Powerful ideas lead Young Spikes to represent Lanka at Spikes Asia 2012

By Rashika Fazali

‘The Young Spikes’ Sri Lankan competition, organised jointly by The Metal Factor and MBC Network, saw three teams of two battle it out last Wednesday evening to become one of the two teams of the two categories to represent Sri Lanka at Spikes Asia 2012 in Singapore.

The goal of the competition was to help young professionals think and create out-of-the-box ideas, and most importantly to promote learning opportunities for the young talent.

Spikes Asia 2012, Asia’s creative and prestigious Advertising Festival and Awards, is a festival of creativity that consists of 16 categories: film, print, outdoor, radio, digital, direct, promo and activation, media, design, film craft, print and poster craft, integrated, mobile, PR, branded content and entertainment, and creative effectiveness. The festival aims to provide a platform for the communications industry to network and exchange ideas.

This year ‘The Young Spikes’ Sri Lankan competition held for a span of two weeks witnessed 14 media teams and 15 integrated teams with two panels of judges.

On the media jury were Ogilvy Media Managing Director Lalith Sumanasiri, Group M President Rohith Hettiarachchi, Nestle Lanka Channel Communication Manager Tania Jansz, and JWT Creative Group Head Ralston Joseph, joined by Grant McCann Erickson Executive Creative Director Russell Miranda and Sirasa Channel Head S.M. Marikkar for the final round.

As for the integrated jury, it consisted of Leo Burnett Head of Planning Murtaza Tajbouy, Lowe LDB President Chalaka Gajabahu, O&M Director Planning Madurim Gupta, and Triad Creative Director Charith De Silva, joined by Heensane Managing Director Rajive Weerasinghe and Yes FM Channel Head Shaq for the finals.

MBC CEO Shanthi Bhagirathan, addressing the event, said: “There is a lot of talent in our country, and we want to help showcase them.” In addition, she also mentioned that the Sirasa Superstar Season 2 winner joined the Top 15 of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) Radio Song Contest out of 26 entries to be held in Seoul, Korea.

The finals of ‘Young Spikes’ held at Lemon, comprised of three team finalists; each of them were given five minutes for their presentations. Tharanga Ratnasekera and Champika Anuradha of Group M won the media category with their innovative ‘Not Available’ campaign, which dealt with what would happen if women were not available today. It also elaborates on women handing over their jobs to men for a day, so that everyone can ‘Feel the Change’.

In the integrated category, finalists were asked to come up with a compelling campaign for Yes FM’s frequency change on 1 November. Ashan Bandaranayake and S. Niroshan of Phoenix O&M were crowned as the winners for this category for their rather entertaining yet mind blowing concept called ‘No FM 89.5’, which gives the much0needed changeover to 101 FM with the right kind of humour and awareness.

Popular morning show host Shaq was quite impressed with the talent seen at the ‘Young Spikes’. He said: “These young professionals understand the commercialised industry. They come up their own ideas, raw ideas that are very interesting when you look at them in the big picture.” He also sparked interest on ‘No FM 89.5’, stating: “It was a very entertaining concept especially when you think of it the radio way.”

The Metal Factor Chairman and Cannes Lions in Sri Lanka Representative Ranil De Silva concluded the event by thanking the MBC Network for partnering with The Metal factor for the fourth consecutive time, and for funding 36 young professionals for the previous ‘Young Spikes’ for Spikes Asia.

Along with the two teams that will fly to Singapore for the Spikes Asia 2012, another Sri Lankan, Leo Burnett Solutions Inc. (LBSI) Executive Creative Director Subhash Pinnapola, will attend the Spikes Asia 2012 to make history as the first Sri Lankan to be a member of the jury for the Craft Category.

The Spikes Asia 2012 festival will be held for three days from 16 September till 18 September.

Pix by Lasantha Kumara