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Leo Burnett Solutions wins 'Commercial of the Year'

Leo Burnett Solutions Inc. (LBSI) the local office of creative giant Leo Burnett Worldwide recently won the highly acclaimed 'Commercial of the Year' award at the prestigious Sumathi Awards 2008. Recognised as Sri Lanka's leading advertising agency, LBSI won the award for its picturesque commercial for Mobitel Coverage, created for the agency's long standing client - Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel.

The renowned agency won two of the five awards presented. As well as the 'Commercial of the Year' winner Mobitel Coverage, the agency also won the '3rd Runner Up' award for Mobitel's Smart campaign. An important point to note was that both commercials were conceptualised to communicate to a wider audience in a personal and intimate manner. The success of the 'Commercial of the Year' winning Mobitel Coverage campaign was especially important to LBSI because they took the unique step of highlighting Mobitel's immense reach across the country by focusing on human connectivity. Showcasing Mobitel's promise of caring for customers, the Mobitel Coverage campaign was unique and innovative in its communication to audiences. The commercial was immensely popular due to its local flavour, and this resulted in its win at the Sumathi Awards 2008. Meanwhile, the '3rd Runner Up' Mobitel-Smart thematic campaign was proved a winner because of its appeal to the smart youth of today who believe in building more deeper and meaningful human connections.

The campaign had an immediate emotional impact on the viewers. The conceptual direction of both the campaigns was under the auspices of LBSI's Creative Director Subhash Pinnapola and LBSI's award winning Executive Creative Director Trevor Kennedy. In the past, teams led by these two immensely directors have brought in many awards for a number of campaigns done by the agency.

The LBSI team which worked on the award winning Mobitel Coverage campaign included, Mehnaz Ilhamdeen, Shalini Senaratne, Thusitha Sandaruwan, Caryll Van Dort, Eraj Weerasinha, Chaminda Fernando, Surani Perera, Murtaza A. Tajbhoy, Gian Derose and Mohomed Ikram. Thusitha Bandara, Gayan Perera, Izky Faiz, Mehnaz Ilhamdeen, Shalini Senaratne, Gian Derose, Eraj Weerasinha, Chaminda Fernando and Murtaza .A. Tajbhoy worked on the Mobitel-Smart thematic campaign. Vision Works (Pvt) Ltd, X-ten (Pvt) Ltd along with Simply Audio Productions assisted in the production aspects of these two campaigns.

LBSI Creative Director Subhash Pinnapola said, "The wins at the Sumathi Awards were a great achievement for our agency as well as our client Mobitel. These awards are a tribute to everyone in the LBSI team. It was their dedication, talent and hard work that made it possible for us to win at such a prestigious event".

SLT with Asia Foundation spreads wealth of knowledge

Sri Lanka Telecom strengthens its long-term partnership with the Asia Foundation in Sri Lanka to donate a wide range of books to libraries in the country.

With the objective of 'Spreading the Wealth of Knowledge', Sri Lanka Telecom and the Asia Foundation embarked on a book programme in 2003 as a part of the foundation's ongoing 'Books for Asia' initiative. In 2007 it reached the distribution mark - 120,000 and both the organizations expect to achieve the same level of performance in book distribution this year as well.

By the end of May, more than 55,000 books were distributed to libraries in 364 various institutions. Amongst these institutions were 177 schools, 42 public libraries, 47 NGOs and professional institutions, 43 governmental institutions, 24 technical colleges, 11 religious institutions, 13 Sarvodhaya institutions and 7 universities.

Uva Wellassa University, Bandarawela Public Library, Welimada Base Hospital, Coastal Resource Management Centre in Elpitiya and Ratgama Pradeshiya Sabha are few institutions to which books have already been distributed this year.

This is a part of the company's continuous support of the country's educational institutions and its youth to build and further develop capabilities through the provision of books and other educational material to schools, libraries and other learning academies which will undoubtedly enhance the proficiency and skill levels of schoolchildren, university students, professionals and others. This will also allow SLT to play a catalytic role in addressing the needs of primary, secondary, tertiary and professional education sectors in this country. SLT, being the single largest donor of this programme in Sri Lanka is committed to addressing the needs of these sectors through this programme for the 6th consecutive year.

Janashakthi IPO, a success

As Managers and Registrars to the Janashakthi Initial Public Offer (IPO), Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka PLC is a success of the initial offer being oversubscribed by four and a half times.

