MullenLowe Group (MLG) Sri Lanka continues to gain international recognition for marketing effectiveness, being ranked 25^th in the Regional Agency Rankings of Effie Effectiveness Index 2021. MullenLowe Group’s country and regional effectiveness ranking contributed significantly to the network ranking in which MullenLowe worldwide came in #7as the most effective network in the world and 3 in APAC and in the Americas. In the unfavorable business climate of a global pandemic and economic crisis, which saw budgets slashed and marketing activities curtailed, the agency was in effect recognized for doing more with less.

Industry watchers had seen this coming: At the Sri Lanka Effie Awards ceremony held in Colombo recently, MullenLowe Group Sri Lanka walked away with 16 awards for ideas that worked--one Gold, 2 Silver, 3 Bronze, 8 Finalist and one contributing agency award which in turn led to MullenLowe winning the prestigious ‘Most Effective Agency of the Year’ award. This win made the MullenLowe Group Sri Lanka the first and only agency in the history of Effies Sri Lanka, to win the coveted title 3 years in a row.

MullenLowe Sri Lanka was one of 27 agencies that made a significant contribution to MullenLowe Group’s outstanding network performance. (This year’s rankings represent Effie Awards winners and finalists announced between January 1, 2021 and December 31, 2021.)

The Effies got their start in 1968, when the New York American Marketing Association created an awards program to recognize the most effective advertising campaigns, otherwise known as ‘Ideas that Work.’ One of the first awards programs to apply analytical rigor to evaluate the effectiveness of advertising, the Effie Awards now honor the most effective marketing campaigns and the agencies and individuals that create them.

Thayalan Bartlett - Chief Executive Officer of the MullenLowe Group in Sri Lanka said “Our culture is to be intently focussed on being a results first company in anything and everything that we do. When it comes to our work we don’t get caught-up with the frivvalty of just being creative for the sake of being creative but we work extremely hard to make exceptional creative, work hard to deliver the results our clients expect from us. This is the only reason why MullenLowe Group as a company and its clients continue to be recognised as effective communicators annually where strategic creative ideation plays a catalytic role. The group nurtures and retains the cream of Sri Lankan creative talent through its 5 strategic verticals - MullenLowe, LoweLintas, LowePublic, LoweDigital, and LoweActive, which makes a huge difference in the outcome of the Effies annually and I am immensely proud of the team we have. They are indeed a special breed of professionals.”

Expanding on the theme of ideas that work, MullenLowe Group Sri Lanka’s Vice President & Chief Creative Officer, Dilshara Jayamanna said, “The multiple crises we have faced as a nation in the past few years have shown us that now more than ever just how important it is to create work that is laser focused on delivering on expectations. The MullenLowe Group’s practice of hyperbundling results in cross functional teams working in sync with each other to produce unexpectedly delightful work that creates exponential gains for our clients.”

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 & 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 5 strategic verticals offering expertise in Creative, Strategy Consultancy, Activation, Digital and Public Relations. The MullenLowe Group is known for hyperbundling 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

Image Caption: (l-r): Dilshara Jayamanna - Vice President & Chief Creative Officer, MullenLowe Group Sri Lanka, Harendra Uyanage - Vice President & Executive Creative Director, MullenLowe Group Sri Lanka and Sean Pompeus - Vice President & Business Director, LoweLintas