BBDO Proximity Shop GM Jane Perry launches Proximity Shop in Sri Lanka

BBDO’s regional hub for retail and shopper marketing specialist projects, BBDO Proximity Shop General Manager Jane Perry launched the company’s Proximity Shop in Sri Lanka as an arm of BBDO Lanka at the Colombo Swimming Club on 3 April.

“I am happy to announce the launch of Proximity Shop in Sri Lanka. It’s exciting to be in a growing economy like Sri Lanka and support the BBDO team that is creating a big impact here,” Perry said at the occasion.

She also made a presentation on the specialist subject of retail and shopper marketing, the art and science of influencing people to purchase a specific brand from a specific place, to a select group of invitees.

Retail has been radically transformed by a perfect storm of the economy, convergence, price empowerment, innovation attitude, smart shoppers and stockholder pressure, and shopper marketing as opposed to consumer marketing, which is the interaction of brands with consumers as they go about their lives;  is the interaction of brands with consumers as they go about the business of shopping.

Proximity Shop works with clients to understand how people buy their brands, helping to define the journey a shopper takes to the point of handing over their cash across markets, sales channels and retail categories and formats, learning to accommodate the shopper’s fluid cross channel behaviours to trigger the right responses, ensuring shoppers’ needs are met at every engagement point, regardless of location; home, life or store.

Proximity Shop’s global brands include KFC, P&G, Visa, HP, Mars, Blackberry, Slazenger, Watsons, Diageo, Maxis, Dr. Oetker, TomTom, Bausch&Lomb, Hard Yakka, SingTel and Mercedes Benz. It has operations in London, Toronto, Atlanta, Singapore, Shanghai, Manila, Sydney and now Sri Lanka.

BBDO Lanka MD Santosh Menon, speaking at the occasion, stated: “I am delighted that we are able to provide Sri Lankan clients with top class international shopper resources to address their brand needs. Further, I am looking forward to providing similar support across the PR and digital space as well. We are proud that within just 18 months of launching in Sri Lanka, we are able to provide the entire gamut of services including ATL, PR, digital and now shopper.”

BBDO Lanka is uniquely positioned in the advertising industry having launched its ‘force for good’ initiative in 2012 by becoming the first carbon neutral advertising agency in South Asia. It also launched Asia’s first ever mechanical air purifying billboard and contributed to the ‘bikes for life’ initiative which provides children in the north with bikes and thus a means to get to school and not miss out on an education.

BBDO Lanka is also the only Sri Lankan advertising agency with branch operations in Mauritius and since 2011, has been engaged in doing truly exciting work for the Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB). MCB is the oldest and largest banking institution in Mauritius and a true pioneer in its banking sector. BBDO Lanka also does projects for Mauritian Edendale Ltd.