The joint decision for the IPO by Janashakthi Insurance Company Limited and Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka PLC considering the opportunity that was seen from a gap of two years without an IPO was the key towards the success. The confidence placed on the impending growth of Janashakthi, affordability to subscribe an insurance company and the strong brand reputation in the insurance industry was marketed to investors who placed a strong confidence to subscribe the issue.

Our experiences on similar IPOs that were handled in a professional manner especially during weak market conditions prevailed in the past; with success resulting in the share market to turn towards a bullish momentum is a key contribution towards our success.

The IPO was oversubscribed by noon on the day it was offered to the public and it was decided to close the issue on the same day at 4.30 p.m. releasing an announcement to the market about the oversubscription of both Tranches. At present, we have received over 6,800 applications to a value of more than Rs. 850 Mn.

The company will announce the basis of allotment within the stipulated market days which we believe is a reasonable basis to all investors who placed confidence on Janashakthi share issue.

Sharmini' joins Rupavahini

Television personality Sharmini Serasinghe has been invited by the senior management of the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation, to produce a series of new programmes in English to be aired over Channel Eye. she left Rupavahini when the former Secretary General of the Secretariat for

Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP) Jayantha Dhanapala appointed her as Director Communications. She resigned from that post in December 2006.

During her first tenure at Rupavahini,. She was an English newscaster for twelve years, pioneered the first ever business television programme on local television- Business Matters, which she produced and presented for fourteen years, and compiled a weekly segment on Sri Lanka for the CNN World Report for ten years, which she plans to revive. She is also an interviewer, programme producer, director, presenter and a script writer.

Bharti looks at replicating India success story in Sri Lanka

Having established a clear leadership position in the India mobile services market, Bharti Airtel has set its eyes on repeating the success story in Sri Lanka. India's leading mobile operator, which got a mobile license for offering 2G and 3G services last year, is gearing up for a launch later this year.

The man in charge of Bharti Airtel's growth story is confident that the company will be able to corner a sizeable share of the Sri Lankan market. Manoj Kohli, President & CEO, Bharti Airtel who was in town to review the company's launch preparations expressed his satisfaction with the progress made so far.

The company has committed an initial investment of USD 200 million in Sri Lanka and Kohli says Airtel will bring world-class and affordable services to customers in Sri Lanka. "Our vision is to be the most admired brand in India by 2010 and every initiative of ours is aimed towards that. Sri Lanka would be no different and we will give our customers the best in class service and great value." he adds.

Kohli, who joined Bharti Airtel in 2002 as head of mobile services unit and is the President & CEO of the integrated telecom since 2006, feels one of the biggest contributors to the company's success is its unique business model based on outsourcing of IT and Networks. This has transformed Bharti into a company completely focused on the customer and helped it roll-out its networks rapidly to cover over 71% of the country's populations spread over 342,000 towns and villages. But above all, it has allowed Bharti Airtel to offer the lowest call rates in the world.

This increasing affordability has seen the India market take off and emerge as the fastest growing mobile market in the world. Kohli is excited about the potential of India's rural markets as Bharti Airtel aggressively expands into small towns and villages across India. "We are confident that we will be able to transplant our low cost model in this market and it will work very well." Bharti Airtel has already signed a managed networks deal with Huawei for its Sri Lanka operations.

Airtel has also led the market with several innovations and Kohli points out a recent initiative with Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative limited to provide specific VAS products to farmers that will help them improve farm productivity. But what is really close to his heart in Airtel's mobile money transfer program in partnership with Western Union, wherein customers are able to wire money in small quantities through their phones at a lower cost and quicker time. Kohli feels it will truly take the mobile phone to the next level and have an immense positive impact on people in rural areas.

Sunnymats receives BOI approval

Sunnymats Private Limited entered in to an agreement with the BOI to manufacture home deco products for export. G. F. de Silva signed the agreement on behalf of the company and Chairman / Director General of the BOI Dhammika Perera signed the Agreement and formally handed over the BOI Certificate of Registrations to the investor.

The agreement signed with Sunnymats is for establishing a project to manufacture home textile products for export. The venture will produce home deco products made out of cotton and synthetic material. The product range will include wall hangings and floor coverings.

State-of-the-art machinery will be imported from Europe to be used in the manufacturing process. These home deco products will be exported to markets in the US and Europe.

The venture located at Negombo, is an investment of US $ 1 million and will create employment for 50.