Grants celebrates 54 years of successful communications

The Grant Group, Sri Lanka’s pioneering communications agency celebrated its 54th anniversary under the theme of ‘Everybody Counts’ with a day of festivities and team building activities. The company also unveiled a new logo, capturing the theme.

Grant Group Chairperson Neela Marikkar (left) with Laila Gunesekera

The celebratory activities included a day-long retreat for the Grants staff who relaxed, rejuvenated and strategised in groups facilitated by the Group’s senior management team. Teams engaged in a variety of activities during the day, ranging from lounging at the beach, getting massages, engaging in market research studies, participating in group exercise activities and brainstorming before coming together at the end of the day to share their ideas on the company’s future.

“From day one, we’ve always been about our people so it seemed only natural for our anniversary celebrations to come together under the theme of everybody counts,” said Grant Group Chairperson Neela Marikkar. “We asked everyone at Grants to come up with forward-thinking ideas for the Group and, needless to say, the response was astounding – from the veterans at Grants who’ve been here for over two decades to our newest members, the staff had so many amazing ideas about how the company should be driven in the future.”

Renowned for not just being the first agency in Sri Lanka, but also for its position as a market leader in brand building, the company which was founded by the Godfather of Advertising, Deshabandu Reggie Candappa in 1958 has grown into a power house of ideas providing strong media neutral strategies to their wide client base.

One of the long standing employees, who has been with the company since her entry into the advertising arena, Laila Gunesekera stated, “Grants is known time and time again for being brand builders – whether it was introducing the green stripe synonymous with Elephant House or the checked pattern that we all know is Kist or telling Sri Lankans that Cargills is on your way home. These are testaments to how great our talent has been and remain today. We are the people agency and this year we’ll be focusing on our outstanding talent pool.”

With the focus on a fast-paced future which embraces technology and new media, the Group are excited at what the future holds and are gearing themselves and the entire operations to face the challenges in the coming five years.