Ada’s ‘Unity Paper’ wins Cannes Lions

The ‘Unity Paper,’ a bilingual newspaper by the Ada newspaper, a part of Wijeya Newspapers Ltd., was awarded a Bronze Lion at the 60th Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in the Media Lions Category for the ‘Best Use of Print’.

The ‘Unity Paper’ has also been shortlisted in the Design Lions Category for Advertising Typography.

The ‘Unity Paper’ was created to remind every Sri Lankan of the importance of national unity and integration in a country such as Sri Lanka which suffered many setbacks due to the 30-year civil war. This initiative was further driven through social media with a joint alphabet where letters from the Sinhala and Tamil alphabet which represented the same letter were interlocked.

The campaign engaged 15% of Facebook users in Sri Lanka within the first five days of its launch

The ‘Unity Paper’ is an initiative by Wijeya Newspapers, established in 1979 and is the country’s leading newspaper group in Sri Lanka, recording the highest circulation for all its publications. The Wijeya Group’s publications cover a diverse range of topics and extend its reach to audiences internationally.

This innovative breakthrough in the Sri Lankan media was created by the team at Ada in collaboration with Starcom, the media buying arm of Leo Burnett Solutions Inc., a leading creative communications company in Sri Lanka.