Lanka, a top destination for shooting ad films
Celebrating the first year of their existence as an ad agency, BBDO Lanka’s Managing Director Santosh Menon yesterday said that Sri Lanka is a great destination for shooting advertising films.
Menon pointed out that the cost of production could also be lower if the advertising films are shot in Sri Lanka, depending on the location the client requires.
“For instance, if it is a Mumbai beach site the client is looking for, Sri Lanka can offer many beach sites for a lower cost of production. The beach sites would also look definitely nicer than in Mumbai. Since the population in Sri Lanka and the locations are also very similar to India, Sri Lanka can attract more clientele too,” he said.
He also said that an advertisement which is to be aired in India for a telecommunications provider was also shot in Colombo highlighting that Sri Lanka has more to offer for the advertising industry. He also said that BBDO Lanka by utilizing Sri Lankan talent has already done advertising projects for Mauritius.
BBDO Lanka is the Sri Lankan partner of BBDO Proximity, which is the most awarded agency in the industry. Marking their first year of existence Chris Thomas, Chairman of BBDO Proximity who had come down to Sri Lanka said that his desire is to see BBDO Lanka be the first class ad agency, not just in Sri Lanka but a global giant in the advertising industry.
He noted that their motto ‘The Work, the work, the work’ has enabled the agency to move forward as a “force for good” in Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, he highlighted the need for expanding the pool of talent in Sri Lanka who would be able to take the industry forward.
While noting that the Indian advertising industry is obviously much larger and much developed than Sri Lanka’s industry, Thomas noted that it is due to innate advantages such as the massive Hollywood industry.
He noted that the Sri Lankan advertising industry has a big capacity to grow and announced that BBDO would be hunting for creative talent. He said that creative thinkers would be trained and the two of the best trainees would be recruited for the agency.
BBDO became the first South Asian advertising agency to be certified Carbon Neutral and they also launched Asia’s first air leaning mechanical hoarding becoming pioneers to set a trend for ‘green advertising’.