J. Walter Thompson Colombo tapping into female capital

J. Walter Thompson Sri Lanka launched 2018 with a preview of ‘Female Tribes, A conversation on Motherhood’ which is due to be released in full this May. 

“We’ve spent the last year in conversation with 100 people about the idea and realities of motherhood,” said J. Walter Thompson Sri Lanka CEO Alyna Haji Omar. 

“First time mums, young girls talking about their mums. Young women evaluating the choices before them, single mums, single dads playing double roles, full-time dads reinventing the rules, LGBT mums, not-mums, celebrity mums… We’ve spoken to so many wonderful people and retold these conversation through design, the first preview was launched in January and we’re thrilled with the reactions to it across the market.

“A large proportion of the brands we work with are mainly targeted at women but the masculinity of marketing remains a real barrier in reaching out to women in a meaningful way. We believe in female capital, it highlights the value women bring to the world: as women. We need to know the value of women as leaders, politicians, economists, scientists, pioneers, activists, athletes, actors and artists. This first edition of Female Tribes does that through a powerful and incredibly insightful series of design stories.”

Commenting on her journey as the JWT CEO since June 2015, Alyna said: “In just over two years we have completely transformed the Sri Lanka operation making us a more vibrant, digitally led, strategically rooted creative powerhouse that is in every way ahead of the curve within the local industry. We set out to recalibrate our legacy, we restructured and established new KPIs and drove an entirely different, more aggressive and certainly more progressive agenda, building core competencies around Female Capital was and continues to be a central focus  – looking back on the last two plus years we’ve hired 80% women, our teams are equally represented, my leadership team is equally represented, my junior leadership team in dominated by women, two out of three core departments are led by women, our last winner of the global high potentials program… a woman  – the ROI is powerful, over 400% growth in just over two years. 90% pitch win rate, attrition at a record low, client retention at a record high… the future is female! “

J. Walter Thompson South Asia CEO Tarun Rai had this to say on JWT’s Sri Lanka’s recent successes: “Our Sri Lanka operations have been on a roll ever since Alyna took over as CEO. And I am not all surprised at their amazing success. The atmosphere in the office is electric. The energy is palpable. They are trying out new things. And most important, having fun. Alyna was my first appointment as I took over my new role at JWT and I am very proud of her achievements. She is not only the youngest woman agency CEO in Sri Lanka but in the entire South Asia region. And she has a fantastic bunch of very capable, senior women along with her to drive JWT Sri Lanka to even greater success. “

“I find that being a women-led agency infuses the team with a powerful blend of empathy and courage that has played no small part in building enduring relationships, not only with our clients but with our partners and colleagues as well,” said Client Services Director Michelle Georgesz. “We believe it is important to break barriers and stereotypes and through our ongoing research, we believe we have found genuine insights and not just pre- conceived assumptions into female behaviour.”

J. Walter Thompson Sri Lanka Head of Creative Asela De Silva said: “Being a creative in the industry for quite a while, I have found that when the team is diverse, there is definitely an edge when tapping into insights and the ideas that come out of it, and subsequently the campaigns are more authentic, powerful and resonates with people better.”

With over 150 years of experience, the J. Walter Thompson group specialises in creating pioneering solutions that transform brands and businesses and change the world. JWT along with Contract, Fortune, Design Sutra and Small Fry Studio offers end to end brand solutions. The group has been in Sri Lanka for over 35 years and handles a diverse portfolio of international and local brands that includes telcos, aviation, tourism, FMCG, healthcare, financial services, construction fashion and sports, etc.