Seylan Bank hits Gold as ‘Turnaround Brand of the Year’

Continuing its winning streak, Seylan Bank on 1 October 2010, clinched the Gold Award for the ‘Turnaround Brand of the Year’ at the prestigious SLIM Brand Excellence Awards as “the brand that has most successfully overcome a downturn or a crisis”.

SLIM Brand Excellence is now the single most important event for brand custodians to measure excellence in marketing effectiveness. For the most reputable brands, this is considered as their ultimate test to show indisputable proof that the brand is indeed the best in Sri Lanka.

A delighted Chairman of the Seylan Bank Eastman Narangoda said: “The list of accolades is getting lengthier and this has humbled us more and more. These awards are not the recognition of a single person or a few persons. They celebrate the contribution of every single one of our stakeholders both in Sri Lanka and overseas, and are parallely, an endorsement of the Bank’s performance and credibility.”

This year SLIM Brand Excellence showcased giants in their fields, awarding them with an accolade that will not be shared. SLIM Brand Excellence offers winners the one thing they don’t have to share… a revered accolade that is bestowed upon only the best brands in Sri Lanka, using  stringent judging process to separate the ‘best’ from the rest.

Among its objectives are to reward the outstanding efforts of the best performing brands in the country, to raise the local brands to global standards of excellence, and, to encourage best practices in branding.

The performance of each brand was judged initially through a written submission under Brand Intent, Brand Content, Brand Process and Brand Performance with additional category specific questions. The finalists were asked to make a presentation on the brand’s success story to the Panel of Judges.

Focus was given to the effectiveness of the marketing strategies adopted by the Bank to overcome the crisis and reverse the downturn. These strategies revolved on three pivotal areas – easing the outflow of deposits, building confidence in public of Sri Lanka and thereby strengthening the deposit base.  

Just prior to this, Seylan Bank’s Annual Report for 2009 – ‘The Case Study’ – won a total of three Gold Awards, three Bronze Awards and an Honors Award at the recent ‘Vision Awards 2009’ and the 24th ‘ARC Awards International 2010’.

Chairman Narangoda said, “For more than 20 years the Seylan Bank has proudly called itself ‘The Bank with a Heart’ and has worked hard to live up to this credo. As we tackled the unprecedented challenges during the past two years, the dedicated men and women of the bank never lost heart. Buoyed by the continued support of our customers, we redefined our vision and improved management practices from the top down. We provided the best possible service while practicing innovative, responsible management for the benefit of all stakeholders.”

Narangoda reiterated the Seylan Bank’s gratitude to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Governor of the Central Bank, the Bank’s staff and all its stakeholders across Sri Lanka who helped make this achievement possible.