Gamika awarded “Young Achiever of the Year”

Sri Lankan marketing recently reached new heights as a rising young star in the field of marketing – Gamika De Silva – was awarded the “Young Achiever of the Year” at the CMO Asia Awards for Excellence in Branding and Marketing which was held in Singapore on the 22 July 2011.

The CMO Asia is an organisation dedicated to promoting a high level of knowledge-exchange between senior CMOs and brand decision makers across industry segments through the creation and enhancement of leadership and networking opportunities.

The prestigious award for “Young Achiever of the Year” is awarded to individuals below the age of 35 who have displayed outstanding marketing skills throughout the early stages of their careers.

Gamika exemplifies this in numerous ways. To start with, the level of success he has achieved at the age of 32 is unparalleled. Senior Manager Marketing for Post Pay and Mobile Broadband at Etisalat Lanka Pvt Limited – he is the youngest person to hold this position.

His prolific 13-year career has seen him gain invaluable experience in such esteemed companies as Richard Pieris & Co Ltd and Janashakthi Insurance where he contributed immensely to their annual growth.

Among his several achievements, Gamika successfully handled the Janashakthi IPO (initial public offering) campaign, which was launched at a time when all market indicators for an IPO were negative.

The campaign was successful, as the IPO was 4 times oversubscribed within a few hours. The Janashakthi IPO campaign won an Effie award in 2009 at Sri Lankan Effies. Gamika’s vast contribution to Janashakthi was marked by the fact that he was the project head for the team who won ‘Service Brand of the year 2007’ at the SLIM Brand Excellence awards. He also spearheaded the team that walked away with consecutive awards for ‘Turnaround Brand of the Year’ at the SLIM Brand Excellence awards in 2008 and 2009 for the Janashakthi Life Unlimited brand.

At Etisalat, he pioneered the ‘Blackberry for every one’ campaign which won a Silver award at the Effies 2010. The campaign generated a stunning 3-digit growth in the volume of sales for Blackberries in 2010.

This dynamic game-changer is currently the youngest Vice President of the national marketing body of Sri Lanka and is actively involved in developing the marketing fraternity as a whole.

His remarkable achievement is a symbol of encouragement to the Sri Lankan marketing community. It heralds the coming of age of professional marketers in the country and sends an important message to the international marketing community – Sri Lankans are on par with the best of the best in the world of marketing and are set to be key players on the global marketing stage in the years to come!