LEO Burnett’s understanding of Sri Lankan ethos honoured with Gold at Sumathi Awards

Leo Burnett Solutions Inc. (LBSI) – the local office of creative giant Leo Burnett Worldwide – won the highly acclaimed ‘Commercial of the Year’ award at the prestigious Sumathi Awards, the biggest festival of the country’s television industry held recently at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium.

Leo Burnett Solutions Inc. Managing Director Ranil De Silva at the Sumathi Awards

The Gold award Leo Burnett won for the TV commercial produced for the Ceylon Steel Corporation Limited (CSCL)’s brand ‘LANWA’ – which was developed on local insights garnered by the team through their ongoing activities to understand people and their behaviour.

In this award winning commercial for LANWA, the importance of a building to last was the moral of the story. Leo Burnett’s Senior Creative Director Subhash Pinnapola, tells the story through a dialogue between a grandfather and his grandson.

The commercial evokes strong emotions and is well crafted to touch the hearts and minds of every Sri Lankan.

This skill has now proven to be a hallmark of the work created by Leo Burnett in Sri Lanka for a cross section of clients and brands.  

Leo Burnett Solutions Inc. Managing Director Ranil De Silva said, “This award reaffirms that we understand Sri Lankan people and their behaviour and that we are intimately familiar with the Sri Lankan ethos. This is yet another achievement which we at Leo Burnett are very proud about as it further endorses our creative leadership. I am happy that we have continuously created award-winning work, which not only helps our client’s brands to succeed in the market, but also reinforces the fact that we know the Sri Lankan consumer intimately. The local insights which we gather through the 79 people in the team who are permanent observers of human behaviour empower us to achieve success for our clients and for ourselves. I’d like to very specially thank Nandana Lokuvitharane, Chairman - LANWA and his team for giving us the opportunity to create this great commercial. My hearty congratulations go out to Subhash on this outstanding achievement!”

Pinnapola who was the author of the commercial as well as its director said, “A Gold Sumathi award is a great accolade for us to win. It reaffirms that we are an international agency but an agency which is Sri Lankan at its heart as we understand Sri Lanka, its culture, people and local brands. This award also confirms that we are able to produce award winning local work for a cross section of our clients to gain from the opportunities that are arising in a new and growing Sri Lanka.”

The team behind the award-winning TV commercial was Chrishani Kotelawela, Murtaza A. Tajbhoy, Shanesh Ratnaweerage, Wasim Akram, Manoj Dharmawardhane, Lalith Karunatilaka, Mehnaz Ilhamdeen, Mohamed Ikram and Neesha Piyasena. The commercial was produced by 24 Frames, a leading local production company with many credentials to their name.

The Sumathi Awards, now in its 16th year, recognises outstanding work done on Sri Lankan TV ranging from tele-dramas and news programmes to documentaries and advertising.

The Sumathi Awards applauds work which is derived from local insights and is truly Sri Lankan in its expression and thoughts.

Leo Burnett has won awards at the Sumathi Awards from its inception and has in the recent past been the consistent Gold award winner in the one and only TV advertising category. In 2008 and 2009, the Sumathi Awards Gold for advertising was presented to Leo Burnett for ‘Always Remember’ and for ‘Ammawarune’ respectively produced for Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel.