Leo Burnett Archives

October 8, 2020

07 October 2020, Colombo: Leo Burnett Sri Lanka (part of the Publicis Groupe) has been ranked ‘Sri Lanka’s Creative Agency of the Year for 2020’ at Campaign Brief Asia. Leo Burnett’s Creative Team headed by Ransley Burrows has been recognized with this accolade. Significantly, the results of the 2020 Campaign Brief Asia Creative Rankings are tabulated from creative award wins at the 11 award shows included over a rolling two year and a half year period starting from AdFest 2018 (March 2018) through to Campaign Brief’s The Work 2020 (June 2020). The shows that are included in these calculations are: Ad Stars, Spikes Asia, AWARD Awards, AdFest, Campaign Brief’s THE WORK, Clio Awards, London International Awards, New York Festivals, One Show, D&AD and Cannes Lions. This monumental triumph for the Publicis Groupe reflects its creative powerhouse of talent.

Sanjay Chaudhari – Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Publicis Groupe Sri Lanka said, “We are thrill to be recognized as ‘Sri Lanka’s Creative Agency of the Year for 2020’ by Campaign Brief Asia. We are pleased that our creativity in action is being recognized in the region while benefitting our clients and the rest of the industry. Our performance at several key global awards in 2019/20 has propelled us to the forefront of the industry as the foremost creative agency in the country across all media.”

The Publicis Groupe in Sri Lanka is facilitating a modern approach to marketing and business transformation that creates greater collaboration and effectiveness to drive new levels of scale and value. It enables lining up end-to-end capabilities across the Groupe in a model that puts clients’ agenda first by eliminating silos and complexity and allowing for a much more modular and agile engagement.

January 27, 2018

26th January 2018, Colombo: Sri Lanka’s iconic agency, Leo Burnett, is delighted to announce that the agency has embarked on a new chapter in its history with the start of the new year, led by Arosha Perera as its new CEO along with the new management team. The year commenced with a new twist to the traditional lighting of the oil lamp where all employees lit a lamp to signify the united role and responsibility of each person in the future of the company. Arosha then addressed the gathering after which everyone signed a pledge of allegiance to the new vision of Leo Burnett’. This was followed by a traditional breakfast of milk rice and condiments.

January 2, 2018

Standing from left to right: Jude Benedict – Director Broadcast and Photography Production, Kumudini Gomes – Head of People and Culture, Selonica Perumal – Director, Publicis, Murtaza A. Tajbhoy – Chief Strategy Officer, Arosha Perera – Chief Executive Office, Lalindra Nanayakkara – Executive Creative Director, Wasim Akram – Director, Arc, Caryll Van Dort – Group Director, MSL Sri Lanka, Mehnaz Ilhamdeen – Head of Operations, Neeraj Karambelkar – Digital Director

December 20, 2017

Wednesday, 13 December 2017, Colombo: Leo Burnett Sri Lanka’s Sarah Hassanally and Dilendri Wettewe recently won the Bronze award at the Young Spikes Media Competition, which took place in Singapore. The contesting teams comprised some of the best young professionals from around the world, who responded to a brief on the challenging topic of combating poverty alleviation. Following an intense competition and a rigorous judging process, Sarah and Dilendri were awarded the Bronze award. They were the only team from Sri Lanka to secure a metal at the young Spikes competition.

Conducted as part of the globally hailed Spikes Asia Festival of Creativity, the Young Spikes Competition offers young talent within the industry a platform to showcase their talent, knowledge, insights and strategic skills. Each country conducted a competition in their respective territories to choose the teams that would represent the country at the Young Spikes competition.

After the briefing session, the teams take on the challenge of developing an innovative media strategy to achieve the objectives of the brief, which is judged by a panel of highly acclaimed jurors from a wide cross section of agencies and specializations.

This year, the teams in the media category were issued with briefs featuring Asia P3 Hub, a platform for multi-sector collaboration which is hosted by the international NGO World Vision. The Hub focuses on bringing together individuals from various sectors, including governments, businesses, start-up enterprises, NGOs and academia to address the effects of poverty. According to the brief, the main challenges faced by the Asia P3 Hub focussed on the fact that a ‘multi-sector partnership is a concept that is not easily understood, as well as the fact that private sector organizations, who are often equipped with newer technology, greater operating efficiency and larger investment capacity do not have a strong incentive to partner with other sectors to solve large-scale poverty issues. The contestants had to respond to this brief by formulating a campaign that would raise awareness and draw the private sector towards multi-sector partnerships, by demonstrating how sustainability and poverty alleviation can benefit their businesses in the long term.

