Local Effies launched

Geared at testing marketing and communication effectiveness to the hilt for the fourth consecutive year, ‘Effie Awards Sri Lanka 2011’ was launched last evening at the Ceylon Continental Hotel.

The Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM), which is at the helm of this initiative, launched the only international advertising awards being conducted in Sri Lanka presently, with the support of 4A’s of Sri Lanka.

Prior to the media launch, the recently-concluded official briefing of the marketing and advertising fraternity was attended by the heads of Sri Lanka’s leading advertising agencies and some of Sri Lanka’s leading marketing professionals.

It was a significant achievement when the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing managed to secure the rights to hold the Effies in Sri Lanka for the first time in 2008. Today the Effies is known by marketers and agencies globally as the pre-eminent award in the industry and the enduring strength of the Effies is its ability to enlighten marketers worldwide with strategies that have proven to be effective in their respective markets.

Since its inception in 1968 by the American Marketing Association (AMA,) winning an Effie has become a global symbol of achievement. Today, Effie celebrates effectiveness worldwide with the Global Effie, APAC Effie, Euro Effie, MENA Effie and over 35 national Effie programmes.

SLIM President Thushara Perera stated: “The Effie Awards is one of the biggest and most challenging advertising awards in the country. It is focused on rewarding Ideas that work – the great ideas that achieve real results and the strategy that goes into creating them. Therefore SLIM feels honoured to be associated with it. In fact, the Effies have brought the big league of advertising awards to Sri Lankan soil in association with the 4A’s and we are certain that these awards would no doubt assist in the cause to improve the standards of marketing communication in Sri Lanka.”

Effies 2010 will recognise any form of marketing communication or consumer engagement, as long as the results are proven, including print, TV, radio, internet, guerrilla, digital, package design, events, street teams, mainstream or alternative, paid or unpaid and more. The keys to winning an Effie includes the ability to understand the business context, development of aligned objectives, an insightful strategy, outstanding creativity and the market results to prove it.

Project Chairman Ruwan Liyanagamage stated that this year’s creative idea for the Effies is on ‘Jana Kavi,’ which has consistently been an effective form of communication for poets. The effectiveness of these poems has brought both fame and results to the poets and therefore local ‘Jana Kavi’ was deemed an ideal creative platform for this year’s Effie campaign. He also stated that he is confident that this year’s awards would attract a much larger number of participants than previous years.

Chevron Lubricants Lanka PLC CEO/MD Kishu Gomes stated: “Ideas must resonate with relevance, effectiveness and results with effectiveness holding centre stage as the most important criteria for judging great advertising. The clarion call for the industry is to produce communication material that give best value for money and tangible returns, material that send ripples across the consumer landscape and draw then into the communication process. The key phrase today is inter-activeness and increasingly the challenge is for ideas that resonate between the initiator and end purchaser or user.”

This year too there would be 28 categories open for awarding. Campaigns which ran between 1 July 2010 and 30 June 30 are eligible to apply. The judging process established for the awards show has been of global standards due to learnings from Effies worldwide.  The Judging Panel is comprised of an elite group of individuals representing the marketing, advertising, research, media and academic spheres.

The Official Telecom partner for the event is Etisalat, the Corporate Sponsor is KIK and the Main Sponsor is Singer.

Gomes is Head of the Judging Panel. Lasantha Abeywickrama is the Advisor Effie Sri Lanka. The Judging Panel includes eminent personalities such as Laksiri Wickremage, Shaheen Cader, Fauzal Hameed, Prof. Sunanda Degamboda, Renuka Marshall, Chalaka Gajbahu, Laila Gunesekera, Bimal Silva, Mangala Perera, Pravin David and Sheron Jayasundera. The Main Sponsor for the event is Singer.