MullenLowe Sri Lanka claims Gold as ‘Rest of South Asia’s Creative Agency of the Year’

Harendra Uyanage

Thayalan Bartlett

MullenLowe Sri Lanka has been awarded Gold as Rest of South Asia’s Creative Agency of the Year at the Campaign Agency of the Year Awards 2025, held recently at the ITC Maratha Hotel in Mumbai. The recognition marks a defining moment in a year shaped by breakthrough ideas, ambitious brands and a renewed surge in economic activity across the country.
The agency entered 2025 guided by a clear creative vision and strengthened by its expansive category knowledge across 43 clients, 111 brands and 33 sectors. A renewed leadership structure, strategic talent acquisitions and the integration of AI-enabled tools created an environment where creativity, learning and commercial impact worked in unison. This shift supported the agency’s role as a brand custodian embedded in client ambition, helping strengthen long-standing relationships while contributing to consistent new business momentum.
Thayalan Bartlett, Executive Chairman, MullenLowe Group Sri Lanka, stated, “MullenLowe Sri Lanka is number 65 in Effie’s global ranking, number 17 in the Effie’s Asia-Pacific ranking and has been number 1 in Effie’s Sri Lanka ranking for many years. Campaign Asia has also named us the number 1 Creative Agency in the Rest of South Asia on multiple occasions. These achievements remind us that our journey is powered by exceptional talent, progressive clients and brands that trust us to move their businesses forward. I am deeply grateful to our clients, our production partners and the incredible people of MullenLowe Sri Lanka who make moments like this possible.”
The agency’s creative rise was further strengthened through a series of growth accelerators that supported brand ambitions in a recovering economy. Fever, its AI-enabled production studio, and LoweGo, its subscription-based design unit, expanded its ability to serve modern marketers at speed and scale. The leadership blueprint evolved in parallel with new appointments across strategy, finance and digital, including the addition of a Digital Transformation Director who will guide the next phase of the agency’s evolution.
Training played a pivotal role throughout the year as the agency continued to strengthen its creative prowess. The top 30 creative minds took part in an intensive international workshop in Baku where they explored practical AI applications, planned structured integration timelines and aligned on immediate and mid-term creative priorities, building a unified understanding of how technology can elevate human imagination. 
This momentum carried into the work of the Creative Council which guided teams to push strong ideas into even stronger outcomes, creating a culture where creative quality rose in a steady, deliberate rhythm throughout the year. The agency’s collective focus on elevating creative quality enabled teams to refine their ideas with greater depth, resulting in its highest Effie points haul in a decade and major wins across Softlogic Life Insurance, Atlas and Unilever’s Closeup.
Harendra Uyanage, Senior Vice President and Executive Creative Director, MullenLowe Group Sri Lanka, added, “This recognition reflects the imagination, discipline and hunger of a team that never stops stretching its creative boundaries. Our people move culture forward because they operate as a different breed, driven by a spirit that transforms every brief into an opportunity. Creativity fuels our brands and this win is a tribute to a team that brings remarkable energy and purpose to everything they do.”
The Creative Agency of the Year title formed part of a broader pattern of recognition that reflected steady creative progress across multiple platforms. Thayalan Bartlett received a commendation as Agency Head of the Year in South Asia at the Campaign Asia Awards, while MullenLowe Sri Lanka was also named Most Effective Agency of the Year at the Effie Awards 2024. The agency’s work continued to resonate strongly across the industry, gaining meaningful recognition at Dragons of Sri Lanka where it secured one Gold, one Silver and three Merit awards, as well as two Silver, five Bronze and two Merit awards at SLIM Digis 2025.
MullenLowe’s achievements in 2025 reaffirm its Vision 2030 ambition to become Sri Lanka’s most commercially impactful creative company, strengthened by its people, its knowledge and its drive for transformative ideas.
MullenLowe Group Sri Lanka (MLG) is a full member affiliate of MullenLowe Global, a leading integrated marketing solutions company. Operating through eight specialised strategic business verticals spanning mainstream solutions, digital services, activations, martech, media and public relations, MLG combines local insight with global expertise to deliver end-to-end brand solutions. MLG Sri Lanka is part of a network spanning 69 offices in 55 countries with over 4,500 professionals. MLG’s Sri Lanka team of 110 plus serves 43 of the nation’s top corporates, managing 111 brands across 33 categories, including 80 percent of the top 10 and 50 percent of the top 20 most advertised categories in the country, making it a group with the most prolific cross-category knowledge. 
Campaign’s Agency of the Year Awards stand among the most respected honours in global advertising and marketing. Spanning APAC, EMEA, the US and the Middle East, the programme recognises outstanding creativity, leadership, innovation, culture and business performance.