Triad celebrates 20 years today with vision to make a difference

Triad (Pvt) Ltd, celebrates 20 years in advertising today. Twenty years ago, the communication landscape in this country was dominated by multinationals. The largest accounts were those of the multinational brands. Although on par in quality, most local brands were ill-focused on brand building. In 1993, a new advertising agency entered the field with a vision to make a difference and a deep-seated desire to challenge convention. The team of three was passionate about touching the lives of the Sri Lankan people with meaningful communication, which would in turn upgrade and improve their lives and lifestyles.

The Triad dream thus began in a small office space at Deanstone Road, Kollupitiya and over the next twenty years, with many new places and new faces along the way, this dream began to see fulfilment. The binding force of that dream has been the strength of the Triad Team, who refer to themselves as API (Sinhala word meaning ‘we’). The API team sets itself apart by each member at their own individual capacity going beyond the call of duty to make a difference for the betterment of Sri Lanka.

One of the original ‘Triad’, Dilith Jayaweera spoke of the agency’s beginnings - “Ours was a proud patriotic creative hot house. Our ideas were always based on local insights, because that’s what was relevant to the local audience. We took great pains to move around with the masses, getting real life feedbacks on how a brand could become a “love mark” in their hearts and minds. We shared the successes of local brands gaining momentum and increasing their share of the shelf. We enjoyed our partnership status in this exciting brand building process.”

The National Creative Awards “The Chillies” became the stage upon which Triad came of age. Setting a new industry benchmark, Triad became the first and only agency to be ranked the No.1 creative agency at 3 consecutive Chillie Awards. Not resting on its laurels, Triad also believed that Sri Lanka must showcase its creative prowess on a global platform. Competing at AdFest 2007, the agency gave life to its credo “Sri Lanka Can” by winning the country’s first metal ever, a Bronze, at these regional awards. This winning streak continued by winning a Silver at the Singapore Outdoor Awards and being recognized as a Finalist at Cannes.

Co-founder of Triad, Varuni Amunugama Fernando, also said that the agency places importance on not just creating campaigns that have creative cut-through, but also on winning at the market place, saying “That’s what makes our efforts that much more meaningful. The brands that we have nurtured and built are today commanding a leadership presence, no matter what the category is. This is an achievement that we can reflect upon and gain satisfaction from, as we celebrate 20 years of hard work.

Today, Triad (Pvt) Ltd, will be 20 years. No mean feat. Two decades which have successfully transformed the company into industry leadership. As a run up to this momentous occasion, the entire 115 API members gathered recently at the Kingsbury Hotel for a workshop, conducted by Dhammika Kalapuge, who is a like-minded friend of the agency and an admired patriotic Sri Lankan.

The aim of the workshop was to look back upon the 20 years, reminisce, gather knowledge and be inspired to face the next 20 years at a greater momentum. It was a day of idea generation and of camaraderie. Above all, it was a day to celebrate the “Togetherness of API”, which forms the bedrock of Triad’s unique energy.

As Triad’s Chief Executive Officer Sarva Amerekesere said, “We believe that companies are about the people and the culture. At Triad, we are a close knit family. Our extended family is our clients, partners and other stakeholders. Each, an important entity in our growth and development.

Each, an invaluable contributor to our progress through 20 years. As we celebrate 20 years of walking the talk, we thank each and every client, every partner, every colleague and all those API members who have been a part of the Triad family at some point through our 20 years.

Without them, we would not have attained what we have and we are truly grateful. We humbly acknowledge their contribution and share our pride with them.”