GroupM owned Mindshare selected to represent Sri Lanka at Spikes Asia Festival

Mindshare’s Supun Hettiarachchi (L) and Seninda Bandara
 won the Young Spikes Media Competition and will represent
Sri Lanka at the Spikes Asia Festival.

Vying to represent Sri Lanka at the Spikes Asia Festival, Mindshare team members Seninda Bandara and Supun Hettiarachchi triumphed at the competition held among the local advertising industry. The challenging Young Spikes Media Competition sees teams of creative minds develop an innovative and viable media strategy for a charity or non-profit organization in just two days. With the finals taking place in the heart of the Spikes Asia Festival, the competition is judged by a panel of top media experts and is a platform for young talent to showcase business insight and skills.

The Sri Lankan leg of the young Spikes Competition took place at the Colombo Swimming Club recently. This year’s winners, 27 year old Seninda Bandara, Associate Director, Invention, Mindshare and 26 year old Supun Hettiarachchi, Executive, Mindshare, prevailed over 11 teams from across the Sri Lankan advertising landscape for the coveted title and the chance to represent Sri Lanka at the Young Spikes Competitions at the festival.

Speaking on the win and what it represents to the industry, Sabry Haniz, Chief Operating Officer of GroupM said, “The Young Spikes Media Competition is the ideal showcase for young local talent to make a name for themselves in the industry.  This is indeed a very proud moment as Seninda and Supun are the third pair to achieve this feat for GroupM.  Our previous victories were recorded in 2010 by Udara Hettiarachchi and Gopi Krishna and 2012 by Tharanga Rathnasekara and Champika Anuradha.

“Further, this victory demonstrates GroupM’s dominance in the local media industry as we have set a standard not only for ourselves but for the industry as a whole.  Constantly raising the bar in a competitive industry is no mean feat.  Our goal is to facilitate and nurture budding talent and bring them up to pace with the international arena.  The proud winners Seninda and Supun, will receive their medals at the Spikes Asia Awards Ceremony.”

The local event saw a total of eight members of GroupM participate in teams of two; with three groups competing in the Media section and one in the Digital competition. 2010, 2012 and 2014 have seen GroupM walk away with the highest number of wins. Mindshare is the flagship unit of GroupM Sri Lanka, which is the largest consolidated media investment management company in Sri Lanka.

The finals of the Young Spikes Media Competition will take place from the 23rd to the 26th of September. Comprising of the presentation of the brief, the two day competition period, the deadline and the judging process, the competition will see the brightest young minds of the region competing for top honors.