A response: Dentsu Grant Pvt Ltd has drawn our attention to the news item headlined

• Dentsu Grant Pvt Ltd has drawn our attention to the news item headlined; “Rs 860 Million spent on Global Team Promotion Campaign Wasted”- Statement from Dentsu Grant Pvt Ltd

We wish to state that we take strong objection to the wrongful manner in which we have been portrayed in the article published by your newspaper on 21st August. This article has given a completely incorrect representation of the facts which is damaging to our agency.   

Dentsu Grant Pvt Ltd was appointed as the selected Media Consultants for the Ceylon Tea Global Campaign in 2018. Our task as Media Consultant was to deliver the most effective Media Plans to engage and reach the Ceylon Tea Target Consumers in the 11 markets namely Russia, Ukraine, China, Japan, Turkey, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Chile, USA, Germany and Australia selected by both the SLTB and the PMC for the Global Campaign. 

We have completed and delivered the Media Plans for the 11 identified markets and submitted them to the Sri Lanka Tea Board as per agreed timelines approved by the Sri Lanka Tea Board and the Promotional and Marketing Committee. There was no failure on our part to deliver our agreed upon work and plans as stated in your newspaper. The completed Media Plans have to now be implemented directly by the Sri Lanka Tea Board.   

We were appointed in 2018, three years after the selection of the Creative Agency who were unnamed in the article. They were appointed in 2015 under a completely different tender.   
The issues highlighted in your article refers to an array of creative and design work effective from 2015 for the SLTB such as the TV Commercial and the language versions, the Model rights issues, the website and the translations, digital creative assets, public relations, translations, design work and other creative production work as stated in your article was done by other agencies selected by the SLTB to execute the Ceylon Tea Global Campaign. Dentsu Grant had no part to play in any of this mentioned work. What we found concerning was that your newspaper failed to mention the names of these agencies who were responsible for the items mentioned in your article but singling out our agency by name giving a completely wrong impression of the facts to your readers.