Beating teams from 22 countries and taking home the gold at the Young Lions Marketers Competition, Hiruni Shermila Mendis and Lakshita Wayan Wijesinghe, have earned their place as the first Sri Lankans to claim victory at the iconic Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Never in their wildest dreams did they expect to be within [...]

The Sundaytimes Sri Lanka

Sri Lankans take top prize at Cannes

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Beating teams from 22 countries and taking home the gold at the Young Lions Marketers Competition, Hiruni Shermila Mendis and Lakshita Wayan Wijesinghe, have earned their place as the first Sri Lankans to claim victory at the iconic Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Never in their wildest dreams did they expect to be within inches of personalitites such as Scary Spice. However, any pleasure in listening to the likes of Mel B, Jack Black and Martha Stewart at the festival, probably pales in comparison to the Gold Lion medal they brought home with them.

Held annually the programme is in its 60th year of running and is considered the world’s biggest annual awards show and festival for professionals in the creative communications industry.

Heading in, Hiruni and Lakshita joined other participants onsite at Cannes where they were briefed.They were then given 30 hours to develop a product or service concept to support Ketchum’s global pro bono partner, ‘Room to Read’. The latter focuses on transforming children’s lives through literacy and gender equality in education.

As part of the final stage of the challenge the Sri Lankan team were required to submit a communication plan (a two-page written brief) and stage a short presentation for the judging panel.

The campaign the duo came up with titled- ‘Empower Another You’ – was built around Etisalat’s mobile recharge cards. For the first time in the company’s history, they thought of targeting an all-female demographic – women account for almost 50% of their customer base.

The judges singled out the emotional impact of their campaign for particular praise – they were asking women to support women. At the point of recharging, women would be prompted by thought provoking SMS like ‘A child born to a literate woman is twice as likely to survive past the age of five.’ The most difficult bit was explaining two days of work in five minutes, says Lakshita.

The two brought their own set of strengths to the event. Hiruni comes from a background of advertising and marketing while Lakshita draws upon qualifications in engineering and finance. Together they struck the right balance: “in the feedback session the judges mentioned the fact that our presentation made business sense and was practical,sustainable and it was one of the things that differentiated us from the rest,” says Lakshita. They also scored high on confidence: “The judges challenged us with questions but we were so confident about our project that we challenged them back,” says Hiruni.

Despite having failed to qualify on a previous attempt, it was Hiruni who persuaded Lakshita they needed to try out. Pulling together the funds for the programme was equally challenging the duo recall. “It was definitely a big expense on both of us but we both motivated each other. This was a chance that we would get only once in a lifetime,” says Hiruni.

To claim the gold, the two young Etisalat employees had to beat out teams from 22 countries – many of whom seemed better prepared and even had their own support team for the duration of the festival.

While at the competition though they made the most of it, says Lakshita explaining that they packed in all the workshops, seminars, screenings and award shows they could. Despite not having seen much of Cannes thanks to the competition, they made it to Paris for two days of sightseeing at the end of their trip.

When asked how it feels to have won, Hiruni says its “just out of this world.” “Being able to represent the country and winning gold for the first time is definitely the biggest achievement one can have personally.” She and Lakshitha are grateful to the Sri Lanka institute of Marketing for paying their registration fees and giving them such a warm welcome on their return to Sri Lanka.

Their advice to young marketers wanting to follow in their footsteps is simple: “Never stand still,” urges Hiruni. “It is when you are young that you can achieve the best things in life. So don’t wait. Start right away.”

For his part, Lakshita says determination is the key to any achievement. “Never give up till you get there. I was very determined to win a medal in this competition. I want to end up my career as a CEO and I will. It works.”




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