Young Spikes 2011 winners gear up for Spikes Asia 2011

MetalFactor teamed up with the International Advertising Association’s (IAA) Sri Lanka Chapter yet again to host the Young Spikes contest for young advertising professionals. The winning team, consisting of two members each from the following categories – Integrated communication and Media, will represent Sri Lanka at the Young Spikes contest at Spikes Asia 2011 in Singapore.

The winners of the Media competition are Wasim Akram and Rinesh Jayarathne from Leo Burnett Solutions Inc. and the winners of the integrated competition are Shehan Rodrigo and Reshad Mohideen from Grant McCann Erickson. These four contestants will be participating in the Spikes Asia Festival 2011 in Singapore which will be held from 18 to 20 September 2010.

The Spikes Asia Festival is a collaboration between the organisers of the Cannes Lions festival and Haymarket, the publisher of the campaign magazine. It provides the region’s growing creative and advertising industry with a platform to network and exchange ideas, bringing together some of the finest creative thinkers from across the region and around the world. It also recognises Asia’s best works at the Spikes Asia Awards.

MBC networks, partnered Metal Factor for the 3rd consecutive year to support this endeavour. MBC Networks were the partners for the first ever Young Spikes competition conducted in Sri Lanka and have continued to support metal factor and the IAA with this programme. This year, they have continued their association with the competition under Sri Lanka’s most popular radio station Sirasa FM.

Mano Wickramanayake, Group Director, Electronic Media, MBC Networks stated, “This competition is something we are proud to support. Providing opportunities to young advertising professionals to gain exposure and learning from a regional event of this calibre will help groom our youth in the advertising industry for the future. Today we must believe in the next generation and invest in their future because they will fuel this industry and Sri Lanka’s progress” Sirasa FM is proud to be a partner of the Young Spikes Sri Lanka competition.

The competition this year saw the richest number of participants vying for the titles. Thus making the competition even more challenging. To add lustre and excitement to the competition the concept of senior professionals who serve as mentors is an interesting new dimension which has been added. These mentors represent the leaders of the industry from a cross section of agencies and even marketers. The two mentors to the two winning teams were Subhash Pinnapola of Leo Burnett and Rohith Hettiarachchi of Unilever who mentored the integrated and media teams respectively. Both Subhash and Rohith will also be supported by metal factor in partnership with Sirasa FM to attend the Spikes Asia festival in Singapore.

The teams were issued a brief on two subjects which were to popularise radio as a medium and to help make Colombo a beautiful city. The teams had to submit their response to the brief by the end of the day and then on the second day of the programme the teams were required to complete their campaign and execute them with the facilities made available. On the third and final day of the competition, the teams were required to make a 5 minute presentation to the jury.

The two juries for the competition composed of leading personalities from the advertising and marketing fraternity who were challenged to select 2 teams from the 30 teams who vied for the title. Both juries stated that the quality of ideas and the work presented by the teams were of an exceptionally high standard “It was indeed a pleasure to see the ideas and their executions from youth in our industry. We were unanimous in our choice of winners but commend all the teams for their exceptional work” stated Sharon Jayasundera - Chairperson of both juries.

The Young Spikes Asia programme is a special programme dedicated to the youth in the advertising industry from across the Asia Pacific. The Sri Lankan Young Spikes teams attending the festival will attend seminars and workshops conducted during the Spikes Asia Festival, in addition to participating at the Young Spikes Asia competition.