Duo from Neo@Ogilvy emerges victorious at Cannes Young Lions, 2017 – Cyber

The winning duo Havishmi Sivananthan and Udara Dharmasena with Neo@Ogilvy Head Amitha Amarasinghe

Once again demonstrating without a doubt that Neo@Ogilvy is home to the best digital media talent in the field, two of its members were adjudged winners of the Cannes Young Lions Competition, Cyber Category. 

Havishmi Sivananthan and Udara Dharmasena, the winning duo, will be representing Sri Lanka at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity in France this month.

The representatives were chosen from amongst more than 80 young professionals from Sri Lanka’s leading agencies, by leaders in the advertising field. Their task was to solve a challenging brief for a local non-profit organisation in the most creative and effective way possible, within a set time. This year’s brief was universally considered to be an especially tough one, which made this a truly rewarding win for the contestants from Neo@Ogilvy. 

This career-defining win will give them exclusive access to the wisdom and insight of the most creative people on the planet, including some of the biggest names in the world, from the heads of international advertising agencies to Oscar-winning actors. The Cyber competition will be held at the international level in Cannes, France – part of the iconic French Riviera – on 20 June, while the Festival of Creativity itself goes on for over a week. 

Dubbed the Olympics of the advertising industry, Cannes Young Lions sets over 400 of the brightest young minds in the world to the task of coming up with solutions to real problems faced by renowned non-profit organisations. 

At the end of 12-and-a-half grueling hours, their final submissions will be judged by some of the greatest creative heavyweights in the world. This is the latest in a series of wins for Neo@Ogilvy, which has emerged on top at many other competitions including the Young Spikes & Young Lotus Competitions and has represented Sri Lanka in Malaysia and Singapore in the past.