SL’s MullenLowe ends 2018 on a record high
View(s):MullenLowe Sri Lanka ended 2018 on a record high in creative reputation and financial performance. The Sri Lanka office, a recently acquired company by the New York based IPG group was named by Campaign South Asia as the Creative Agency of the Year in the rest of South Asia category. This recognition came hot on the heels of the company also winning the Agency of The Year 2017 at the Effies held earlier in the year, the company said in a media release.
“Awards mean nothing if you don’t have sound financial credentials to back your achievements and that’s exactly what we did in 2018,” said Thayalan Bartlett, Chief Executive Officer of MullenLowe Sri Lanka.
On the back of a record year in 2017, which saw revenues grow by 27 per cent, the company continued to accelerate growth in 2018 – closing at 22 per cent higher than its 2017 figures.
With the exception of a few portfolios, organic growth remained flat. Growth in 2018 was once again spurred by new business which accounted for little over 12 per cent of its total revenues. The company produced 112 commercials in 2018 at the rate of 2.15 commercials per week, up by 10 per cent compared to 2017, when it produced 101 commercials at the rate of 1.9 commercials per week.
The company, the media release, said it continues to dominate 80 per cent of Sri Lanka’s top 10 most advertised categories and 50 per cent of the top 20 most advertised categories making MullenLowe one of Sri Lanka’s best performing agencies in 2018.
“One of our core principles is to hire people that scare us, but with exciting start-ups becoming the employer of choice across categories for creative minded people, the advertising industry faces the challenge of recruiting the best creative minds. The response of course is to do work that captures the imagination of those minds,” noted Dilshara Jaymanne, Senior Vice President and Executive Creative Director, MullenLowe Sri Lanka.
Chandu Rajapreyar, Vice President and Executive Creative Director, MullenLowe Sri Lanka says, “We are a 70 strong creatively propelled unit that has made some of the most spoken off online and offline advertising in the country.”