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The clean competition approach to advertising triumphs



Jt. Managing Directors Triad Advertising (Pvt) Ltd Varuni Amunugama Fernando and Dilith Jayaweera. Pix by Sumanachandra Ariyawanse

Triad Advertising (Pvt) Ltd has made waves in the Lankan advertising industry through the achievement of many a memorable "first." In this interview, Varuni Amunugama Fernando and Dilith Jayaweera, Jt. Managing Directors of Triad, lay bare the roots of their "cutting-edge" advertising.

Q: Your industry is seen by some as 'creating more and more desire.' What are your reflections on this perception? After all, sometimes such practices could be considered unethical.

Dilith Jayaweera: This is a topic by itself. We have to discuss whether advertising is a right thing or not. But when you are in advertising, when you have to communicate, there are certain basic assumptions you have to work with.

Number one assumption is that people like to consume different things. For instance, our basic food. What food to eat, becomes a question. We might say sausages would be good. Sausages were never a basic need.

But now, somehow or other it has become a need, may be on your plate. Then which sausages to eat becomes the question when we compete with different brands.

But whether our doing this is morally right or not is a topic by itself. But what we could tell you as a company is that we would want to work with this background in our minds.

Because we want to be a socially-responsible company. We consider it our duty to be socially-responsible. Because at the end of the day we are the consumer too. Today we are seated here creating an advertisement.

But when we visit the supermarket we become consumers and when we go home we are husbands, brothers, fathers, friends etc. So do you want us to do something which is not good for your brother, your father etc., when creating communications? I think that is the measurement.

Varuni Amunugama Fernando: To add to that, through the communication we create aspirational value, so that you know that you will get what you desire at some point in time. The desire will be in your system in an aspirational state, so that you would try to work or strive towards the object of your desire.

Q: So you base your work on ethical considerations?

Varuni Amunugama Fernando: If you take our role with our client, we really become an extension of the company. We don't consider ourselves as an advertising agency and the client as not being with us. We are an extension of them. We do not only consider the communication aspect. We take full responsibility for the communication and the impact.

Because the impact will not really be on us but the brand. So, as an extension of that company and the brand, in whatever we do, we will be very, very mindful. Ethics becomes paramount in terms of importance, internally as well as with our clients.

Q: What is Triad's distinctive contribution to the advertising industry in this country?

Varuni Amunugama Fernando: I think we have changed the course of advertising in Sri Lanka. I am proud to say that because over the years at different points in time different agencies took leadership roles to change the way we look at things and to change the industry.

We feel that Triad has definitely created a change that people feel and would set the stage for the future of advertising and communication in Sri Lanka.

If you take the history of advertising, right through it was monopolised by internationally-affiliated agencies.

The strong point which they communicated to clients was their international network. But with us came a new thinking. We looked for local brands. At the point of our going out and looking for like-minded local brands, some hadn't even thought of advertising.

But with our thinking and our going out and motivating local brands to share this concept there emerged a new set of local brands which have the power to fight the international brands. There are case studies.

If you take Emerald, our client, if you take Perera and Sons, Rainco and Laugfs, these are proud case studies of Triad's; not as an advertising agency but as a stakeholder in the local brand growth. So Triad has played a key role in the emergence of local brands.

We are humble enough to say it is the brand which has performed. We are lucky enough to share in that growth.

Q: What are the most memorable campaigns conducted by Triad?

Varuni Amunugama Fernando: I think it started with the 'Rata Perata.' It was a campaign which touched the nation. Then in the recent past, the Api Venuven Api campaign we are really proud of. It was very close to our hearts and everything we did as an agency was done free of charge.

We used our contacts with the media and they provided us with Rs. 450 mn worth of free media for this campaign. So really it in every sense of the word became a national campaign and today if you talk about a campaign which strikes people's minds they will cite "Api Venuven Api."

Laugfs is another campaign which has given us a lot of meaning because our philosophy of "Sri Lanka Can" came to life with the Laugfs campaign. Because it was a local brand fighting two multinational giants; first Shell and now Caltex. We are happy that it has the power to initiate this challenge because we can back them with that kind of communication. So that was another very memorable campaign for us.

Q: Recently Triad topped the gold medals tally in the 'Chillies' competition. What contributed towards this achievement?

Dilith Jayaweera: This is the second successive year we have won number one in agency rankings. There are a few important things we have to understand in this equation. Firstly, we were the only non-multinational agency to compete in the show.

Of all the agencies which have won 'metal', we are the only Sri Lankan company. All the other agencies are multinationals. Prior to the 'Chillies' there were the 'Slim' awards.

In the last 'Slim' awards we received the second highest number of gold awards. We were very close to becoming number one there also.

There was a debate in the industry that 'Triad' was able to win this number of gold awards because it is a local advertising show. Then they restructured it on an international format, saying it is for creative awards.

Varuni Amunugama Fernando: What was thought was Triad could win gold at 'Slim' because it was impactful advertising. It was effective but not so much creative. Dilith Jayaweera: Whether ads should be creative or effective is a discussion but they nevertheless changed the format to creative advertising.

In creative advertising shows what they measure is how creative your advertising is. So we got into that thing; that was the first show last year and we were judged number one among all these multinational companies. This year, we were judged number one again. But none of our most memorable, effective, national campaigns won. None of these campaigns even got nominated.

But we managed through the use of our creative talents to enable some of our one-off and minor campaigns to win. Finally, we have become number one so that is the most important thing.

Varuni Amunugama Fernando: Our strength has also been that when there is a challenge we don't go into it blindly. We know what the obstacles would be. We evaluate the drawbacks as well as our strengths. So we plan.

We always strategize; Ok if we are going to compete in a creative awards show, the end result is that you want to be the best agency. So we strategize. For us, it's a "war." The fundamental thing is we'll not play dirty. It's a straight bat for us. We'll do it the correct way but we'll do it to win. Manipulation is rampant in this industry but we will never ever resort to it.

Dilith Jayaweera: More than the industry it is one or two individuals who do not want to accept defeat. Because they have had "Christmas" continuously and suddenly we come, we study the game and we come up with our "guerrilla" tactics and there is no chance for these individuals.

Now they are worried. But it was very much needed. Because this industry needed that shake. Otherwise, it is unfair by the industry to accept the status quo. And we could do that because we have a strong team.

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