Title | UNITY PAPER |
Brand | WIJEYA NEWSPAPERS |
Product / Service | ADA NEWSPAPER |
Category | A02. Best Use of Magazines/Newspapers |
Entrant | LEO BURNETT SOLUTIONS Colombo, SRI LANKA |
Entrant Company | LEO BURNETT SOLUTIONS Colombo, SRI LANKA |
Advertising Agency | LEO BURNETT SOLUTIONS Colombo, SRI LANKA |
Media Agency | STARCOM Colombo, SRI LANKA |
Name | Company | Position |
---|---|---|
Seninda Bandara | Starcom Colombo | Media Manager |
Jehan Adahan | Leo Burnett Solutions Inc | Photographer |
Tasneem Siddeeque | Arc Worldwide Sri Lanka | Public Relations Executive |
Kishani Gunasekera | Arc Worldwide Sri Lanka | Director Public Relations |
Prasad Chaturanga | Leo Burnett Solutions Inc | Illustrator |
Jayantha Liyanage | Leo Burnett Solutions Inc | Digitial Artist |
Nilusha Wanasinghe | Starcom Colombo | Senior Media Manager |
Anuradha Cooray | Leo Burnett Solutions Inc | Senior Executive Production |
Ranjith Perera | Leo Burnett Solutions Inc | Senior Manager -Digital Art Production |
Mehnaz Ilhamdeen | Leo Burnett Solutions Inc | Director Operations |
Manoj Dharmawardhane | Leo Burnett Solutions Inc | Copy Writer |
Somasegeram Nadarajah | Leo Burnett Solutions Inc | Copy Writer |
Malaka Samith | Leo Burnett Solutions Inc | Copy Writer |
Ranjana Amaradeva | Leo Burnett Solutions Inc | Group Head/Copy Writer |
Farzad Mohideen | Leo Burnett Solutions Inc | Copy Writer |
Eraj Wirasinha | Leo Burnett Solutions Inc | Associate Creative Director/Copy Writer Writer |
Michael Holsinger | Starcom Colombo | Chief Executive Officer |
Chaturangi De Silva | Leo Burnett Solutions Inc | Art Director |
Sithum Walter | Leo Burnett Solutions Inc | Art Director |
Subhash Pinnapola | Leo Burnett Solutions Inc | Executive Creative Director |
The campaign was a success with many celebrities and individuals commenting resulting in over 220,000 likes, shares and views, which adds up to 15% of all Sri Lankan Facebook users. Free publicity was given on news programmes and the front covers for four leading dailies. The Ada Unity Paper, on the day of publication, saw a 20% increase in sales which resulted in the paper being sold out and led to the paper being the second most consistently read newspaper in the country.
With the client being a media brand, the role of the media team was crucial and it was their job to convince Ada to turn itself into a bilingual newspaper. They also facilitated the sharing of ideas between editors and journalists of Ada and the creative team so content could be created for the 'Unity Paper' that would help strengthen the message of the idea. The media team also assisted in getting other media outlets like TV, outdoor and other publications to promote the newspaper.
In 2009, Sri Lanka’s brutal 30-year civil war finally came to an end. Four years on, and though progress had been made, the process of reconciliation was still not complete. With the traditional New Year coming up, the one event celebrated by both the communities involved, Ada, a mass-market daily newspaper, wanted us to find a way for it to contribute to the reconciliation process. Our solution to the challenge of finding a way for Ada to help bridge the gap between two communities who spoke completely different languages was to reach out to both of them by creating Sri Lanka’s first bilingual newspaper. Despite Sri Lanka being ethnically diverse, the country never had a newspaper that was in more than one language. We believed that by doing this we would get people talking about the issues related to reconciliation, increase the profile of the paper and boost sales.