4As leads creative minds of tomorrow

Standing: 4As Young Lotus competition winners and runners-up with (seated) 4As Young Lotus competition organising committee members 

The start of 2016 saw the increased participation in young creative minds converging to represent the future of Sri Lanka and its inventive genius at the  Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies (4As) - ‘Young Lotus’ competition held recently at the 80 Club, Colombo.

This year’s competition attracted an astounding 45 teams in comparison to previous years. Each team consisted of a copywriter and an art director. All teams competed for the coveted title of ‘Sri Lanka’s Best Creative Young Team’. Participants of this full-day competition from large and medium agencies alike vied for the opportunity to represent the island nation of Sri Lanka at Adfest 2016 in Pattaya, Thailand.

4As President Sheron Jayasundara commented, “I am delighted to see the increased participation at this year’s programme. Our intent is to train and polish young creative minds, providing exposure in developing effective concepts which will see them compete regionally and globally.”

The 4As felicitated the Young Lotus winners for 2016 at a follow-up, evening award ceremony held recently at the Lighthouse Galley, Colombo. 

Adfest, one of the most preferred creative events in the advertising industry calendar in the Asia Pacific region, supports tomorrow’s industry leaders with the opportunity to network and learn from the preeminent creative fore-runners in the industry. 

This year’s competition saw Amanda Aluvihare and Ijaz A. Sahlan from JWT Sri Lanka taking up the baton as the winning pair that delivered a passionate, inspired, novel campaign tailored to fit this year’s challenge. 

The panel of judges, consisting of Sri Lanka’s prominent creative names in the industry included Ruchi Sharma (Jury Chair), Lalindra Nanayakara, Dileepa Abeyasekera, Suminda Gamage, Johan Latif, Soruban Sivapatham, Ranil Nalawansa, Aman Ashraff, Dinesh Perera and Dilshard Ahamad. 
The winning duo will have the opportunity to travel to Thailand in March 2016 to represent Sri Lanka at the Young Lotus Creative Workshop competing against their counterparts from the Asia Pacific region. After which, they will be given the opportunity to sit in an intimate knowledge, innovation and industry experience sharing sessions.

Joint runners-up for the competition were Aruna Fernando and Chinthaka Jayawickrama from JWT Sri Lanka and Shyan Gershon and Sohan Ratnaike from TBWA/TAL.

The third and fourth places were taken by Ravindra Laksiru and Shehan Samarasinha from Triad and Fazie M. Mohamed and Dilakshi Wijesinghe from Reap Digital.    

The 4As will continue to power tomorrow’s creative minds – forging a future for Sri Lanka in the creative play books that will be sealed in history.