NGage Young Spikes duo clinches PR Bronze at Spikes Asia

Monday, 7 October 2019 01:21 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Two young professionals from NGage Strategic Alliance brought honour to Sri Lanka and their agency by winning the Bronze Award in the Young Spikes PR Competition held during Spikes Asia 2019 which concluded in Singapore recently.

The duo, Maheshi Dunuwilage and Shahan Fernando, won the award for presenting a PR campaign for eco-tourism. Their challenge was to create a stronger relationship between tourists and visitors to the paradise islands of Palau, strengthened by a common passion towards the environment, culture and conservation of this magical location.

The Young Spikes Competitions held from 25-27 September provided the next generation of communications and creative talent from Asia Pacific a unique opportunity to gain recognition and showcase their skills in developing an innovative campaign for a real life challenge and make their mark on the Asian PR industry. During the two-day competition period, the duo competed with other agencies in the APAC region and judged by a panel of top industry experts.

Expressing their views on winning, the duo reflected, “Our brief on Palaun tourism was one of the most interesting cases we have received. The possibility that it could be implemented was also exciting. We were informed that the campaign conducted in 2017 was hugely successful and we realised that our strategy needed to exceed those expectations. We spent a lot of time interrogating the brief and were able to gain the necessary insights to develop a good campaign. We were thrilled when the judges commented that ‘we were the best team to understand the brief’ and they saw ‘the potential of our idea’. We are also extremely grateful for all the support and encouragement from the agency, especially the pre-training we received geared towards the competition.”

Dunuwilage and Fernando were selected to represent Sri Lanka after winning the PR category at the local competition held between agencies in the industry.

Commenting on the win, NGage Founder, Chairman, chief coach and strategist Nimal Gunewardena said, “We are incredibly proud of our young talent, and Maheshi and Shahan’s win at Young Spikes against stiff competition from the region is testimony to the great talent we nurture at NGage. Our young professionals embody our values of innovation of staying ahead of the curve, always thinking critically and finding a better way. NGage has been known as a ‘learning organisation’ that has been shaping young talent over our 26 years. We continue to look for bright people who want to get into communications and rise to the top.”