Zmessenger celebrates 15 years; bags top regional award
zmessenger, the multiple-awardwinning full-spectrum digital solutions agency in Sri Lanka, celebrated its 15th year of digital excellence by becoming the only Sri Lankan Gold award winner at the prestigious Festival of Media APAC Awards 2018.
zmessenger’s ‘Ekata/onra’ campaign for World University Service of Canada Sri Lanka (WUSC) won the Gold award under the ‘Best Social Marketing Campaign’ category.
The Festival of Media APAC Awards celebrate the best in media thinking and communications the Asia Pacific region. Judged by a senior panel of industry experts, it is the only awards ceremony dedicated to the evolution of media across the APAC region with participation of 13 countries, 63 judges and 147 shortlisted entries.
During the course of its 15 years of operations, zmessenger has built a reputation for its innovative approach and its commitment in transforming the digital marketing landscape of Sri Lanka, empowering local organisations to keep up with the rapid pace of evolution witnessed around the world. It leverages efficient and innovative digital expertise to create cutting-edge It-enabled business solutions and mobile strategies across a vast range of industries that includes banking and finance, FMCG, manufacturing, realestate, mass media, government and aviation. It currently handles over 90 companies including several of the island’s leading organisations and has provided digital solutions to more than 130 brands.
In order to expand the company’s regional footprint, zmessenger has made strategic tie-ups with regional leaders in technology and advertising. Last year, the company entered into a partnership with Japanese veteran advertising agency network Chuo Senko to expand its digital marketing technology and services into the ASEAN region. Through this partnership, the company is able to take its novel stack of Martech (Marketingtech) platforms involving Ai-driven programmatic ad platform, virtual reality and content solutions to the regional level as they pitch 360-degree solutions to companies in Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand Cambodia, Myanmar and Japan. Most recently, zmessenger embarked on a partnership with SSDTECH, a leading technology company based in Bangladesh, emphasizing the company’s regional expansion with regards to leveraging on the potential market opportunities in Bangladesh.
Since inception, zmessenger has won numerous awards for designing and delivering exceptional consumer experiences. Last year, the company won the runner-up award in the ‘ICT Services Sector’ at the National Business Excellence Awards 2017 organised by the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka and also bagged four wins at the Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) Zeroone Awards including the ‘Overall Winner’ award for the ‘Best Use of Mobile’ category.
During 2016, the company was presented with the ‘Best Digital Marketing and Social Media Company South Asia’ award at the South Asian Partnership Summit (SAPS) and Business Awards. Additionally, Jayomi Lokuliyana won the ‘Best Female Entrepreneur in South Asia’ award given out by the South Asian Business Partnership Awards.
Expressing her views on the milestone, Jayomi Lokuliyana - Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of zmessenger stated, “The Festival of Media APAC Awards win has come at the right time and is a culmination of years of hard work by the team. It gives us more reasons to celebrate our 15th anniversary. It has been a wonderful journey full of exciting challenges and outstanding innovations.
“In fact, innovation is the lifeblood of zmessenger from inception and the core value the entire company shares. As a result, every year, a significant portion of the annual budget is spent in terms of resources, IT infrastructure and learning. In order to extend our innovation efforts, we have made strategic partnerships with some of the island’s leading IT universities such as the UCSC of University of Colombo and University of Kelaniya.”
Commenting further, she added, “15 years ago, we introduced mobile as the ‘fourth screen’ to enable anytime, anywhere interactive brand communications. Today, mobile has grown as a catalyst to organizationwide innovation and we are geared to supercharge our clients’ digital transformation journey with the power of data and artificial Intelligence to enable digitally led exceptional brand experiences. As we step into our 16th year of operations, I can confidently state that we are fully geared to empower digital transformation for years to come. Meanwhile, the company has planned a series of Round table discussions themed ‘Digital For Good’ focusing on impact of digital across various industries. The very first ‘Digital for Good’ round table discussion for not for profit sector will take place during the first quarter.