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Grant develops SriLankan, Etisalat campaigns

Grant McCann Erickson and Response Marketing, both members of the Grant group of companies, executed SriLankan Airlines new product enhancement launch and the Tigo to Etisalat relaunch recently with success.

Conceiving the theme "We're changing the way we fly" to communicate the new face of SriLankan Airlines, the agency delivered their communications campaign through the line advertising and promotions, interactive media, and complete rehauling of brand collaterals to create public interest around the national carrier's new uniform, signature dishes and cocktails, entertainment and other service enhancements.

Looking beyond promoting the airline's new look to changing the way SriLankans overall looked at the airline industry, the group also accomplished a revolutionary digital campaign, "The Gold Rush" promotion, which incited an overwhelming response from the public.

Offering the winner the opportunity to win a million rupees worth of flying, the special promotional website constructed by the agency received 20,000 hits and 60,000 emails sent per day, causing the promotion to be extended from two weeks to three weeks by popular demand.

SriLankan Airlines Manager Marketing Communications, Priya Epitawela said "Grants has developed award winning work for us time and time again.

The recent campaign on the enhanced inflight product offering along with the launch of the new uniforms saw them deliver results for us yet again successfully connecting customers with our new focus to change their travel experience in a multi-dimensional manner and stretch the boundaries of airline hospitality.

The campaign enabled us to retain our time-tested values and re-kindle the messages of warmth and hospitality whilst portraying a vibrant airline with a strong new modern identity."

The Tigo to Etisalat relaunch, a through the line campaign that identified and addressed consumers at every touch point, and utilized media inventions, ambient publicity, activation and sponsorship to create a sensation throughout the country; literally invented new communication possibilities to create an unprecedented brand buzz in the local arena.

SLIM completes 40 years

Gayan KANCHANA

The Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM) celebrated its 40th anniversary and opened the refurbished ultramodern SLIM Home last week.

SLIM President Saliya Weerasekara said, "After a hard journey the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing today celebrates its 40th anniversary. It is geared to provide training and educational programs in marketing and is looking forward to many more successful years of service in formulating educational programs and nurturing future marketing professionals to join the field of marketing and being the driving force of marketing."

"Today the SLIM is recognized as the spearhead of the field of education in marketing, and is a well sought after institute by many professionals in gaining knowledge in marketing.

The institute, keeping with the changes and demand today conducts many courses both local and international and SLIM provides classes for the Preliminary Course in Marketing (PCM), the Diploma in Business English and Personality Development and the Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing (PG DipM SL) as its own programs," he said.

The President said that in recognition of the increased demand the SLIM will be opening its own SLIM Business School in Matara in August 2010, which will become the fourth centre of its own management, while the first three are situated in Kandy, Borella and Colpetty.

In addition to its own centres today SLIM has franchised operations covering all important regions of the country totalling ten franchise operations.

Xerox appoints Softlogic as national partner

Xerox and Softlogic launch Xerox Solid Ink Printers in Sri Lanka

Xerox India Ltd appointed Softlogic as its National Partner for the Sri Lanka market. Under the partnership, Softlogic will be responsible for marketing, distribution, sales and support of Xerox's end to end portfolio of products and technology solutions including digital production equipment, office automation products and document management services.

As a first step, Xerox and Softlogic launched Xerox Solid Ink Printers and the total range of mono, colour laser printers and photocopiers in Sri Lanka. Solid Ink is a proven colour printing technology exclusively offered by Xerox, which uses non-toxic ink instead of toner or ink cartridges. The technology has been widely appreciated across the globe because of its easy to use features, incredible colour print quality and cost effectiveness.

Softlogic, with its network across the country, will play an instrumental role in expanding Xerox's geographical reach in the Sri Lankan market. Softlogic's network currently span areas such as Colombo and Greater Colombo, Ratnapura, Badulla, Kandy, Matara, Gampaha, Avissawella including the North and East.

Xerox India Executive Director Vipin Tuteja said, 'Softlogic is a leading IT solutions player in Sri Lanka. With their expertise and large retailer network, Softlogic is ideally positioned to establish a national presence for Xerox products.

We hope to strengthen Xerox's reach in the Sri Lanka market with this partnership.'

Fitness First branch opens at WTC

'Fitness First', opened their second branch at Low Block 07, World Trade Center (WTC), Colombo last week.

Fitness is a popular topic commonly discussed among the new generation and the working people residing in the suburbs. Commitments and work loads have forced them to become workaholics which, in other words, means that the well-being of the person is neglected to a large extent. A recently released report on a survey on the workforce of the country reveals that more than 40 percent suffer from prolonged disease.

With fitness becoming a lucrative business these days, it is highly important for the clients to be watchful of pick the best spot that offers quality service for the money they spend. 'Fitness First' gym is such a place where one can get the service of qualified staff. The premises are fully equipped with the latest fitness equipment for both cardio and resistant training and each customer is under the watchful eye of the trainers.

eMarketingEye celebrates third anniversary

Having started operations in 2007, Emarketingeye in three years have become one of Asia's leading Online Marketing Agencies, winning numerous industry awards and accolades including the SME Agency of the Year Award from Google (South East Asia) in 2009.

eMarketingEye celebrates three successful years providing award winning online marketing services to over 300 hotels and travel companies.

The company has grown increasing its workforce by fourfold because of its unyielding commitment to performance based marketing, superior customer care and continuous research and evaluation of industry trends. eMarketingEye CEO and Founder Rajitha Dahanayake said, "In an industry where marketing strategies continuously change with technological innovations, we have earned the faith and trust of our customers to work with some of the world's leading brands in travel and hospitality."

Another achievement in 2009 for the company included the successful conclusion of Sri Lanka's first Online Marketing Conference - Optimizing 'e Future, with guest speakers from Google and Preferred Hotel Group attending alongside specialists from eMmarketingEye.

The event was endorsed by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, and due to positive feedback the company has plans of doing many such specialized events both locally and abroad.

With optimism for the Travel and Hospitality Trade recovering from the economic crunch of 2009, eMarketingEye has also engaged in many internal and external projects to re-engineer the company to cater to more clients, train and re-train staff and boost overall performance in 2010.

The company recently launched a Beta version of PerformanceEye; a cutting edge online Business Intelligence platform, that provides eMarketingEye clients with detailed statistics on their online performance in terms of overall visibility in Search Engines, Search Engine market share, keyword rankings, monthly trends and much more. The company continues to innovate with a suite of online marketing applications currently being planned.

eMarketingEye is based in Sri Lanka with sales offices and affiliates in Singapore, Hong Kong and India.

The company provides cutting edge solutions for E-Business Consultancy, Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click Marketing, E-mail Marketing, Social Media Optimization, Online Advertising, Multilingual Search Marketing, Performance Monitoring, Web Design and Web Analytics.