13th March 2023, Colombo: CBL’s Sera emerged triumphant at the recently concluded Effie Awards 2022 – winning the top awards of the evening – Most Effective Brand of the Year – CBL Sera; Most Effective Marketer of the Year – Convenience Foods Lanka PLC (Subsidiary of CBL Group); Gold Winner in Packaged Food; Gold Winner in Media Innovation; Silver Winner in Social Media and Bronze Winner in Youth Marketing. CBL Sera truly shone under the spotlight at the prestigious Effies Awards 2022 by becoming the most awarded brand of the evening. Celebrating and inspiring the advertising industry of Sri Lanka, the 13th edition of the Effie Awards Sri Lanka 2022 focused on the creativity and effectiveness of campaigns during these turbulent times.
Effie awards believe in the power of great ideas that yield great business results and the award-winning Sera Kottu Kottu campaign embodies the essence of what the Effies stands for. The brand’s award winning integrated marketing and communication campaign witnessed creative collaboration between Sera Kottu Kottu and Convenience Foods (Lanka) PLC, Isobar Sri Lanka and Kaali Projects, combining a wealth of expertise for a highly effective campaign.
Being an innovative brand, Sera Kottu Kottu feels the pulse of the youth and thus, in collaboration with Isobar Sri Lanka, created a campaign unlike any other by leveraging gaming in Sri Lanka and entered the world of online gaming with #GrandTheftKottu. The campaign drew inspiration from Grand Theft Auto, the world-renowned gaming series and open-world action-adventure game to create an interactive digital platform with the Brand Association of Sera Kottu Kottu. The GTA 5 platform was modelled to create a replica of Colombo and other iconic landmarks of Sri Lanka for an immersive journey complete with sights, sounds, and interactive gameplay.
“The Effies are about both the power of creativity and achieving business and brand objectives. The integrated marketing and communications approach of the Sera Kottu Kottu campaign made it an experiential campaign that stood out from the clutter. The campaign was aimed directly at the target group of youth and the campaign, first of its kind, achieved its objective of engaging the target segment. The clear marketing communication by the brand campaign has contributed to its success at the Effies!” explained Nuwan Rathnakirthi – Marketing Manager, Convenience Foods Lanka PLC.
“It is an honour for CBL Sera to win multiple awards at the Effies 2022. The CBL Sera Campaign was a trailblazing execution, providing our target audience with an exciting, experiential interaction, linking e-selling via social media platforms and creating marked interest and enthusiasm about the brand during the Pandemic. The awards celebrate the hard work and efforts of the Marketing Team and Isobar Sri Lanka in bringing out such a novel concept to life,” says Jayanga Perera, General Manager – Marketing, CBL Food Cluster.
Mohenesh Chamith Buthgumwa, Vice President, Dentsu Communications said,“This immersive and interactive campaign was able to capture the attention of our target audience like never before. The #GrandTheftKottu campaign set a new bar for brand marketing and we are happy to have been a part of this groundbreaking brand campaign for CBL Sera.”
The Effies bring together the advertising and marketing fraternity together to celebrate the best of Sri Lanka’s creativity. The Effie Awards Sri Lanka is organized by the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM), the apex body of the marketing profession, and widely considered as the most distinguished honour in the industry. Winners are selected across all forms of marketing and communication, with an emphasis on creativity and effectiveness.
CBL Sera is manufactured and distributed by Convenience Foods Lanka PLC, a fully owned subsidiary of the CBL Group (CBL) which is one of Sri Lanka’s leading FMCG conglomerates manufacturing biscuits, chocolates, cakes, cereal, noodles, textured soy, herbal porridge, quick soups, coconut products, spices and organic value added agricultural products.