Unilever and MullenLowe most awarded partnership at Effies

Unilever Sri Lanka and MullenLowe Sri Lanka continued to prevail as the most awarded partnership in the history of the Effies in Sri Lanka. 

The duo won Effie glory for their creative effectiveness yet again at the recently concluded Effie Awards 2016 where they received a Gold, a Bronze and two Finalists awards for their engaging communications campaigns for Marmite, Rexona, Surf Excel and Vim, respectively. The event saw MullenLowe’s key global client Unilever being adjudged the “Marketer of the Year” for the 3rd consecutive year, taking home two more Effie awards.

Working together for over two decades, both companies continue to create clutter breaking communications that engage consumers for some of the country’s most loved brands including Sunlight, Lifebuoy, Signal, Astra, Knorr, Surf Excel, Rexona, Fair and Lovely, Vim, Flora, Axe, Lifebuoy Shampoo, Closeup, Domex, Marmite, Vaseline and Clear Shampoo.

“At Unilever, we place the consumer at the heart of everything we do. We constantly strive to build greater brand love and evolve our brands to continuously engage & delight consumers. All our marketing communications are built around our teams’ intimate understanding of consumers’ needs, wants and aspirations. These campaigns are instrumental in helping us engage audiences in a meaningful manner. And we are delighted to have found a likeminded partner who shares our commitment to nurturing brand love through insight driven communications in MullenLowe,” said Sharmila Bandara, Marketing Director – Personal Care, Unilever Sri Lanka. 

Makshoodh Meerasaibu, Marketing Director - Home Care, Foods & Refreshments and Pureit, Unilever Sri Lanka added, ““Our transformational approach to brand management is the cornerstone of our ability to continuously innovate. It informs our every marketing decision and helps us engage our consumers. In this day and age even the best products need to inspire love in their target audience if they are to survive and that is exactly what we are able to do by leveraging consumer insights and creating effective marketing communications that allow us to connect with our audience and make them a part of the brand journey. Best is to be able to do great work with a great team at MullenLowe.”

“MullenLowe has ‘Creative Effectiveness’ in its DNA and our genetic and environmental influencers positively impact the creative culture of the organisation which is transmitted to brands, the results of which speak for themselves, year after year, at the Effies. We are very fortunate to have Unilever as a global client. Their progressive and innovative thinking complement our way of life at MullenLowe,” said Thayalan Bartlett, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), MullenLowe Sri Lanka.

A global symbol of achievement with award programs honouring effective marketing communications in 42 countries and six 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 is the local office of the MullenLowe Group, a member of the US$7.6 billion Interpublic Group (IPG) - one of the world’s leading organisations of advertising agencies and marketing services companies headquartered in New York.  Seeing great potential in the Sri Lankan market, in 2015, IPG further strengthened its commitment by acquiring a 100% stake in the agency which had started its operations in the country as LDB Lintas in 1993 and was subsequently known as Lowe LDB. A majority of MullenLowe’s business comes from FMCG giant Unilever. In addition, it works with some of the country’s leading brands including  Akzo Nobel (Dulux), Ceylon Cold Stores, Dialog, FairFirst Insurance, Hemas, Keells Foods, LOLC, Maliban, Mastercard, Nations Trust Bank, Samsung and Softlogic Life to name a few.