Phoenix Ogilvy, communication partner for Sri Lanka Tourism

The Sri Lanka Tourism Bureau has selected Phoenix Ogilvy, leading advertising and marketing communications company, as its communication partner to promote and develop Sri Lanka tourism.

Six agencies vied for this much coveted tourism account and Phoenix Ogilvy was singled out on the strength of its strategy, presentation and proposals. “We needed an agency to build a partnership for the development and expansion of tourism and Phoenix Ogilvy was the most suitable in terms of what they offered,” noted a SLTB official. Selection was done through a rigorous process of evaluation and assessment of the proposals.

The pitch was led by Irvin Weerackody, Chairman of Phoenix Ogilvy, and David Mayo, Vice President, Ogilvy and Mather Advertising Asia Pacific.

Mayo says of the win; “we worked hard to make sure that the strength of the Ogilvy and Mather network was put behind our submission. As a destination, Sri Lanka is at the axis of so many requirements of the 21st Century tourist and our strategy focussed on this unique combination,” he said, adding “one rarely finds such a well managed and rigorous pitch process. We are very much looking forward to working with Sri Lanka to build their destination credentials.”

Irvin Weerackody, Chairman of Phoenix Ogilvy, commenting on the new business win in more depth, said “promoting Sri Lanka as a preferred tourist destination is not about pretty pictures, elegant phraseology or rhetoric. It must be driven by sound strategy. We had a good strategy in place, which was the result of extensive research done globally and locally.” Weerackody added: “modern day marketing requires a connect with ethos of current tourism. Understanding the ethos of the modern day tourists to Sri Lanka requires not only demographic research but also psychographic research as a fundamental pillar of product marketing. The new tourist population seeks more than sights and sounds, they want more interaction with the soul of the destination. Therefore the brand strategy must reflect the soul of Sri Lanka. This was the basis of our thinking.”

Weerackody said, “while we believe in a philosophy of integrated marketing we were mindful of the fact that by far the largest and the most extensive tool of modern tourism marketing is the Internet. That explains why more and more destination and tourism products invest ever-increasing portions of their budget to promote online. Research shows that the prospective tourists increasingly turn to online sources for destination information rather than to traditional travel agents.”

Phoenix Ogilvy in Sri Lanka has the most diverse and widest client portfolio including Coca Cola, British American Tobacco Sri Lanka, GlaxoSmithKline, Nestle, Singer Sri Lanka, DHL, Energiser, Hemas, NDB, Ceylinco Insurance, Dialog Telekom etc and employs over 200 in its group including Ogilvy Action, Ogilvy PR, Ogilvy Landscape (Outdoor) and Ogilvy Media. Ogilvy operates in 134 countries and ranks No.3 Marketing Communications Company in the world.