A team of 14 young Sri Lankans from the local marketing communications industry have been selected to represent the country at the numerous programmes designed to develop youth in industry which is said to take place this June at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in Cannes, France.
This year marks the 10th year that Sri Lanka has had an active partnership with the Cannes Lions under the auspices of Metal Factor in Sri Lanka.
Six teams emerged as victors at the local Young Lions competition, which had an excess of 74 participants, and was organised by Metal Factor in collaboration with the International Advertising Association (IAA), the Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies (4As) and the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM).
The winning local teams will now prepare to compete against the best teams in the world at the Cannes Lions competition in their respective categories. Hailed as the 'Olympics of the advertising industry', the Cannes Lions competitions attract the industry’s top talent, who will come together to compete on a global stage.
The Sri Lankan teams will go on to compete in Cyber, Design, Media, Print, Film and Young Marketers categories of the Young Lions Competitions at Cannes. After a rigorous judging and evaluation process at the local competitions, Udara Dharmasena and Havishmi Sivananthan from Neo Ogilvy won the title in the Cyber category, Amrit Paulraj and Falul Hallaj from Leo Burnett Sri Lanka secured the top spot in the Design category, whilst Achala Ramanayeka and Kumarini Rajakaruna from Dentsu Grant won in the placement in the Media category. Jayana Silva and Aysha Musthafa from Leo Burnett Sri Lanka were chosen to be contenders in the Print category and Kaushalya Kathireson and Sahil Gunesekera from Shift Integrated won the title in the Film category.
In the Young Marketer competition conducted in partnership with the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing, Umeshinie Kurukulasuriya and Ashani Ratnayake from Nestle Lanka won the Young Marketers competition.
This year an undergraduate from the University of Moratuwa, Samangi Wadinambi Arachchi, selected from students from across section of tertiary institutes, attended the Roger Hatchuel Academy.
Ranil de Silva, the Sri Lankan Representative of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity said, “This year, we celebrate ten years of adding immense value to the Sri Lankan marketing communications industry. We will have a wide cross section of representation at the festival this year which will definitely enhance the depth and breadth of our professionals in the industry. I have been advised by the juries that the performance by each team was very impressive and the titles were hard fought. I do hope they will bring home a Lion."
The Young Lions competition was chaired by Laila Gunasekera Martenstyn, Vice President, Dentsu Grant, Sri Lanka. Surani Perera, Manager Brand Planning, Leo Burnett, Sri Lanka, led the Roger Hatchuel Academy selection process and Sean Pompeus, Director Client Service, Mullen Lowe, Sri Lanka, chaired the Young Marketer competition.
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