Commenting on Sarah’s and Dilendri’s achievement at the Young Spikes Media Competition in Singapore, Ranil de Silva – Managing Director, Leo Burnett Sri Lanka said: “I am extremely proud that two of our very own young professionals from Leo Burnett Sri Lanka have secured the Bronze award at the Young Spikes Media Competition. I would like to congratulate Sarah and Dilendri on their outstanding performance at this prestigious competition. I strongly believe their enthusiasm and passion is what brought them this success. The Spikes Asia Festival is the region’s oldest and most prestigious event of its kind, which not only recognizes the best work in the region, but also brings together Asia Pacific’s leading creative thinkers and brightest young minds. The exposure they gained from this competition as well as from the festival will I am sure empowers them to enjoy progress in this industry. The team at Leo Burnett in Sri Lanka joins me to congratulate our two talented young professionals on this significant achievement. I am confident they will continue to excel and to reach even greater heights in their careers.”

Over the years, Leo Burnett has built many powerful brands and meaningful partnerships with its clients, whilst delivering gratifying results for its clients while gaining peer recognition in the industry. This year the agency celebrated its 18^th anniversary in Sri Lanka whilst the global company commemorated its 82^nd anniversary. As Leo Burnett looks ahead to the future, the agency remains dedicated to developing new ideas inspired by HumanKind – Leo Burnett’s philosophy which is rooted in the belief that creativity has the power to transform human behaviour.

December 7, 2017

Left to Right: Leo Burnett Sri Lanka Team with the AOY 2017 award - Selonica Perumal – Director of Publicis Sri Lanka, Ranil De Silva – Managing Director, Leo Burnett Sri Lanka, Nitish Mukherjee - Strategic Advisor South Asia, Leo Burnett Group India

November 20, 2017

Neeraj Karambelkar – Digital Director, Leo Burnett Sri Lanka

November 6, 2017

Murtaza Tajbhoy, Chief Strategy Officer of Leo Burnett Sri Lanka was awarded the IAA Champion award. He is the first Sri Lankan to win this prestigious accolade. The International Advertising Association (IAA) selected Murtaza as one of five global leaders in the marketing communications industry to receive this honour.

Murtaza received the IAA Champion award recently at IAA’s 2017 Global Conference held in Bucharest, Romania where more than 600 delegates from the international advertising and marketing communications industries were gathered to celebrate the future of the industry and to celebrate individuals who have made a difference to the industry. The IAA Champion Award, introduced this year as part of IAA’s 2017 Inspire Awards, honours notable leaders for their lifetime achievements, vision and their contribution to the global marketing communications industry.

“I am incredibly proud that Murtaza was honoured by the International Advertising Association with its first-ever Champion Award,” says Ranil de Silva – Managing Director, Leo Burnett Sri Lanka. “Murtaza has transformed the strategic approach to marketing communications in our industry and is a torch bearer not only for us at Leo Burnett, but also for the advertising industry in demand. His insights, initiatives and perspective have blazed a new trail for the Sri Lankan advertising industry. His insights into people and their behaviours and his desire to understand social norms and cultural fuels has helped us transform brands under his stewardship.”

Murtaza joins luminaries from the global advertising industry as one of only five recipients of the first IAA Champion award – his fellow champions include Brendan Ripp, Executive Vice President of the Fox Networks Group and Akira Kagani of Japan’s Drill Inc.

In a statement to congratulate all IAA Inspire Award winners, Felix Tataru, World President and Chairman of IAA said “The IAA Inspire Awards have been initiated to pay tribute to our members for their many achievements and contributions of Leadership, Vision, Commitment and Service to make a difference in the worldwide arena of marketing communications. They have contributed their professional expertise and inspired the marketing communications community locally, regionally and globally.”

“I am honoured to receive the IAA Champion Award,” says Murtaza Tajbhoy. “Insight driven, analytical thinking is changing the marketing communications landscape around the world. To be recognized for the value I’ve added to this industry is a very satisfying reward. This recognition is a reward for my team and I’d like to share this honour with my mentors and the diverse people who have guided and inspired me. This IAA Champion award is not an accolade for me, it’s a reward for Sri Lanka’s marketing communications industry.”

