Sri Lanka needs more work on its own brand – expert says
View(s):Sri Lanka needs to do more work on its own country branding, according to Chris Thomas, Chairman for the Asian, Middle Eastern and African regions of international advertising powerhouse BBDO.
Elaborating further, he explained that one of BBDO’s most successful campaigns of last year, which won at regional advertising awards show Spikes Singapore, was “It’s more fun in the Philippines”. Categorising it as less of an advertising concept, and more of a widely accepted “thought” that acted as spine around which all of marketing communications evolved, he added that he would be pleased to do something of this timbre for Sri Lanka, or at least see someone else do something like it for this country.
Chris Thomas
Visiting on the occasion of BBDO Sri Lanka’s third anniversary, Mr. Thomas spoke to the Business Times this week on how the local office was faring, stating: “Sri Lanka is one of our youngest offices, we established it (three years ago). And as always, you are driven by primarily your global clients where they need to be serviced. So we opened the office to serve regional clients who have very significant businesses in this market. But equally we want to make sure we served local clients as well… The network has been built slightly in a different way; it tends to be quite a federal network around the world. We tend to have gone into markets, trying to find the best talents on the ground and develop and nurture that talent. So this was a start-up from scratch, and it’s been successful”. He also added that the office featured about 40 people at present, with a strong mix of local and multinational clients, while doing some good work across the nation.
Way forward
As to its way forward, he indicated that, like all other BBDO offices, a major priority was strengthening its digital capabilities, adding that this was not just about banners and apps, but making sure digital was integrated fully into campaigns. A factor that was going to prove even more important as Internet penetration increased here. Additionally, he also signalled the need to become proficient in disciplines such as shopper marketing and activations so brands were “not just living on the television screen but being brought to life in communities”. He also stated that, in Sri Lanka, Vietnam and India, it was important to activate on the ground, reaching people with physical products and creative ideas. Commenting on the status of the Sri Lankan advertising industry, Mr. Thomas said: “Sri Lanka (is) not really yet performing as a country on the world stage in terms of both creative and effectiveness awards. And for us at BBDO, our agenda in this market is to drive that. We don’t just want to be a good agency in Sri Lanka; we want to be a great agency that happens to be in Sri Lanka. And there is a big difference”.
“That means that (we) need to be creating ideas for this market that touches people, that moves people, but also recognises being innovative and original, because the one thing we know with absolute certainty is that the more creative work is, the more interesting it is, the more distinctive it is, the more powerful it is, and the more that it drives our clients’ business,” added Mr. Thomas.
He also mentioned that the last five years had witnessed a large amount of work being done on the link between creativity and effectiveness, indicating that the more creative the work the more successful it was in building profitable share growth for the client. “So, there is an economic multiplier of a minimum of 10 times on the more creative work,” opined Mr. Thomas.
Urgent: Local awards show
Giving his view on the way forward for the local advertising industry, he said “Sri Lanka needs an awards show, it used to have a very good award show, in my opinion, called the Chillies. And that’s how you raise standards; you need the local creative people and the local creative agencies competing at a local level. They can participate in international shows like Cannes and Asia Pacific ones like Spikes. But I think it needs to start locally… And I would try and establish a proper local awards show supported by the industry, for real work”. He also added that he would encourage the effectiveness awards shows around the world to take Sri Lanka seriously, since the country needed to raise the bar in that measure also.
Mr. Thomas also stated that the next move he recommended was that local clients look beyond Sri Lanka in terms of creativity, adding that there should be a few more Sri Lanka representatives at the international shows like Cannes that have grown to encompass the entire spectrum of marketing, from media to clients, where they can see the power of creativity.
Asked to comment on future trends in the global marketplace, he stated: “To my mind there will be no such thing as a digital agency in the next five years. I mean, any agency that’s not integrating digital into the heart of their ideas is, I think, (not going to last)”.
“What’s interesting in today’s world is that you are receiving content in different ways… You are definitely seeing shifts in how people consume content. (Sri Lanka) is still a very strong television advertising market. Television is by no means dead, it’s still a huge percentage of total media spend across Asia; I think it’s about 68-69 per cent. But people also consume content in a countless myriad of different ways… What’s interesting in a creative business is that if you create a piece of content now that’s liked, that touches people, and excites people, it is going to be shared, it’s going to be discussed, it’s going to be even recreated against and that’s a tremendous opportunity for the creative business”, Mr. Thomas also added.
(JH)