The Advertising Industry in Sri Lanka is now poised to compete in one of the most exciting events in the advertising calendar – Effie Awards 2016. As the day draws closer it is opportune to talk to the Gold winners of the previous year and get an understanding on what it feels like to walk away with an Effie metal. Effie Awards acknowledge breakthrough ideas and campaigns across industries and categories and in 2015 the top three awards were snapped up by MullenLowe Sri Lanka as the Most Outstanding Agency, Unilever Sri Lanka who became the Most Outstanding Marketer and Commercial Credit & Finance who was recognized for the Most Outstanding Brand.
To get some useful insights that would be invaluable for this year’s participants, a few questions were posed to the last year’s winners. Sean Pompeus, Director – Client Servicing at MullenLowe said: “It was an absolute delight to win gold for Marmite. It’s a brand that has been in Sri Lanka for ages and being recognized for bringing it back to glory is something that we’re proud of.”
“We found out that people either loved Marmite or hated it. So, instead of trying to convince the ‘hater’ we tempted the ‘lover’. The insight was rooted in the fact that a Marmite lover would eat it with anything. This was the perfect insight to exploit and an opportunity for Marmite.”
“The idea was brought to life with a simple mechanism which featured the Marmite bottle as the ‘pop-up’ idea moment. It was the ‘eureka’ moment where people discovered how their everyday, common food can be transformed to tastier and exciting meals. From this the “Mite-Combo’s” such as Kotthu Mite, Roti Mite and Rice Mite were born. The campaign worked wonders for the brand by increasing household penetration, increasing engagement and turning a negative growth to a positive growth in terms of volume.”
Speaking about how the Company conceptualizes its marketing campaigns, Unilever Sri Lanka’s Marketing Director – Home Care, Foods & Refreshment & Pureit, Makshoodh Meerasaibu said “Our brands are built on a very strong purpose, ingrained into the Sri Lankan culture and claim the rightful throne in consumer hearts and minds. We have achieved this by keeping our consumers at the centre of what we do. The campaigns that were recognized at last year’s Effie, such as Sunlight – Digital Festival of Lights, Marmite Mealtime Magic, and Knorr Dhal 7 are a few campaigns that truly celebrated our Sri Lankan culture and embraced the Sri Lankan Spirit. Each time we launch a piece of communication or launch a campaign we want it to create a lasting impression among our consumers and build brand love. This is the best award of them all.”
Shammi Jayathilake, Creative Ambassador at Commercial Credit & Finance explained how the Big Idea for their award winning campaign evolved and its ultimate outcome: “We don’t advertise our products. Instead, we strongly believe in bringing a corporate message to the society at large that encourages positive values. The series of ads we have, helped to increase Top of the Mind recall as research has shown” he said.
Effie Awards are recognized as the global symbol of marketing communication effectiveness. Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM) has the franchise to hold the award ceremony in Sri Lanka and has been conducting the event for the past nine years.