Chillies

Leo Burnett boycotts Chillies confab

Leo Burnett Solutions Inc. declined the invitation extended at very short notice by SMS and later by a telephone call, to attend yesterday's media briefing said Leo Burnett, Managing Director Ranil de Silva in a press release.

" We have been made to understand that there have been several violations of the blue print pertaining to the jury, judgements and judging procedure," he said.

"This issue was duly highlighted to the Presidents of the 4A's and IAA, who in turn addressed it with the steering committee. Following Saturday night's awards presentation, we are now compelled to address this matter with the Chairman of the Trustees of The Sri Lanka Advertising Awards as required by the blue print.

"We at Leo Burnett Solutions Inc. are delighted to have been awarded 30 awards, which included 16 metals, accounting for 30% of the awards presented with an additional 14 Finalists recognitions at The Chillies 2008.

We are once again, by far, the most awarded agency at The Sri Lanka Advertising Awards," he said.

There was a sharp decline of entries for the Chillies awards this year with the committee receiving only 975 entries as against 1100 last year.

The advertising agencies themselves should have a check and balancing system to measure the quality of advertisements produced by each agency said Joint Managing Director Triad Dilith Jayaweera.

Speaking at the post Chillies 2008 Sri Lanka advertising awards post press conference he said that if laws were imposed some would try to take advantage of them. "The best way to stop unethical advertising from entering the media is up to the adverting agencies.

We respect the cultural value of the country when producing ads," he said. CEO, Bates Asia, Nimal Gunawardane appreciated the move to take off 'Scam' from Chillies. Chillies is a joint industry initiative of the International Advertising Association (IAA) with the Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies (the 4A's), and the collaborative counsel of Sri Lanka's marketing and media fraternities.

(SS)

The Chillies 2008 Winners tally
Agency				Gold	Silver	Bronze	Finalist	Total

Triad Advertising		1		2	3		6
Leo Burnett Solutions Inc.		4	12	14		30
Bates Asia Strategic Alliance		3	8	5		16
Phoenix O & M				2	3	7		12
Grant McCann Erickson			1	9	7		17
Saatchi & Saatchi				3	4		7
Lowe LDB					2	7		9
JWT						1	2		3
Masters DDB					1	2		3
Sarva Integrated					2		2
Ogilvy Action (Pvt) Ltd					1		1
Ruby Studio						2		2
Minds DraftFCB						1		1
Total				1	10	41	57		109

Bates Asia looms large at the Chillies

Bates Asia Strategic Alliance won 11 Metals including the coveted Campaign of the Year to confirm that it is a key player to reckon with on a level playing field where the rules of the game are not subverted through scam ads.

Winning both the Print and TV campaigns in the services category in addition to four individual ads for Hutch, Bates topped it by winning the Campaign of the Year for their " Where it matters to me" campaign for the brand.

It also won Metals for a TV ad for Nokia, Radio ad for AmCham and Direct Marketing work for DHL.

It had several finalist awards too including a couple for yet another multinational client, Holcim.

A hint of what was to come was given at the Judges Forum when an eminent foreign judge praised the Hutch campaign as one that combined strategy, creative work and an innovative media buy where Bates succeeded in providing a business solution to their client rather than seeking to win awards.

Bates' CEO Nimal Gunewardena, who continues to work closely with his team as the Agency's strategist, explained the business challenge that gave birth to an inspired solution.

"It was a typical David vs. Goliath situation. Hutch offered the best mobile rates in town, but consumers tended to go with the market leader based on their having the widest coverage.

We needed to be smart with our strategy, so we questioned the myth of needing widest coverage and showed how you could be a happy Hutch user as long as Hutch provided the coverage 'which matters to you' in terms of the habitual places that you travelled according to your work and lifestyle.

This insight was then executed brilliantly with a creative leap and great production values by our creative team and equally importantly through an innovative media buy. Importantly, we had a perceptive client whose confidence and support made it possible achieve a great end-product."

In a contest which has been marred by scam ads, Bates took a strong stand with eight other major agencies to put pressure on the organizers to make this year's awards scam free.

This seems to have worked to a great extent, despite some agencies still seeking to justify scam ads made simply to win awards, and Bates went on to make a progressive climb in the rankings.

From getting seven Finalist plaques in the inaugural year of the Chillies, Bates won three Metals last year and now moved up two notches in the ranking ladder, which is based on winning Golds and Silvers. Bates' had to be content with Silvers and Bronzes plus some Finalist awards, with only a single Gold being awarded in the overall in the contest this year, but the spread across different media and five leading multinational brands showed consistency of work.

The Jury had been instructed by the organizers to be strict and not award metals to anything that did not have a chance to at least be a Finalist in the regional awards shows.

Bates' young hot-shot CD Harendra Pushpakumara led much of Bates' winning campaigns strongly supported by ECD Chaminda Gamage and its strong Sinhala creative team. Pushpakumara was also recognized by the industry with his selection as a local judge.

The services of two other Bates stalwarts GM Paddy Weerasekera and Client Service Director Sheron Jayasundera were also sought by the industry for the Steering Committee and Scam Evaluation.