SLIM Brand Excellence Awards 21st Edition open for entries

Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing President Nuwan Gamage

Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing Vice President Gayan Perera

SLIM Brand Excellence Project Chairperson Kavi Rajapaksha

SLIM Brand Excellence Head of Jury Imal Fonseka

On a quest to celebrate the finest brands in Sri Lanka, SLIM announces the launch of the 21st Edition of the SLIM Brand Excellence Awards 2022. 

This year’s edition aptly themed, ‘Mettle of Resilience’, is now open for entries while the closing date for entries will be 22 September. 

The SLIM Brand Excellence Awards looks to bestow five primary awards and 10 special awards to recognise the efforts of brands that have managed to disrupt local and global markets through the tactful coupling of strategy, creativity and innovation to take their operations to the next level. 

The five main award categories include Product Brand of the Year, Service Brand of the Year, Glocal Brand of the Year, Local Brand of the Year and Export Brand of the Year. The ten special awards added to this year’s awards night include, Innovative Brand of the Year, Turnaround Brand of the Year, Best New Entrant of the Year, B2B Brand of the Year, CSR Brand of the Year, Online Brand of the Year, SME Local Brand of the Year, SME Export Brand of the Year and the two new categories Agile Brand of the Year and Green Brand of the Year.

All entries are judged by a posy of the country’s most respected, experienced professionals, who follow a careful and precise evaluation procedure to determine the brands, brand custodians and entrepreneurs most worthy of recognition. 

The SLIM Brand Excellence Awards are known for being the most coveted brand awards in the country for over 20 years. With the vision of propelling local brands into the international arena, the SLIM Brand Excellence Awards process has been revamped this year with the introduction of a “Brand Book”. The awards reflect a desire to develop and enable local brands to follow robust processes that will help them navigate the complex business environment of today. The SLIM Brand Excellence Awards platform is built upon a structure designed by the late Professor Uditha Liyanage, an expert on the mechanisms of brands. 

SLIM President Nuwan Gamage said: “As a nation, we are going through tragic economic conditions. However, despite all these challenges, some of you have found the opportunity and means to survive with very creative ways of reaching out to engage and offer the best to your consumers.” 

“SLIM Brand Excellence is there to appreciate those strategic masterminds who kept their brand flags flying high. We, as a national body for marketing, firmly believe that we need to have a strong footprint in Sustainable Marketing Practices. Further, our national initiative is to establish marketing as a main force to develop our nation branding blueprint to position Sri Lanka globally for travel, Invest and Live. I think as marketing professionals in the country, we all have the responsibility of uplifting the Sri Lankan brand, which is a direct solution to moving out of this tragic situation,” he added.

SLIM Brand Excellence 2022 Project Chairperson Kavi Rajapaksha said: “It is now more than ever, the strength of our brands and our brands strategies are tested. Whilst most opted to halt brand building activities in the face of recurring challenges, there were those that understood the importance of strengthening brands and hustled to find ways to carry out activities that really engaged consumers, providing them with much needed solutions during turbulent times.”

“This years’ theme “Mettle of Resilience” has been brought forward to recognise and award those great branding blacksmiths who are moulding their brands to be stronger, more relevant and more resilient than ever before. We hope the marketing fraternity in Sri Lanka will use this opportunity to come forward with their amazing brand stories to keep the inspiration growing,” remarked in unison,” he added. 

SLIM Brand Excellence 2022 Head of Jury Imal Fonseka said: “‘Weird times’. It’s a phrase I’ve both used and heard on multiple occasions; people and corporates try to make some degree of sense of the significant changes to all aspects of their lives and way of doing business. Seemingly overnight, the rules of the marketer’s game have changed. Looking forward to many compelling cases of true brand excellence during extraordinary times.”

SLIM VP Events Gayan Perera stated, “Year on year, Sri Lanka continues to face challenges, where the gravity or the impact of each challenge remains greater than the one before. In such a context, the sheer resilience of our brands has become the key yardstick to evaluate their excellence. This year too, amidst a plethora of challenges, SLIM Brand Excellence is on the verge of opening its doors to and recognising a collection of resilient brands that kept its brand promise to consumers despite difficult market conditions.”