Sri Lanka has delivered Asia’s first ever win at the Global Effies with Grey Colombo’s ‘Garment’s without Guilt’ campaign, which has now become one of the country’s most awarded campaign’s in-ternationally. This is an incredible feat for the country as these awards are dominated by global brands, where three of the most effective brand marketing campaigns on average are selected. This year only two were adjudicated as the best in the world – IBM’s ‘Stop Talking, Start Doing’ and Sri Lanka Apparel’s ‘Garments without Guilt’ for 2009. The two campaigns will enter the Global Effie Hall of Fame in New York.
The winners were awarded at the North America Effie Awards Gala at the Cipriani in New York. Ajai V Singh, Vice President and Country Head, along with Sailesh Wadhwa, Director of Strategic Planning and Brand Services, of Grey Colombo received the international award. The Global Effie Awards honour marketing campaigns that have proven a combination of effectiveness and creativity, with all submissions having to go through two rigorous rounds of judging, with the final round being judged by over fifteen global marketing leaders. This year’s panel included Greg Andersen, Managing Director, BBH, Minda Gralnek, Vice President and Creative Director, Target Corporation, Gerry Graf, Chief Creative Officer, Saatchi and Saatchi, New York and Jonathan Mildenhall, Vice President – Global Advertising Strategy and Creative Excellence, Coca Cola among others.
Speaking on the significance of the win, Ajai V Singh, Vice President and Country Head, Grey Co-lombo said, “This is a milestone win for Sri Lanka and we are tremendously honoured to be globally lauded as the creators of one of the most effective case studies in marketing communications. The campaign ‘Garments without Guilt’ had to deliver results for the relatively new brand Sri Lanka Ap-parel. Hence, creative effectiveness was of paramount importance, we pushed the envelop by using the strategic combination of the new age marketing tools. And there is no better feeling than to get awarded a Global Effie for it.”
“Winning a Global Effie becomes harder and harder each year, and this year is no exception. The final round judges were notably impressed by IBM and Sri Lanka Apparel, which in turn have been deemed the most effective global marketing communications effort of the past year. Kudos to these teams on the success of their ideas,” Mary Lee Keane, President, Effie Worldwide said.
Sri Lanka Apparel is the first apparel industry body positioned on an ethical platform. Grey Colombo’s ‘Garments Without Guilt’ campaign stood strong in the face of a very challenging category. With its positioning of Sri Lanka as the global ethical apparel manufacturing and sourcing destination, the campaign successfully achieved in helping to take exports to an all time high from US$ 2.9 bn in 2006/2007 to US$ 3.2 bn in 2007/2008.
Photo caption
(Left to Right) Saliya Weerasekera, President, Local Effies and SLIM, Sailesh Wadhwa, Direc-tor-Strategic Planning and Brand Services, Grey Colombo, Ajai Singh, Vice President and Country Head, Grey Colombo and Rohan Masakorala, Secretary General, Sri Lanka Apparel.
