Softlogic Life beats the world at Global Mobile Marketing Awards 2017

Seated from left: Mindshare Sri Lanka Asst. Manager, Digital Media Isuru Suharshana, Softlogic Life Insurance Asst. Manager, Marketing Communications Dulashini Kaluvitharana, Softlogic Life Insurance Senior Manager Marketing Kavindra Rajapaksha, Softlogic Life Insurance Managing Director Iftikar Ahamed, Softlogic Life Insurance Head of Marketing Nuwan Widyapathige, Softlogic Life Insurance Manager, Brand Development Chamindri Pilimatalauwe, Mindshare Sri Lanka Associate Director, Digital Media Chamith Buthgumwa and Third shift Media Director Prasanga Jayathunga ,Standing from left: Softlogic Life Insurance Manager, Marketing Communications Arshad Mohideen, Softlogic Life Insurance Senior Brand Executive, Creative Development Pasan Ranathunga, Softlogic Life Insurance Senior Brand Executive, Corporate Social Responsibility Gayanie Dayarathne, Softlogic Life Insurance Manager, Marketing Operations Roshan Sooriyarachchi, Mindshare Sri Lanka Manager, Digital Media Shanaka Rathnayake and Third shift Media Director, Media Lasantha Mallawarachchi

Sri Lanka’s fastest growing life insurance brand Softlogic Life has become the first ever Sri Lankan brand to emerge winners in the prestigious Global Mobile Marketing Awards for the most innovative mobile messaging campaign in the world. The award was won for the ‘Campaign That Saved 2500 Lives’ at the Global Smarties Awards, New York 2017; the world’s only global mobile marketing awards program honouring innovation, creativity, and success. 

The Global Smarties Awards otherwise known as the ‘Oscars of Digital Marketing’ is organised annually by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) to celebrate the teams and talent who are leveraging the power of mobile to create marketing campaigns that drive business impact. This year’s selection process involved over 100 global senior-level mobile marketers along with agencies and was finally reviewed by the MMA’s independent jury led by jury president Richard Kellam, CMO of Goodyear. 

The campaign titled ‘Campaign That Saved 2500 Lives’ was focused on helping people in flood affected areas during May 2017. Due to high network traffic during this time, connecting to the DMC was extremely difficult. Having lost all their belongings, mobile phones (mostly basic feature phones) were the only possessions of the affected people which they used to call for help. Keeping true to its brand promise of giving people quality through simple choices, Softlogic Life together with Mindshare Sri Lanka chose to take action through a simple and agile technology solution. A mobile integrated SMS line was created within 24 hours in partnership with Etisalat. This established a connection between the affected individuals and the relevant government authorities and expedited access to aid and assistance. Softlogic Life then used the same SMS line to amass requests for essential goods to help those in need. The initiative was highly successful and enabled Softlogic Life to help 2,500 distressed individuals who were directly impacted. 

Mobile platforms have changed the game for marketing professionals all over the world and have become a core driver for businesses to foster innovation and creativity. Softlogic Life Managing Director Iftikar Ahamed said, “A local brand creating such an impact on a global platform in the area of marketing and digital is a great milestone for all marketers in Sri Lanka. This shows that we as a country are well in-line with global trends and have the capability and the vision to be as great as any global brand. Without a doubt, this is the highest achievement a Sri Lankan brand has garnered in the field of marketing on a global platform.”

Softlogic Life together with Mindshare Sri Lanka was able to target flood affected areas through a successful geo targeting strategy and leverage social media as well as radio channels to raise awareness amongst the community very effectively landing them this win beating an all-time global multinational giant. This not only marks the first time that a Sri Lankan brand has been awarded a Global Smarties award but also the first time a brand has gone head-on with many other global giants and emerged victorious.

“What is great about this effort is the fact that a brand in the insurance category which is generally reserved in nature was able to achieve something of this magnitude in Marketing,” said Head of Marketing of Softlogic Life Nuwan Widyapathige. “It’s a testimony to the innovative culture and business philosophy Softlogic Life has. We have been doing some great marketing and the digital space is one of our key strategic priorities. We want to make use of digital channels to effectively reach out and engage our customers and that’s something we have been doing really well for quite some time now. Before this award we managed to secure two records in the Sri Lanka social media space namely most engaged branded video on Facebook for one of our commercials and the fastest branded video to reach one million views on Facebook for this year’s Father’s Day video,” he further stated.