Seylan Bank secures Silver Award at Dragons of Asia 2022

• #ResponsibleMe COVID-19 safety awareness campaign shines

 Seylan Bank, the Bank with a Heart, won a coveted Silver Award at Dragons of Asia Effective Marketing Awards 2022. 

The awards recognised the very best in results-driven marketing communications, by agencies and clients, across all countries in Asia.

The success of Seylan Bank’s #ResponsibleMe campaign, conceptualised to highlight the importance of self-awareness and individual responsibility in ensuring the safety of all Sri Lankan citizens in the COVID-19 pandemic, resulted in the financial institution bagging a Silver Award under the Best Cause, Charity Marketing or Public Sector Campaign, making Seylan Bank the only bank to be awarded under the category.

In 2021 at the height of the third COVID-19 wave, the Bank with a Heart felt that society needed to be educated about making responsible choices to contain the spread of the virus. This was certainly the need of the hour as it was observed that there was a rising feeling of demotivation to follow recommended protective behaviours, also known as pandemic fatigue.

The bank realised that simply saying “wear a mask” or “maintain social distancing”, would have been just another message, therefore Seylan Bank decided to execute the delivery of the message more assertively. This led to the campaign slogan “Suhada Haden, Tikak Seren”. 

To pull off the campaign, Seylan team members took on the responsibility to share the #ResponsibleMe message to the public, adding their own voices through their personal social media spaces. Key opinion leaders soon joined the call, and social media came abuzz with #ResponsibleMe.

The bank then considered a mentality change which encouraged people to accept individual responsibility to maintain preventative methods that was considered key for protection in the long term. To this end, as a responsible corporate, the bank launched a unique virtual media briefing to effectively drive this message, with the participation of media personnel active in the digital space. The campaign was taken a step further through interviews conducted in partnership with the Health Promotion Bureau to exaggerate the importance of acting responsibly. 

“The #ResponsibleMe campaign was a timely initiative, where Seylan went beyond our usual business, with the understanding that we had to overcome the pandemic together as a society and the responsibility of it lay within each one of us. It was through ensuring protection to all that we could survive,” said Seylan Bank Assistant General Manager for Marketing and Sales Gamika de Silva. 

“Executing a campaign of this scale was no easy task during the height of a pandemic. With several factors affecting productivity and teamwork, everyone involved was able to pull through and deliver their best. Without the support from our agency partners, Boutique Agency Network, Third Shift and Ogilvy PR, #ResponsibleMe would not have been possible. We are also grateful to the Health Promotion Bureau for the support they gave us throughout the campaign. All in all, the promise to take personal responsibility for one’s actions to ensure the prevention of spread has certainly paid off,” he added speaking of the Silver Dragon.

Such a win on an international stage stands as testament to the bank’s efforts which led to it becoming a catalyst hero in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, while also shining a global spotlight on the nation as a whole.