Microsoft bags Bronze at Cannes Lions Young Marketer Sri Lanka 2014

Tuesday, 6 May 2014 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Two young, vibrant marketers Prassanna Pathmanathan and Ruwani Karunaratne bagged the Bronze award at the recently held Cannes Lions Young Marketer of Sri Lanka 2014 contest. The national competition was organised by Metal Factor the Sri Lankan representative for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, in partnership with the International Advertising Association (IAA), The Association Accredited Advertising Agencies (4As) and Sri Lankan Institute of Marketing (SLIM). This is the third consecutive year in which the Young Marketer Competition has been held. This competition gives young professionals in the marketing fraternity the opportunity to gain from the world’s most prestigious marketing Communications event. The Young Marketer competition attracted many teams, comprising two young marketers in a team from various multinationals and marketing organisations. The competition was conducted by SLIM and the teams were asked to tackle a case study based on a CSR project and asked to prepare a creative brief and a presentation for executing the CSR project. The teams were judged by Leo Burnett Solutions Head of Brand Planning Murtaza A. Tajbhoy, Bates Strategic Alliance CEO Sheron Jayasundara, Etisalat Lanka Ltd. Snr. Manager Marketing Gamika De Silva and Logiwiz Limited Manager – Marketing & Business Dev. Leroy Ebert. Ultimma Consulting and Training Founder/Director Prassanna Pathmanathan and Microsoft Inside Territory Manager Ruwani Karunaratne, representing the Brand Microsoft were adjudged as 2nd runners up at this competition. Prassanna is an IT and Business graduate from University of Westminster, Chartered Marketer (UK), Practicing Marketer (Sri Lanka) and Certified Professional Marketer (South Asia) and currently reading for his MBA from University of Wales (UK). Prassanna is a Marketing Consultant, Corporate Trainer, and Lecturer for Undergraduate and Postgraduate studies. Moreover he has a strong presence in the Sri Lankan Fashion Industry and immerged as the Young Creative Entrepreneur of the year 2012. Ruwani is a CIM graduate and currently reading for her MBA from University of Wales (UK). Her marketing career started off with GlaxoSmithKline on brands and marketing under dermatology and conducted several awareness programs and island wide CSR projects and currently she manages the Brands at Microsoft. She’s also a lecture for students undertaking Cambridge and Edexcel examinations. Expressing their gratitude for SLIM and the other organisers Prassanna and Ruwani say that winning the Bronze award at the Cannes Lions Young Marketer – Sri Lanka competition is one of the major milestones they achieved in their marketing career. This was a great learning experience for them and the guidance and feedback they received from the advertising and marketing fraternity professionals through this competition is immense. They also thanked everyone who supported and helped them to secure a place in this tough competition.