MullenLowe awarded ‘Agency of the Year’ for 3rd consecutive year

From left: MullenLowe Sri Lanka Chief Executive Officer Thayalan Bartlett, Chief Creative Officer Dilshara Jayamanna, Unilever Sri Lanka Marketing Director – Home Care, Foods and Refreshments and Water Sharmila Bandara, Marketing Director – Beauty and Personal Care and Corporate Communications Head Nilushi Jayatileke and Softlogic Life Vice President - Marketing Kavi Rajapaksha 

• Becomes the first-ever agency to win the coveted award from 2019-2021

MullenLowe Sri Lanka held up its reign as the ‘Most Effective Agency’ for the third consecutive year with its win of the coveted main award at the 2020/21 Effie Awards held recently, becoming the first-ever agency to achieve this remarkable feat.

This fresh accolade comes on top of the Sri Lanka office of IPG’s MullenLowe Group, being placed 36th most effective agency in the world and within the top 10 effective advertising offices in APAC, according to the Effie ranking released in 2019/20.

Emerging as the most awarded agency of the event, MullenLowe Sri Lanka was honoured with 16 awards – 1 Gold, 2 Silver, 3 Bronze, 8 Finalists, and 1 contributing agency award as well, culminating in being awarded the esteemed ‘Agency of the Year’ award. Moreover, the agency also proved its outstanding contribution towards its clients, Unilever Sri Lanka and Softlogic Life Insurance, that walked away with the ‘Marketer of The Year’ and the ‘Brand of the Year’ awards respectively.

In a joint statement, commenting on the award, Unilever Sri Lanka Marketing Director – Beauty and Personal Care and Head of Corporate Communications Nilushi Jayatileke and Marketing Director – Home Care, Foods and Refreshments and Water Sharmila Bandara said: “With advertising being an essential discipline for effective consumer marketing, MullenLowe Sri Lanka supports us with messaging that resonates with consumers and deepens the bond these consumers have with our brands. As such, we would like to convey our heartiest congratulations to MullenLowe on being named ‘Effective Agency of the Year’ for the commendable work they have carried out.”

Speaking on this remarkable victory, MullenLowe Sri Lanka CEO Thayalan Bartlett said: “We value the Effie Awards highly, as it is a marker of the outstanding value we bring to our clients. Winning the ‘Effie Agency of The Year’, for the third consecutive year, shows just how consistent MullenLowe Sri Lanka is in producing highly creative work that becomes effective advertising, which delivers a high level of outstanding value to our brands across many formats, year after year.”

Softlogic Life PLC Vice President, Marketing Kavi Rajapaksha said: “Softlogic Life and Mullenlowe Sri Lanka has always had a special partnership. We have strived together to create and build a brand that we love and cherish. Every day is an adventure, and we are extremely happy that campaigns such as ‘Monawada Mutte’ and ‘Leda Leda’ have also gone to claim Effie metals apart from the amazing business results they have achieved and the joy they evoked when co-creating them with Mullenlowe Sri Lanka.”

MullenLowe Sri Lanka Chief Creative Officer Dilshara Jayamanna said: “It is when brands are faced with extreme adversity, that creativity should be at its sharpest, to help them rise above and perform even better. During the last two years, the MullenLowe Team has taken on this challenge and risen to new heights of creativity, delivering an unfair share of attention to the brands in our custody. This award is a testament to that incredible work ethic.”

The agency was bestowed with the first Gold Effie of the night for its ‘Monawada Muththe’ campaign for Softlogic Life Insurance and went on to receive two Silver Effies for its ‘Water revolution’ campaign for Unilever PureIt, and ‘Count on us like family’ campaign for 1990. MullenLowe Sri Lanka also bagged three Bronze awards for its ‘Sri Lanka puts 1990 on speed dial’ campaign for 1990, ‘Celebrating art of Sri Lankan smile’ campaign for Signal and ‘Keeping Leda Leda alive’ campaign for Softlogic Life Insurance.

The event also saw the agency securing eight Finalist Awards for its ‘From transformation to restoration’ campaign for Glow and Lovely, ‘Don’t get stuck in the moment’ campaign for LOLC Insurance, ‘No more excuses!’ campaign for Knorr, ‘The campaign for all soap brands’ for ‘Lifebuoy’, ‘Influencers can help save lives’ campaign for Lifebuoy Soap, ‘Changing the face of life insurance in Sri Lanka’ campaign for Softlogic Life Insurance, ‘Strong on germs, soft on skin’ campaign for Lifebuoy Soap, and ‘Youth busy being young’ campaign for People’s Bank. MullenLowe Sri Lanka also walked away with a contributing agency award in the social media category for Upfield by Lanka Flora.

A global symbol of achievement with award programs honouring effective marketing communications in 42 countries and 6 regions, the Effie Awards have been held in Sri Lanka in partnership with the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM) since 2008.

MullenLowe Sri Lanka was established as LDB Lintas in 1993 and was subsequently referred to as Lowe LDB, an agency which comes from a powerful creative lineage. It came to be known as MullenLowe as a result of a merger with US-based network Mullen in 2015. A majority of MullenLowe’s business comes from global FMCG giant Unilever. 

In addition, it works with some of the country’s leading brands in carbonated soft drinks, banking and finance, insurance, biscuits, milk foods, Tea, FinTech, personal and beauty care products, mobile communications, data and consumer electronics. The group possesses vast cross-category knowledge which gives it an edge when it comes to effective work. 

The Group represents five strategic verticals offering expertise in Creative, Strategy Consultancy, Activation, Digital and Public Relations. Rated as the 36th in the world and placed within the top 10 most effective agencies in APAC by Effie Index 2020 the MullenLowe Group is known for hyper bundling its offering using its verticals to offer meaningful solutions for brands. The company continues to dominate the top 10 most advertised categories by 80% and the top 20 most advertised categories by 50%, making it by far, the most influential brand communications company in Sri Lanka.