Quest for 'Brand of the Year':

SLIM BE heads for Awards Night

The prospective winners in each category of SLIM BE were short listed, announced and the final round of judging was completed last weekend. Short listed brand custodians showcased their success story before the panel of eminent judges. Winners of each category will be recognized and rewarded at a glittering ceremony to be held on October 1 at 6.30 pm at the Water's Edge. The much coveted Brand of the Year award winner will also be revealed this night.

This year's SLIM BE saw more challenges and raised the bar even higher in its quest for brands that met world standards of excellence. The quest has been well worth the effort, with many new companies and brands entering this year, and several entries meeting the stringent requirements of the judges, who meticulously evaluated every aspect of the entry, from brand equity, sustainability and performance, to actual presentation.

According to this year's SLIM BE Project Chairman, Upul Adhikari plans are well under way to ensure that Sri Lanka's marketing fraternity has a sizzling time at the night that rewards the best of the best - the most outstanding performers in each of the ten brand categories, "This year's SLIM Brand Excellence awards night will be an action packed one, full of surprises and heady excitement." he said.

"Qualifying to enter the final round of judging is a very challenging task. I believe that the opportunity given to brand custodians to present their brand story to such an eminent panel of judges has been a vital exercise in evaluating themselves and the performance of their brand. The experiences shared with the finalists confirm that all brand custodians consider SLIM BE to be an essential learning curve that will equip them to take their brands to even greater height of excellence in the future - this is apart and beyond the recognition they seek as winners," he said.

A new feature in this year's Brand Excellence is an SMS competition that SLIM organized with Z messenger. Any persons interested can guess the winner of the "Brand of the Year" trophy by sending an SMS with the words "SLIM (space) answer" to mobile no. 7775.

The winner of this competition is entitled to valuable gifts from SLIM and Z messenger.

The highest scores from the two main categories, the product and service brands, will be evaluated for the main award, SLIM BE 2010 Brand of the Year. Gold, Silver and Bronze winners will be selected in each of the special awards categories, and the brand managers who are also custodians of the winning brands will be awarded special certificates in recognition of their contribution to the brand's success.