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| Sunday, 24 August 2003 |
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Personality plus Michael Holsinger : making people believe by Pelham Juriansz
Birth of Leo Burnett "Starting in a 'box office' room with 18 staff members, we began from scratch. We were using a round table and our traditional bowl of apples (which apparently all advertisers use). Ranil De Silva was my boss. We were there for about three months and when our staff expanded to 25, the 'box office' room became too small. We were first at Fero Traders near Vihara Maha Devi Park from where we moved to the Jetwing building at Navam Mawatha. After two months there, we moved to Shady Grove Avenue," Holsinger said. Expansion Speaking from a plush office, Holsinger said that he believes that the environment is very important to the kind of job that he is in. "We now have about 55 staff members". Clients He mentioned that Sri Lanka Telecom is probably the company's biggest client, while Cargills is second. Other clients of repute among the portfolio of about 30 are the Board of Investment (BoI), Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL), People's Bank, MAS Holdings and Bogawantalawa Plantations. "We are following a philosophy of trying to satisfy existing clients. Some clients tried us out originally with a little bit of business. But we went back to satisfying the existing clients. Odel is another client, which though not very big, is very visible in Colombo. Everybody sees Odel at a glance which is helpful for us. "We have quite a strong relationship with the Swadeshi Company and the BCCSL. We have been able to prove to Thilanga Sumathipala that we can handle the BCCSL. The Board will be very big since an England tour is coming up in November, the Australians are coming here in February and the South Africans end of March," he said. Family Background The 37-year old Holsinger's father was a planter, who has now retired and is conducting organic experiments in bio-fertiliser. He has two brothers and a sister. One brother is in advertising; the other is an architect while his sister is a teacher. He is married to Priyanka who is also in advertising. Education He had a fairly uneventful school career at St Peter's, Bambalapitiya. He left school after Ordinary Levels and followed Association of Accounting Technicians and Chartered Institute of Management Accountants studies before beginning his advertising career. His knowledge of accounts helps him in the nitty gritty of the business. Career "I began my career at Minds Advertising where I worked for one and a half years under Ryan Jayatunga. I later joined J. Walter Thompson where I honed my advertising skills for eight years. Now I have completed four years at Leo Burnett." Role Model He cited Jerome de Silva, who was at Grants and Minds, as his role model. Interests "My hobby is acting in plays and I have taken part in plays run by the Workshop Players such as 'Les Miserables' and 'West Side Story'. My wife, brother, sister and I help out with most of these productions with the lighting. We have a fair reputation for handling lights and productions. We design the whole system and maximise the usage as people here work on very small budgets. "At Leo Burnett, we have a philosophy of trying to make people believe in what a brand stands for rather than just making them buy something. A believer of a brand will be more sensitive to things like price. So, in fact, our challenge is to actually harness that truth. Through research, we try to find out what makes people buy that brand. We use Public Relations, Direct Marketing, sponsorships and web advertising to promote our idea. We have specialists handling these fields. "In the advertising industry, the main asset is people. I am a people-oriented person and I make sure that people have fun doing their job, and make the best use of their talents through intensive training. We conduct workshops which do not have to be big. General skills are taught at these workshops by me and Ranil. We also get people from abroad; Jim Atchison, who published the book 'How Asia advertises' and Yasmin Ahamed, our Malaysian Training Director, one of the top training directors in the world, were some of the trainers." Important projects Holsinger continued: "Recently, we handled the Thai Prime Minister's visit, for the BoI. Last year, we were in the forefront of Sri Lanka's ICC Cricket Tournament, planning, organising banquets, road decoration etc. "We also launched the Apollo Hospital, where the President and Prime Minister were on stage together for the first time. Last year's product launch of Cargills Magic was another memorable event." Staff Training "Training and getting the staff to work have raised the market value of Leo Burnett, resulting in us winning the 'Campaign of the Year' at the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing Awards. We keep our staff number low; at the end of the day, what really matters is getting the best people and trying to keep them. We look at them moving on to other companies as a fact of life, take another lot and train them," said an optimistic Holsinger. "The biggest threat that we have is other agencies poaching our staff. I believe we have more problems working in the most profitable agency. Even though we are a start-up company, we get global recognition. We try to send our best ads for international awards. We are living in a blinkered society, another reason that we need to go out of the country and learn and implement those ideas here. We could also get trained people from other countries. Our visions will be realised if we fly down an Indian company. We can retire in peace when we do something for our country." Future Plans "I need to go out of this country sooner rather than later. I need international exposure at the level of work that I am doing right now. I will try to work abroad at least a year or two. My boss, Ranil de Silva, also got a lot of exposure from being in Singapore," he said. Fact File |
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News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
Michael Holsinger has been the Client Services Director at Leo Burnett
from its inception four years ago. The international advertising company
has links with the US and Latin America.
