Seylan Bank bagged five awards at the recent Global Marketing Excellence Awards, including the coveted ‘Marketing Campaign of the Year’ becoming the most awarded organization at the glittering ceremony.

Realizing a national marketing achievement and a bankers’ dream, Seylan collected four golds, for Marketing Campaign of the Year, Best Revitalized Brand, Best Loyalty Scheme and Best use of Social Media award and their Deputy General Manager, TilanWijeyesekera walked away with the  ‘Marketing Professional of the Year’ award.

The banks Savings brand, Seylan Sure carried away ‘Two Golds’ for ‘Best Loyalty Scheme’ and the coveted‘Marketing Campaign of the Year’. Whilst one of the banks flagship brands, SeylanTikiri, the pioneer in the value added minor’s savings account category, clinched the ‘gold’ for ‘Best Brand Revitalization Award’, recording its second win for 2014 after winning an award in October at the SLIM Brand Excellence awards for Turnaround Brand of the year. Seylan Bank also clinched the gold award for the Best use of Social Media in Marketing.

“We are thrilled and honored to be recognized across the board for our efforts in strategic marketing and innovative servicing at a global level. To have competed with other international players and emerge as winners in five categories in a prestigious international award scheme is a validation of our strategic approach which reaches the hearts of the Sri Lankan consumer in every part of the country. Winning alongside international consumer heavyweightsis a national achievement. These awards reaffirm our continued efforts to push standards beyond traditional paradigmsand offer our customers the best value added products in the market, through both traditional channels and contemporary digital platforms,” stated TilanWijeyesekera the DGM responsible for Liability Product Management, Digital Alternative Channels, Housing Loans Product Management and Marketing.

To reach out to their retail customers, which form the backbone of a commercial bank, Seylan Bank’s Marketing and Liability Product Management team sliced through the clutter and competition in the banking industry, using a potent mix of innovation, simplicity and engagement to appeal to its target consumers.

The Banks’s marketing and Liability product management team decided to inculcate the savings habit in people from a tender age and created their pioneering special savings scheme for the children, even introducing an element of fun into the serious business of savings, to attract the young with its flagship brand SeylanTikiri which was re-launched with a new brand philosophy of offering their tiny customers a ‘World of benefits for the little ones’ with a plethora of value additions and benefits including a contemporary new age gifts scheme and bonus interest topped by the most engaging activations for the segments including TikiriPola, Tikiri Carnivals, Tikiri Kite festivals, art competitions, scholarship events, international tours etc...

Seylan Sure which is the banks mainstream savings proposition used a strategic 360 degree marketing campaign which won the ‘Campaign of the Year’ title comprised a fully integrated campaign inclusive of traditional above the line mediums as well as contemporary digital and social media marketing in combination with innovative and engaging BTL marketing initiatives in conjunction with media stations throughout the country culminating in an islandwide door to door campaign through its 3000 strong customer oriented staff celebrating the spirit of world thrift day with advice on how the general public could save valuable resources through simple savings tips.

Annually thousands of ‘Seylan Sure’ customers receive brand loyalty rewards such as cash grants and gifts on significant occasions in their lives. Seylan, as the bank with a heart, generously rewards its account holders with sure benefits of up to Rs. 200,000in reimbursements for surgery, and Rs. 15,000 for marriage and the birth of a child. The brand also gifts senior citizens on their 60^th birthday. ‘Seylan Sure’ which has a customer base of 1.5 million spends a hefty amount per month on customer rewards which has in turn helped boost brand penetration and strengthened customerloyalty.The bank also developed an E-booklet and conducted extensive in-house training to enhance customer service and educate the staff on the ‘Seylan Sure’ brand. It is the first time in the bank’s history that an international award has been won for brand loyalty.

Launched in 1992, Seylan ‘Tikiri’ has gone on record as being the first ever minor savings account in Sri Lanka to introduce a gift scheme. Driven by consistent savings, Seylan ‘Tikiri’ soon embraced thousands of children from all parts of Sri Lanka and rapidly grew to become a popular household name. ‘Tikiri’ kids get special gifts as the account balance grows with deposits.Re-launched in 2013, the brand incorporated four core values; fun, innovation, engagement and trust in all its brand related activities to revive the habit of savings from a tender age.  Following an in-depth research into lifestyle of children and parents, as well as current trends in technology, SeylanTikiri upgraded its reward scheme to suit modern times by offering gifts that are high tech, stylish, sporty and trendy. Touch screen wrist watches, video game players, MP4 players, remote controlled helicopters, DVD systems, Tabs, LED TVs and sporty bicycles were introduced to the reward scheme to make savings more attractive to kids. The upgraded gift scheme motivated children to push for savings. Activations for Tikiri also incorporated the brand’s core values which enabled kids to experience banking in a fun way. During visits to the bank, Tikiri kids were taught to fill a basic bank slip and hand a passbook over the counter amidst a host of other fun filled activities like SeylanTikiriPola’s, SeylanTikiri carnivals, Kite festivals and art competitions etc…. The Bank is also the first in the Island to design a mobile gaming app for children named ' Seylan gift rush' launched in 2013 for World Children’s Day celebrations and was a main sponsor of the “Barney Live in Colombo” amongs many other sponsorships.

Today, SeylanTikiri has become the most interactive and rewarding minors’ saving account scheme in Sri Lanka. The brand’s  new business customer growth in accounts has shown an impressive growth of 144% since the brand was re-launched in June 2013. The brand’s evolution through time won it the ‘Turnaround Brand of the Year’ award at the SLIM Brand Excellence Awards 2014 and the award for ‘Best Brand Revitalization’ at the Global Marketing Excellence Awards further cementing SeylanTikiri’s standing as the most attractive and innovative minor’s account in the country.

The bank’s social media initiatives have helped the bank engage younger tech-savvy customers through Facebook, Twitter and other popular channels. A growing fan base of 132,000+ on Facebook has pushed Seylan bank to the forefront of digital media. The bank’s social media marketers relentlessly pursue customers in novel ways on digital platforms and have become the bank which is the most engaging on social media and made it the clear leader in digital marketing and facebook making it the leader in the social media sphere in the banking industry.

The annual Global Marketing Excellence Awards is organized by the World Marketing Congress and CMO Asia and is dedicated to high level knowledge Exchange through Leadership & Networking amongst senior CMOs and brand decision makers across industry segments. Awards for 2014 were worked out under the theme ‘Looking Forward, Looking Back: Drawing on the past to shape the future of marketing’

TilanWijeyesekera concluded “We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our loyal customers and stakeholders without whom none of these accolades would have been possible and wish to give them a commitment that we will continue to innovate and add value to our brands, products and services in order to ensure that we give them the best possible value added benefits in the banking industry and finally wish to thank all our dedicated customer oriented staff for making these accolades a reality with their commitment to excellence”.