Sri Lanka to wave the flag at Spikes Asia Singapore

Sri Lanka to wave the flag at Spikes Asia Singapore

Metal Factor teamed up with the Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies (4A’s) to promote the Cannes of Asia, the Spikes Asia Festival which will be held in Singapore from 15^th to 17^th of September. Spikes Asia is a celebration of advertising in Asia Pacific. It is a 3 day action packed programme comprising seminars, workshops, academies, networking, awards and entertainment. This year Sri Lanka will have full representation at the festival with 10 plus entries competing in about 20 plus categories, 25 delegates attending the festival, a juror, a student participating in the Academy, 2 teams competing in the Young Spikes Competition’s and a single team participating in the Agency Shoot Out.

“Sri Lanka has a complete contingent at this prestigious festival” stated Ranil de Silva of Metal Factor, the Sri Lankan Representative for Spikes Asia. He also added “I do hope our teams will perform creditably and become the champions. Above all else I do hope it will prove to be a powerful learning experience which would enrich and empower Sri Lanka’s marketing communications industry.”

Two winning teams consisting of two members each will represent Sri Lanka at the Young Spikes contest at Spikes Asia 2013. A total of 54 young advertising professionals participated in a local competition to select Sri Lanka’s winning team. The teams were issued a brief on two subjects which were to educate children and adults on the rights of the child and to promote the MBC Yes FM mobile app. 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. This competition which was sponsored by Yes FM, was conducted in a 2 tier process where the finalist’s made presentations in front of an audience comprising the fraternity from the industry.

The winners of the Media Competition are Dexter Shadrach & Infas Iqbal of Phoenix O&M, while the winners of the Integrated Competition are Induwarani Munasinghe & Chani Perera of Leo Burnett.

MBC networks, partnered Metal Factor for the 5^th 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 advertising industry with this programme from its inception. This year, they have continued their association with the competition under Sri Lanka’s most popular radio station Yes FM.

Chalaka Gajabahu, President of the 4A’s, stated, “We are proud to be sending four Sri Lankans to the Spikes Asia Festival this year. Year on year we see a growing interest from the youth in the industry to participate at competitions and exposure of this nature will help the local ad industry to develop. We are also very appreciative of the support extended to us over the last five years by MBC Networks.”

Nedra Weerasinge, Group Director, The Capital Maharaja Organization Pvt Ltd., 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 the youth in our advertising industry for the future. They are the future of the industry and we hope that our support will help to grow the industry as well.”

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 28 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.

The winners of the local competition will be joined by, Sahil Gunesekere of the Academy of Design, who was the only Sri Lankan student to win a place at the Young Creative Academy at Spikes Asia in Singapore this year. Ralston Joseph and Mudith Jayasekera will represent JWT at the Spikes Asia Print Shoot Out. Sri Lanka will also boast of a place on the jury with Russell Miranda, the Executive Creative Director of Grant McCann Erickson, being nominated to serve on the Film Craft Jury for Spikes Asia 2013.

The Spikes Asia Awards are the region’s oldest and most prestigious awards for creative advertising recognizing the best in Film, Print, Outdoor, Radio, Digital, Direct, Promo & Activation, Media, Design, Film Craft, Print & Poster Craft, Integrated, Mobile and PR. The 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 recognizes Asia’s best works at the Spikes Asia Awards.