The philanthropic and good citizenship commitments of Ceylinco Life were recognised by the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM) recently which presented the life insurance leader with a Silver award in the ‘CSR Brand of the Year’ category at the 2020 Brand Excellence Awards.
Ceylinco Life won this award for the Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives the Company completed in 2019. These included the construction of seven classrooms, the conduct of 12 ‘Waidya Hamuwa’ free health camps, donation of a High Dependency Unit (HDU) in the Teaching Hospital Kandy – the fifth such donation by the Company – and the maintenance of the previously donated HDUs as part of its commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the UN for 2030.
Commenting on this accolade, Ceylinco Life General Manager – Marketing Mr Samitha Hemachandra said: “Our corporate social responsibility initiatives are motivated by a deep-rooted sense of obligation to respond to community needs, rather than as a brand building strategy. Nevertheless, we appreciate the independent assessment of the impact of these initiatives that forms the basis for the SLIM award, and see it as a further encouragement to continue to look for opportunities for good corporate citizenship.”
The evaluation criteria for the ‘CSR Brand of the Year’ accolade included an analysis of the connection between the Corporate brand and CSR brand’s intent and purpose; the link between the brand’s vision and mission in relation to its CSR activities; the strategic link between CSR initiatives and brand intent; the impact of the initiatives and how it was communicated to stakeholders, employee engagement with initiatives, and internal marketing activities.
Ceylinco Life ticked all the boxes in the evaluation criteria by establishing a strong connection between its Corporate brand and its CSR initiatives in the areas of Health and Education aligned with goal numbers three and four of the UN Sustainable Development Goals for 2030; engaging employees at all levels across the branch network and head office and logging 5000 plus man-hours in initiating, conducting, monitoring and completing its 2019 CSR initiatives; creating a positive impact on 2,616 school children, 3,042 health-camp beneficiaries of whom some had not previously experienced a western medical check-up, and on more than 1,700 HDU patients who were treated at the donated facility in the year of assessment.
Overall, Ceylinco Life’s support to the nation and its needy communities is reflected in the 146,000 people benefitted by the health camps programme over the years, the 84 classroom buildings the Company has donated to date, the five HDUs and numerous other donations of essential medical equipment to government hospitals and donations last year to support the battle against the spread of COVID-19.
Ceylinco Life was shortlisted for the ‘CSR Brand of the Year’ award based on the application submitted and a presentation to a jury panel consisting of eminent marketing professionals representing various industries in Sri Lanka.
The SLIM Brand Excellence awards programme is a celebration of brand excellence at a national level and a recognition of the outstanding efforts of top-notch marketers. Through this event, SLIM endeavours to not only encourage best practices in branding but also to raise local brands to global standards, to enhance the image of marketing in the country and that of SLIM in the region. This event translates as industry recognition of the motivation, dedication, and hard work that great marketers have demonstrated in making brand champions.
Sri Lanka’s leading life insurer for more than half of the 33 years it has been in existence, and certified as a ‘Great Workplace’ in Sri Lanka by Great Place to Work®, Ceylinco Life was ranked the ‘Most Valuable Life Insurance Brand’ in Sri Lanka by Brand Finance in 2020 and declared the ‘Peoples Life Insurance Service Provider of the Year’ for the 14th consecutive year at the 2020 SLIM-Nielsen Peoples Awards. The Company was named the ‘Best Life Insurer in Sri Lanka’ for the seventh consecutive year by World Finance in 2020, and accorded an ‘Honourable Mention’ as one of the ‘Most Admired Companies in Sri Lanka’ in 2019-20 by the International Chamber of Commerce Sri Lanka (ICCSL) in collaboration with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), UK.
Ceylinco Life has close to a million lives covered by active policies and is acknowledged as a benchmark in the local insurance sector for innovation, product research and development, customer service, professional development, and corporate social responsibility.