Can the ad industry make a comeback in post-war Sri Lanka?

Three decades of war and continuous conflict in the country have inflicted unique experiences and changed the lives of almost two generations of Sri Lankans. Apart from the fact that the conflict has imposed complexities and challenges on the social, political and economic landscape of the island it has also forced people into innovating for survival.

A snapshot of the political leadership of the time shows certain nation impacting decisions being implemented, although for the most part, none of it was having a noticeable impact. National leaders belonging to different schools of thought prescribed to various formulae to seek a long-term solution towards building Sri Lanka.

However, those efforts proved to be non-cohesive, rather ad hoc and based on unsubstantiated presumptions. These efforts seem to lack depth in terms of the power of impact and equitability as far as people’s lives were concerned.

This was largely due to a lack of understanding of the unique nature of the issue at hand and the unique indigenous reasons, which could not be considered on a generalised macro geopolitical, social and cultural scope. Given this background, it should be noted there were a few but less powerful opinions which tried to address this aspect of the issue, although they did not have the desired leadership to inspire a positive change within Sri Lanka until 2004.

A closer look at the outcome shows a strategic and effective mobilisation of insightful thinking, indigenous in nature while not forgetting the importance of regional and global realities that Sri Lanka needed to contend with.

The final outcome was the end of a three decades long civil conflict. This was a change which gave the nation a new lease of life – almost a rebirth.

Technically, a new consumer was born; a personality who was expected to be free of fear, possessing the desire to interact with brands more closely following a 30 year gap. As a result, an extremely hopeful post-war Sri Lanka including the marcom industry became greedy for “a bagful of goodies”. Unfortunately Sri Lanka, and along with it the marcom industry, did not experience the major growth expected.

Did we get what we wanted to our satisfaction? The answer probably is no. Who is responsible for falling short of delivering to expected levels? Can we blame it on the Government? Can we blame the politicians and national leaders? Or should we take part of the blame? Or could it be that our expectations were simply too high?

The question of whether post-war Sri Lanka presented the expected boost to the field of marketing and within that whether the advertising and communications industry got its due share, creates an opportunity for discussion.

As illustrated by the performance of most brands, the incremental growth has been average except for those brands with the opportunity of reaching out to newly accessible regions like the north and east.

This could be seen as the minimum one should expect. It is not unfair for the marketing fraternity to expect a tremendous boost comprising of new investments and developments. The result expected would be the creation of a Sri Lankan consumer with higher purchasing power who will create new consumption patterns and enjoy higher living standards etc.

However, it seems that there have not been good enough reasons for the marketing fraternity to be overjoyed and shout out their achievements.

As a matter of fact, one could argue that the people of this war-torn nation didn’t truly accept the status quo of being a trouble ridden country, but continued their lives as if nothing was out of place.

A point of contention could be that during this period people consumed all what was possible in optimum quantities as done previously, not leaving anything extra for the post-war consumer to enjoy. One might notice this to be an interesting deduction, may be viewed as being as close to reality as possible, where only the newly added geographical territories and the number of people who join the main stream Sri Lankan consumer from this region have in fact given a brand additional revenue.

Advertising and marcom, being the forerunners of the marketing industry, have a veritable right to be disappointed with the realities faced. In the post-war period, did the advertising industry get a new lease of life? The answer would be a big no. Did clients spend more money? The answer would be a big no again. Could we have contributed positively towards the change? The answer is a big yes.

Things may have been different had the post-war mercantile sector shown real vigour, which would have manifested in aggressive marketing efforts and strategic communication approaches. If the advertising industry could come together with a shared vision and unified efforts, powered by solidarity and friendship, then things could have been different.

The reality of a new consumer representing two generations of youth and adult, with aspirations and a possible 360 degree change in his or her thinking was not understood in its full scope. This was really a brand new consumer as far as the psyche was concerned.

Not only did the people start enjoying the rewards of peace and freedom, they also became relatively faster paced with more upwardly mobile behaviour. The possible opportunity the marketing fraternity had in considering this new born consumer, could have turned out to be a “consumption-machine”, but that is now a lost opportunity.

The possible learning is that the marketing fraternity should be ‘time sensitive’ to change as opportunities of this nature are few and far between.

Contrary to all expectations, the industry faced possibly the worst ever two years of its recent past, on the eve of celebrating the second anniversary of ending the country’s civil war. The industry’s national creative awards ceremony was cancelled due to their own differences and motives, leaving a huge void for improving the national quality of creativity to be on par with international standards.

Industry revenues depleted due to a lack of cohesiveness and an integrated approach in managing fees.

With short-sighted players opting for short term survival games, the industry was compromised beyond measure.

Sadly, the industry’s only professional representation – the 4A’s was reduced to a slow death in post-war Sri Lanka. One can only be hopeful that post-war year three will become more promising, delivering far and beyond the expectations of the people of Sri Lanka. However, it would all depend on the extent to which stakeholders would be willing to look within themselves and stop the blame game.

The new generation leadership has the opportunity to take note of these learnings as they strategise to take the industry to the next level in a bid to tap the full potential of the Sri Lankan marcom industry.

(Courtesy: Triad’s ad industry magazine ‘Can,’ July 2011)