Seven outstanding young professionals from Sri Lanka’s advertising industry and two young students have been selected to represent the country at the annual Young Spikes Competitions, Young Creative Academy and Spikes Asia Accounts Executive Academy, which will take place at the Spikes Asia Festival 2015 in Singapore from September 9 to 11, 2015. 

A local competition was conducted by Metal Factor in partnership with representatives from the industry. Three teams were selected to participate in the Young Spikes Integrated, Media and Digital Competitions. Two students from the Raffles Design Institute and the University of Moratuwa, were also selected to participate in the Young Creative Academy and Sarath Perera was selected for the Spikes Asia Accounts Executive Academy, which will take place at the festival.  

A total of 75 young professionals competed in the local competition this year from a cross-section of agencies. These teams were issued a brief to which they had to respond to. After which, each team presented its response to the brief to a jury comprising leading professionals from the industry. For the Young Spikes Integrated Competition, the brief was to develop an integrated campaign for the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board (NDDCB), to motivate the youth of the country to say no to drugs.

The Media Competition challenged the teams to find a creative way to use media, to raise funds for the NGO- The Wildlife & Nature Protection Society of Sri Lanka, in a bid to support the conservation of elephants, whilst reducing the human-elephant conflict across the country. The Young Spikes Digital Competition called on teams to create awareness about the SOS Children’s Village by delivering a genuine, caring and personal digital campaign that would inspire the public to make a donation to the charity.  

From Grant McCann, Sahil Gunesekera and Tara Weerasinghe won the Young Spikes Integrated Competition along with Kumarini Rajakaruna and Achala Ramanayake who won the Media Competition. The Young Spikes Digital Competition was won by Sagar Hiranand and Oshadi Paranavitane from Lowe LDB. 
Commenting on this year’s Spikes Asia winners, Ranil de Silva, the Sri Lankan Representative for the Spikes Asia Festival, said, “I am happy to witness a growing interest amongst the youth to take part in the local competition. It augurs very well for the future success of our industry. I’d like to congratulate our young winners on their success. I do hope that they will excel at the Young Spikes Asia Competitions in Singapore and gain recognition for Sri Lanka.” 

The local competition was facilitated by Metal Factor for the seventh consecutive year. Metal Factor is a non-profit partnership which was created to help Sri Lanka’s advertising industry realise its ambition of achieving world-class standards and to gain global recognition for the work of the industry. Metal Factor has been responsible for many programmes that benefit the industry, very specially the youth. Metal Factor has played a crucial role in developing the next generation of creative leaders and continuously organises competitions to select promising young advertising professionals to represent the country at the world’s most prestigious award shows and festivals. 

Taking place during Spikes Asia, the Young Creative Academy is an exciting training course available to a small selection of students from the Asia Pacific region. The three-day programme is a unique opportunity to learn from some of the most inspiring and experienced figures in the industry through exclusive seminar sessions and tutorials, all specially tailored to academy students. Additionally, the Young Account Executives Academy is a three-day intensive programme designed to equip young agency account executives with the tools, knowledge and inspiration they need to lead groundbreaking creativity.

The Spikes Asia Festival is the region’s oldest and most prestigious event that recognizes the best work in the categories of Film, Print, Outdoor, Radio, Digital, Direct, Promo and Activations, Media, Design, Poster, Craft, Integrated, Mobile and PR. A collaboration between the organisers of the Cannes Lions Festival and Haymarket, the Spikes Asia Festival provides the region’s rapidly growing creative and advertising industry with an opportunity to network, exchange ideas and think creatively. The festival serves as an important platform, which not only recognizes the best work in the region, but also brings together Asia Pacific’s leading creative thinkers and brightest young professionals.