Seven young Sri Lankans to compete at Cannes Lions 2012

Seven young prominent marketing communications professionals from Sri Lanka’s advertising and marketing industries were selected to represent the country at the annual Young Lions Competitions and the Roger Hatchuel Academy in Cannes, France next month after having successfully completed the Sri Lankan Cannes Young Lions Competition.

The local competition to select the contenders was organised by Metal Factor the representative for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in Sri Lanka, in partnership with the International Advertising Association (IAA), The Association Accredited Advertising Agencies (4As) and the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing.
The Sri Lankan Young Lions will compete against teams from around the world at the Young Lions TV, Print and Young Marketer Competitions. This year we once again saw a keen competition from the youth in the advertising industry who vied for titles in the print and TV competitions. A total of 20 teams engaged in the competition. The winning duo in the TV category was Leo Burnett’s Rameez Fazal and Danushka Kathriarachchi. In the print category Ruani Wijenaike and Tarisha de Alwis of Triad took the title in a close competition.
The jury for these two competitions comprised of Gian de Rose (Leo Burnett) as Chairman, Russell Miranda (Grant McCann Erickson), David Blacker (JWT), Rajiv Wirasinha (Heensare) and Krishna Iyer (Phoenix O & M). In the TV competition the contestants were required to shoot their campaign on a Samsung Note.

Sri Lanka Telecom came forward this year to be a partner to the Young Lions Competition and were the sponsor of the print team. Their commitment to the marketing communications industry and the development of the youth in it prompted SLT to support the Young Lions competition.
Unilever Sri Lanka sponsored the TV competition for the third consecutive year reaffirming their support to their partnership with the marketing communications industry. This year Unilever’s sponsorship was extended under the banner of Clear. Therefore, Clear shampoo was the brief assigned to the competing teams in the TV category.
This year a Young Marketer Competition was also introduced, thus giving young professionals in the marketing fraternity to gain from the world’s most prestigious Marketing Communications event. The Young Marketer Competition attracted nine teams who vied for the title. The competition was conducted by SLIM.  
Dinal Edirisinghe and Wishmini Perera of Aitken Spence emerged as Sri Lanka’s Young Marketers who would travel to the Cannes Lions Festival to compete in the global contest. SLIM has also generously sponsored the competition and is meeting part of the costs for these two Young Marketers to represent Sri Lanka.
The jury comprised of Imal Fonseka, Managing Director, CBL Foods International (Pvt) Ltd. (Chairman of the panel), Chamari Fernando, Customer Marketing  Manager, Fonterra Brands, Mr. Muhammedh Makshoodh, Marketing Manager, Unilever Sri Lanka Ltd., Sheron Jayasundara, COO, Bates 141 and Renuka Marshall, MD, TBWA\TAL.
Commenting on the programme President of SLIM Tilan Wijeyesekera stated: “We are happy to be associated with a programme such as this. The Cannes Lions will give young marketers in Sri Lankan invaluable exposure which would fuel our industry to greater heights.”
Grant McCann Erickson’s Lakmini Wahalathanthri won the placement for the Roger Hatchuel Academy at the Cannes Lions Festival from amongst nine contestants. A jury comprising Laila Gunesekere Martenstyn (Grant McCann Erickson) as Chairman of the panel, Murtaza Tajbhoy (Leo Burnett), Renuka Marshall (TBWA\TAL), Chandini Rajaratnam (JWT) and Sheron Jayasundara (Bates Strategic Alliance), selected Lakmini for this opportunity, for the compelling presentation made by her.
“I am delighted that seven young Sri Lanka’s will be attending the Cannes Lions Festival this year. It is encouraging to see the delegation growing as well as to witness the growth of the local competition. More and more youth in the industry are eager to avail themselves of this opportunity. Such enthusiasm augurs well for the programme and development of the industry” stated Ranil de Silva, Sri Lanka’s representative for Cannes Lions.