the local competition. Their enthusiasm and above all else their creativity augurs well for the future of the industry. I extend my congratulations to these young professionals on their success. I am confident that they will excel at the Young Spikes Asia Competitions in Singapore, and bring recognition for Sri Lanka.”
Jenith Liyanagoda – Ogilvy Media, Sharon Jaysundara – 4As President, Sachintha Gunawardena – Ogilvy Media, Thushari Pallipane, Johanns Rogers – Neo@Ogilvy , Ranil De Silva – Managing Director of Leo Burnett Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan representative for the Spike Asia Festival, Dulaj Perera, Chanuka Herath, Laila Gunesekara – IAA President, Tuan Meedin
Seated: L –R: Sarah Hassanally, Dilendri Wettewe, Nonmin Yasith Dayaathne, Sashi Kapugamage.
A total of 122 young professionals competed in the local competition and were issued briefs to which they had to respond within 12 hours. The Monetization of Air Pollution’ brief required the digital winners to devise a campaign that would empower people to monetize their efforts at combating air pollution. The team had to develop a digital eco system using all the available digital tools. In the Integrated Competition, the teams had to deliver a fully integrated campaign to encourage whistle blowing and peaceful protests, to combat corrupt politicians and public officials as their focus. In essence, the whistleblowers would uncover corruption and if justice is not served, the public will demand action. They were tasked with tackling both aspects of motivating local heroes to become whistleblowers and the general public to take to the streets in the cause of justice. The Media teams worked on a campaign on the topic of ‘LGBT- Q’ in order to attract youth to be a part of a campaign that ends discrimination towards the LGBT community.
The local competition was facilitated by Metal Factor for the ninth consecutive year. Metal Factor is a personal initiative spearheaded by Ranl de Silva to give back to the marketing communications industry. Metal Factors objective is to help Sri Lanka’s advertising industry realize its ambition of achieving world-class standards and to gain global recognition for the work of the industry. Metal Factor has been responsible for many programmes that benefit the industry, very specially the youth. Metal Factor has played a crucial role in developing the next generation of creative leaders, and continuously organizes competitions to select promising young advertising professionals to represent the country at the world’s most prestigious festivals.
The Spikes Asia Festival is the region’s oldest and most prestigious event that recognizes the best work in the categories of Film, Print, Outdoor, Radio, Digital, Direct, Promo and Activations, Media, Design, Poster, Craft, Integrated, Mobile and PR. A collaboration between the organizers of the Cannes Lions Festival and Haymarket, the Spikes Asia Festival provides the region’s rapidly growing creative and advertising industry with an opportunity to network, exchange ideas and think creatively. The festival serves as an important platform, which not only recognizes the best work in the region, but also brings together Asia Pacific’s leading creative thinkers and brightest young professionals.
