Financial Times

Ad awards with a difference
The advertising industry is gearing up for the first ever agency accredited awards set to be held this May – months after the bulk of the industry went their own way and decided not to contest the SLIM awards.

“An important distinction in these awards will be judging criterion – which will give foremost place to creativity. In other words all the work of Ad agencies vying for the awards will be judged purely on their creative genius – an aspect which was considered secondary in previous years,” a statement issued by the

PR Committee for the Sri Lanka Advertising Awards said.
The new awards are being driven by the two industry bodies – IAA Sri Lanka and the 4A’s. The organizers have appointed a board of trustees comprising of senior marketing and advertising professionals who will be monitoring the process of the awards to ensure credibility, transparency and fair-play.

These members, who can hold office for a maximum of three years, comprise a board of trustees which will ensure the continuity of the Ad awards. It will be this board who will appoint the steering committee for next year’s awards.
“The dynamics of the board is set up in such a way that they will also act as an appeal body for the industry. Since they are experienced senior people we can go to them for counseling or for any grievances that need to be addressed,” Joint Industry Initiative (JII) spokesperson Rohan Rajaratnam was quoted as saying in the statement.

The six member Board of Trustees include Amal Cabraal, Brands Director - HPC of Unilever Sri Lanka; Deepal Sooriyaarachchi, Managing Director of Eagle Insurance; Gerald de Saram, Managing Director of CIC Paints (Pvt) Ltd; Melville Assauw, Chairman and Managing Director of Mel Ads; Shiranee Rubera, Chairperson of Thompson Associates (Pvt) Ltd, Nimal Gunewardena, Chief Executive Officer of Bates Asia Strategic Alliance and Sumi Moonesinghe, former chairman, Bank of Ceylon.

In addition to the Board of Trustees, a Steering Committee has been appointed to look into the various organisational aspects of the awards. The Chairman of the committee is Imal Fonseka, General Manager Sales and Marketing of Caltex Lubricants Lanka Ltd. Others on the committee are Laila Gunasekara, Chief Operating Officer of Grants McCann Erickson; Dilith Jayaweera, Jt. Managing Director of Triad Advertising, Keith Martenstyn, Managing Director of Lowe LDB, Ranil De Silva, Managing Director of Leo Burnett Solutions Inc., Sri Kanth Selladurai, Asst. Vice President of JKH, Rohan Rajaratnam, Chief Executive Officer of Minds FCB; and Thayalan Bartlett, Vice President of JWT.

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