BBDO Lanka named ‘Agency of the Year’ at Effie Awards debut
BBDO Lanka tied for Agency of the Year at the Effie Awards that were held on Friday 27 February at the Water’s Edge. It also took home a Silver in the Products and Services category for Anchor Newdale and a finalist medal for CEAT Sri Lanka in the Automotive category. BBDO Lanka was nominated for all three of its entries – Anchor (food and beverage – nonalcoholic), Anchor Newdale (snacks and desserts) and CEAT Sri Lanka (automotive) – at its debut entry at the Effie Awards Sri Lanka.
Said BBDO Lanka MD Santosh Menon, “This is the first time that we entered the Effie Awards in Sri Lanka and we were extremely delighted to have been recognised as Agency of the Year. We were elated when we found out that we had been nominated for all three of our entries, and now we’ve been recognised with a finalist medal, a Silver award and the biggest award of the night.”
He added, “The Effies award ideas that work, the great ideas that achieve real results and the strategy that goes into creating them. So, we are proud to have been recognised for our insightful strategy, outstanding creative, market results and of course hard work over the past year.”
“Of course, this is a marketing effectiveness award and therefore a lot of credit goes to the marketing teams at Fonterra Brands Lanka and CEAT Sri Lanka. They and the contributing agencies played a crucial role in the evolution and execution of the ideas. For us both the awards and the medal are significant. On Anchor Newdale, we focused on developing a campaign that illustrated the strengths of the brand and the team while at the same time creating stronger consumer loyalty. As for CEAT Sri Lanka we feel proud to be able to change the image of a very strong brand in Sri Lanka and make it even stronger,” Menon continued.
“Of course many congratulations to the other agency and brand winners at Effies 2014. Given that only 8% of the entries this year were awarded metal, each and every other winner deserves plaudits and congratulations,” he said further.
The Silver award winning entry, for Anchor Newdale, details how BBDO Lanka helped Fonterra Brands Lanka (Pvt) Ltd create an education programme to communicate the brand’s high nutritional quality and that it is made from locally sourced milk – from 4,000 Sri Lankan dairy farmers. The big idea – Kiri Charika – educated consumers by bringing the production process to life and letting them experience it firsthand.
The finalist medal award winning nomination described BBDO Lanka’s brand building exercise for CEAT radial tyres with its pioneering ‘Where Have You Been Lately?’ campaign. The campaign transformed CEAT from being perceived as merely for trucks and buses to an aspirational brand used by the higher end car and SUV owner.
The nomination for the ‘I Believe in Anchor’ campaign for Anchor milk powder detailed how BBDO Lanka addressed the serious communications challenges that faced the Anchor brand in 2013. BBDO Lanka’s insightful strategy, in the midst of a ban on advertising, included perhaps one of the largest word of mouth campaigns ever, reaching upto 500,000 people first hand.
“This proves once again that creative work is effective work, as has been proven over and over again across the world,” said Ranil Nalawansa, Creative Director of BBDO Lanka of their creative and effective, award-winning work.
Editor’s Note:
BBDO Lanka is the Sri Lankan affiliate of the global BBDO network and soon after only its first year of operations was awarded Campaign Asia-Pacific magazine’s ‘Rest of South Asia Creative Agency of the Year 2012’ – Silver.
BBDO’s mantra is “The Work. The Work. The Work.” Every day, BBDO people in 289 offices in 81 countries work day by day, job by job and client by client to create and deliver the world’s most compelling commercial content. For nine years in a row, BBDO has been named the most creative agency network in the world in The Gunn Report, and for six years in a row, BBDO was also ranked the most awarded agency network across all marketing communications in The Directory Big Won. In addition, BBDO has been named Network of the Year at Cannes five times and was also named the world’s most Effective Agency Network twice in the Effie Effectiveness Index. BBDO has been chosen Agency of the Year multiple times by each of the leading industry trade publications.
BBDO is part of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC) (www.omnicomgroup.com), a leading global marketing and corporate communications company.
The Effie Awards are known by advertisers and agencies globally as the pre-eminent award in the industry, and recognise any and all forms of marketing communication that contribute to a brand’s success. Since 1968, winning an Effie has become a global symbol of achievement. Today, Effie celebrates effectiveness worldwide with the Global Effie, Effie Asia-Pacific, the Euro Effies, the Middle East/North Africa Effies, the North American Effies and more than 40 national Effie programmes including Sri Lanka.
In addition to ranking the top agency networks and offices, the Effie Effectiveness Index also reveals the most effective marketers, brands and holding companies. Every brand and company ranked in the Effie Index has undergone rigorous evaluations of their case studies and work by expert industry judges to prove that their marketing achieved compelling results.
Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing is the franchisee of Effie Awards in Sri Lanka and has been holding the awards show since 2008.