Murtaza joined Leo Burnett in 2000, rising from a Junior Brand Executive to Chief Strategy Officer spearheading the company’s belief that creativity can transform human behaviours. In 2010 he was also named a Star Reacher by the Leo Burnett Worldwide and was invited to the company’s headquarters in Chicago. Sri Lanka didn’t have sufficient in-depth data to understand the attitudes and behaviour of the growing middle class. So he convinced Leo Burnett to invest in its own study: engaging both academics and a research agency to develop a multi-dimensional approach to study people across the country. The qualitative and quantitative studies which emerged from this initiative uncovered that this large populous could be categorized into 4 segments. Similarly, his research on Sri Lankan Celebrities was an invaluable asset to the strategic planning process of several brands which were managed by Leo Burnett. His white paper on the ‘Pettah’ entrepreneur, originated from his curiosity to understand a specific group of entrepreneurs in the country. The paper was presented at multiple management conferences across the country and was championed by the Postgraduate Institute of Management in Sri Lanka. Murtaza’s commitment to lead regular “Dirty Feet” initiatives with his team to uncover people-led behaviours of Sri Lankans across the island has been extremely valuable to his clients, the agency and himself.

In 2012, Murtaza’s work earned Sri Lanka’s first ever Gold Spike for creative effectiveness, followed by accolades at AMES, APPIES and Effies. This year he crowned his accomplishments claiming for Leo Burnett the title of “Agency of the Year at the Sri Lanka Effies. He was also the first Sri Lankan juror of AMES ASIA PACIFIC in 2015, and the Spikes Effectiveness Awards in 2016.

In his 17 years’ career at Leo Burnett he has played a pivotal role to drive the agency to its current pinnacle of success despite his many successes and illustrious career Murtaza remains a grounded professional who loves his role and responsibilities and is inspired by the world that surrounds him.

October 8, 2017

Thursday, 5^th October 2017, Colombo: Leo Burnett Sri Lanka has been ranked as one of Asia’s Top 50 Agencies by Campaign Brief Asia, Asia’s most influential creative advertising trade magazine. Leo Burnett Sri Lanka is the only agency from the “Rest of South Asia” geographical category to be included in this list.

This ranking follows a trajectory of recognition for Leo Burnett Sri Lanka among Asian agencies: In 2016, Leo Burnett Sri Lanka has retained its ranking from 2016 where the agency was also included in Asia’s 50 Hottest Agencies List.

“We are honoured to be ranked in Asia’s Top 50 agencies this year,” says Ranil de Silva – Managing Director, Leo Burnett Sri Lanka. “Having celebrated our 18^th anniversary, we are coming of age at a transformative time for the industry, and our work is being recognized across the region and even globally. This ranking is a recognition of our creative reinvention process as well as the tangible business growth we have delivered for our clients. It is an honour for Leo Burnett Sri Lanka to be amongst the 50 best agencies across Asia, which has been identified as the most dynamic advertising growth sector in the world. We applied creativity in the way we run our business. The stakes were high, so we couldn’t think small. We took the changing landscape as an opportunity to completely reinvent our business.”

In the past year Leo Burnett Sri Lanka has made seismic shifts in the way the agency operates, the way the agency built bigger and more integrated campaigns. The agency also changed the way it attracted future Burnetters and the kind of solutions the agency produced for their client problems. The agency’s biggest testimony to success is the amazing spirit of teamwork and collaboration it created across cross-functional teams.

The agency also won the company’s largest pitch and secured the entire integrated communication mandate for Mobitel.

Leo Burnett has also been committed to growing the knowledge base of clients, and have organized regular knowledge-sharing sessions for clients with global marketing communications specialists and by carrying out client-specific pursuits to better understand people and their behaviours.

The Campaign Brief Asia ranking also took into consideration the awards and recognitions garnered by Burnetters from the Sri Lanka team for their effectiveness and creativity. In the past year, Selonica Perumal, Director of Publicis Sri Lanka was named one of Campaign Asia’s Top 40 Women to Watch. Murtaza Tajbhoy, Chief Strategy Officer of Leo Burnett Sri Lanka became the first Sri Lankan to receive the IAA Champion Award; Caryll Van Dort – Group Director of the MSL Group was invited to serve on the Spikes Asia Awards jury this year; and Rinesh Jayaratne and Wasim Akram of the Leo Burnett and Arc Worldwide teams were selected to join an elite group of 50 industry professionals to attend the inaugural ‘Leader’s Studio” programme by the Publicis Groupe.

This year, Leo Burnett Sri Lanka celebrates its 18^th anniversary. Over the years, the agency has built many powerful brands and meaningful partnerships with its clients, whilst delivering gratifying results and gaining industry recognition in Sri Lanka, the region and globally. The company handles a diverse portfolio of clients and is one of the world’s largest agency networks and a member of the Publicis Groupe, the world’s third largest communications company.

