‘SLIM-Nielsen Peoples Awards’ for the seventh year

The eagerly awaited ‘SLIM-Nielsen Peoples Awards’ will be held for the seventh consecutive year on Friday, 2 February at the Water’s Edge Battaramulla.

This unique event is organized by the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM) - the national body of marketers of Sri Lanka, in association with Nielsen, one of the largest marketing research companies in the world and the leading market research agency in Sri Lanka.

The SLIM-Nielsen Peoples Awards are held annually to recognize the brands and personalities that have left a lasting impact on the people of Sri Lanka. The awards are significant because it allows the people to name their favourite brands, personalities, advertisements, films, teledramas etc.The difference in the Peoples Awards is that no person or company can apply for recognition, and instead the winners are those nominated by consumers themselves, thus reflecting actual views of people based on what is close to their hearts and minds.

For the second successive year the survey covers Sri Lankans from the North and East of the country and thereby providing a truly national picture.

Partnering in the event this year as Corporate Sponsors are Elephant House, Etisalat & Singer (Sri Lanka) with Scan Products Division - C.W. Mackie PLC, Little Lion & Bank of Ceylon as Co-sponsors. OMD Sri Lanka is PR Partner and Lowe LDB is Creative Partner.

The survey spanned a period of five months: commencing in September 2011 and ending in January 2012, with a total of 2,700 individuals having been interviewed throughout the island.

Respondents were randomly selected males and females between the ages of 18 to 50 years. The data was captured through face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire by Nielsen field research officers, who were specially trained to conduct interviews of this nature.

Describing the Awards Night as an excellent opportunity for marketers in Sri Lanka to understand consumers, the Managing Director of Nielsen Sri Lanka, Shaheen Cader said that “The research findings based on the national sample is a reflection of which brands are strongly positioned in consumers’ minds, shifts in preferences when comparing results from previous years would also indicate changing consumer trends which are important for marketers to be aware of”. He added that further insights can be obtained by the purchase of research findings at a desegregated level (by age, gender, region) where specific demographic segment preferences can be also be looked at. This most looked forward to event in SLIM’s calendar creates a lot of anticipation and excitement as we wait to know the winners.

A brainchild of SLIM, the SLIM-Nielsen Peoples Awards saw its inception in 2006 and has been held annually since.

With Sri Lanka’s economy showing strong growth and consumer spending habits changing, it would be of interest to see if traditional brands and personalities have retained their inherent strengths or whether new brands and personalities are emerging as peoples’ favourites, thus setting the stage for marketers to relook their brand strategies.