Young Lotus Adfest Sri Lanka 2016: Nurturing creative minds for tomorrow

Group picture, (standing) winners with runner’s up of the 4As Young Lotus competition

(seated) Members of the organising committee of the 4As Young Lotus competition. Treasurer, 4As - Selonica Nalawansa, Director, 4As - Dharshi Thambiah, President, 4As - Sheron Jayasundara and Vice President, 4As - Sarva Amarasekare are also present.  – Pix by Sameera Wijesinghe

By Shannine Daniel

The Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies (4A’s) recently held the Young Lotus Adfest Sri Lanka for the year 2016 on 3 February in Colombo.

This year’s competition saw an increase in the number of participants as opposed to the previous years with 45 teams from various agencies within the advertising industry taking part in the competition. 

Each team consisted of a Copywriter and Art Director. All teams competed for the title of ‘Sri Lanka’s Best Creative Young Team’. 

Participants of this full-day competition from large and medium scale agencies alike competed for the chance to represent Sri Lanka at Adfest 2016 in Pattaya, Thailand.

“I am delighted to see the increased participation at this year’s program. Our intent is to train and polish young creative minds, providing exposure in developing effective concepts which will see them compete regionally and globally,” 4A’s President Sheron Jayasundara commented.

This year’s competition saw Amanda Aluvihare and Ijaz A. Sahlan from JWT Sri Lanka, receiving the award as the winning team that delivered a novel campaign tailored to fit this year’s challenge.

Joint Runners up for the competition were Aruna Fernando and Chinthaka Jayawickrama from JWT Sri Lanka and Shyan Gershon and Sohan Ratnaike from TBWA /TAL.

Ravindra Laksiru and Shehan Samarasinha from Triad were placed third and Fazie M. Mohamed and Dilakshi Wijesinghe from Reap Digital came in fourth. 

The panel of judges, consisted of some of the country’s  eminent  creative minds in the industry namely Ruchi Sharma (Jury Chair), Lalindra Nanayakara, Dileepa Abeyasekera, Suminda Gamage, Johan Latif, Soruban Sivapatham, Ranil Nalawansa, Aman Ashraff, Dinesh Perera and Dilshard Ahamad. 

The winning duo will have the opportunity to travel to Thailand to represent Sri Lanka at the 12th Young Lotus Creative Workshop taking place from 14 to 16 March, competing against their counterparts from the Asia Pacific Region. 

Adfest, one of the number one creative events of the advertising industry within the Asia Pacific region, supports tomorrow’s industry leaders with the opportunity to network and learn from the top most creative pioneers in the industry.

 Created in 2004, the Young Lotus Workshop is one of Adfest’s initiatives to nurture, recognise and encourage the young talents in the advertising and creative community in the region. The main objectives behind this initiative is to allow participants to further develop their skills and learn from the pioneers of the industry, sharpen their  talents while competing under a relaxed atmosphere and give them the prospect of earning a winning place on the Adfest stage as well. 

The two and a half day workshop will see young creative teams from about 15 cities gathering to learn from creative leaders from all over the world, whilst meeting new colleagues and sharing ideas with them. 

Each year, an agency network hosts the Creative Workshop, which is facilitated by ‘trainers’ from the host network, known as the Young Lotus Workshop Committee. Participants will be coached and lectured within a day and a half workshop, and afterwards given a brief to be completed within 24 hours. The ideas presented will be judged by the Creative Workshop Committee and the winners will be announced on stage at Adfest.