Effie Week begins with Amazing Race
Twenty four teams kick started the Effie Week with the Amazing Race on Saturday, November 17 with the Leo Burnett Solutions Inc. team, ‘The Burnetters’, Gayan Vithanage, Izky Faiz, Rinesh Jayarathne, Sumith Chandana, Tasneem Siddeeque and Hollie Chotrani emerging as winners in the Agency Category.
With Nations Trust Bank clinching the win in the Client Category with their ‘Sonic’ team, Lakshitha Abeyratne, Randini Gamage, Shamal Amarasekara, Shonika Sukumar, Arun Daniel and Clinton Stallone. With favourable weather and zeal to win, the teams sped off from the starting point at 8.30 am with their first clue and five more clues to decipher before the close of the day. The teams wound down after their relentless efforts at the Sun Down Awards Ceremony hosted at La Voile Blanche, Mount Lavinia.
This full day outdoor activity consisted of teams representing all the advertising agencies and marketing fraternity in Sri Lanka, the objective of which was to develop bonds and team spirit amongst the advertising fraternity and bring out the best in themselves as individuals.
The Effectiveness Forum was held on November 20 featuring foreign and local speakers to share their expertise with the participants.
The keynote speakers was Richard McCabe, the Regional Strategic Planning Director for McCann Worldgroup Asia Pacific, who is also a Jury member of the Effie Global and Dian Gomes, the Managing Director/ CEO of MAS Intimates (Pvt.) Ltd. and Slimline (Pvt.) Ltd., which are subsidiaries of MAS Holdings of which he is a Group Director.
Richard McCabe’s 19 year marketing career spans global financial, FMCG, lifestyle, luxury, and travel and tourism brands.
He has spent the past 15 years based in Asia working on regional and global strategic initiatives across the US, European, Middle Eastern and Asian markets.
Dian Gomes, a Sri Lankan entrepreneur and corporate executive is a past President of the CIMA Sri Lanka Division and a leading business figure in the island’s large apparel industry as well as the mercantile sector. Dian recently launched Innovest Investments (Pvt.) Ltd., a wealth management company.
Project Chairman Ahamed Aroos stated, “The Effies are gaining great publicity.
This was evident with the number of entries we received this year. Progress is certain and we are happy to see the advertising and marketing fraternity’s interest and keenness to be part of these proceedings.
It’s a great encouragement to note that we had a significant increase in the Effie entries this year.
Highlighting the judging process which has now been completed, Imal Fonseka, Head of the Panel of Judges said, “The Effie Awards Sri Lanka, like most other advertising award shows across the world, does not just target creativity but also the effectiveness of the campaign and its process.”
The Effies are awarded within 28 categories which are divided into industry sectors. There is no set number of awards. A scoring system indicates which campaigns will be awarded the gold, silver and bronze medals.
“One of our objectives this year is to ensure that we secure a gold winner because so far, Effie Sri Lanka has not won gold and the signs are looking very much positive towards this aim of ours,” Aroos added.