SLIM promises Effie Awards: 2012 to be bigger and better

The Effie Awards night will be held for the fifth consecutive year on November 22 at the Hilton organised by the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing with the support of 4As Sri Lanka.

Ahamed Aroos	Imal Fonseka	Tilan Wijeyesekera

"The best thing in the Effies is that it's a global program and it follows global standards and benchmarks in evaluating advertising campaigns in Sri Lanka. It also helps to raise local advertising standards to international level," Effie Awards Sri Lanka 2012 Organising Committee Chairman and Reckitt Benckiser (Lanka) Limited, Senior Brand Manager, Ahamed M. Aroos said.

He said that the criteria used in Sri Lanka was in line with what is used across the world. This means that if an advertising campaign, Ad agency or organisation wins an Effie award here, it means that their standards are high enough to win an Effie anywhere else in the world.

"SLIM's involvement is that as the national body of marketing in Sri Lanka, our mission is to uplift the standard of the marketing fraternity," said President, SLIM, Tilan Wijeyesekera.

Vice President, Projects, Gamika de Silva, said that marketing has different facets. SLIM hosts four national events every year, targeting each of these facets. This includes the Brand Excellence Awards targeting brand management, NASCO targeting sales and sales management, The People's Awards targeting the market research sector and the Effie Awards which fortifies advertising, marketing and communication.

Ahamed M. Aroos said, "While the Effie Awards are known as the only awards show that recognises and rewards advertising campaigns in the country, it is far more than just that. We have lots of other events and sessions that we organise around the show."

"For the first time ever, SLIM invited CEO of McCann World group, Singapore and Chairman of the Singapore Effies 2012 to address over 150 participants from the advertising and marketing fraternity at a half-day workshop recently.