September 4, 2017

Monday, 04 September 2017, Colombo: Leo Burnett Sri Lanka, the local office of the globally recognized advertising agency Leo Burnett Worldwide, recently completed the fifth annual Leo Burnett Masterclass programme. Being the only programme of its kind in the country, the comprehensive five-week internship catered to 13 industry interns, providing them with valuable exposure into the marketing communications industry. The Leo Burnett Masterclass programme was concluded with a graduation ceremony which was attended by Leo Burnett Sri Lanka’s senior management, partners of the Masterclass programme, as well as members from the agency team who mentored the interns throughout the programme.

Commenting on the programme, Ranil de Silva – Managing Director, Leo Burnett Sri Lanka said: “This internship programme was conceptualized to provide the next generation of professionals an understanding of the diverse opportunities that our industry has to offer. Through its brief history, the Leo Burnett Masterclass programme has been instrumental in discovering and attracting Sri Lanka’s next generation of talented marketing communications professionals to the industry. The programme enables young and aspiring professionals to gain a better understanding of the diverse roles and avenues that they can pursue, by embarking on an exciting and rewarding career in the field of advertising.”

The 13 young interns who participated in the programme this year hailed from varied backgrounds. They were undergraduates pursuing a wide range of degree programmes at various prestigious institutions in different parts of the world as well as in institutions in Sri Lanka. During the five-week internship program each individual participated in a thoughtfully crafted programme which enabled them to obtain a holistic understanding of the industry and its diversity. The interns were afforded the rare opportunity of working alongside seasoned experts in an array of departments at the agency, ranging from Creative and Media, Brand Management, Brand Planning and Public Relations, to Digital, Activations and events. In addition, each intern was provided with a senior member of the agency as a mentor and they also had a ‘buddy’ who was responsible for guiding them throughout their internship.

Several clients and partners of the agency were also engaged with the programme. They included Lanka Market Research Bureau (LMRB), Derana, Citrus Events, Serendib Flour Mills, DSI and Coca-Cola. These partners provided the 13 young aspirants with opportunities to understand, research, go behind the scenes at a TV station, be a marketer and even engage with diverse people to understand their behaviour. It is these experience which makes this programme unique and a one of a kind internship programme.

Kumudini Gomes – Director, People and culture, remarked “We are very grateful to each of our partners for joining us with this endeavour and for providing invaluable learning opportunities to our interns. These outside placements, helps enrich the Masterclass and also helps to broaden the outlook of the young Masterclass graduates.

The final week of the program featured a group project where the 13 interns were split into three teams and were assigned a project brief, to which they had to respond to within 48 hours. Their final presentations were judged by senior agency members. Sajani Fernando, Sasithi Rambukkanage, Dinuka Solangaarachchi, Ahmedh Zufar and Devanga Witharanage emerged as the winners of the final project of this year’s Leo Burnett Masterclass, whereas Ravindu Wilegoda, Karen Amirthampillai, Melanki Haththotuwagama and Sahithra Ukwatte were the 1^st runners up and the 2^nd runners up of the final project were Haritha Jayasinghe, Devini Wijeysinghe, Nihara Jayamaha and Dilmi De Silva.

Over the years, Leo Burnett has built many powerful brands and meaningful partnerships with its clients, whilst delivering gratifying results and gaining peer recognition in the industry. This year the agency celebrated its 18^thanniversary in Sri Lanka whilst the global company commemorated its 82^nd anniversary. As Leo Burnett looks ahead to the future, the agency remains dedicated to developing new ideas inspired by HumanKind – Leo Burnett’s philosophy which is rooted in the belief that creativity has the power to change human behaviour.

Leo Burnett awarded ‘Sri Lanka’s Creative Agency of the Year for 2020’ by Campaign Brief Asia

A new year, a new chapter for Leo Burnett Sri Lanka

Leo Burnett bids farewell to its Managing Director Ranil de Silva: a leader, a legend and an industry mover & shaker

Two young professionals from Leo Burnett Sri Lanka win Bronze at the Young Spikes Media Competition

Leo Burnett does it again by winning the Gold for the Rest of South Asia at Campaign Asia Agency of the Year

Neeraj Karambelkar joins Leo Burnett Sri Lanka to lead Digital

Leo Burnett’s Murtaza Tajbhoy the first Sri Lankan to win IAA Champion Award

Leo Burnett the only Sri Lankan Agency to be ranked in Campaign Brief Asia’s Top 50 Agencies

Leo Burnett successfully completes fifth Masterclass programme for industry interns