Advertising in Sri Lanka

[naveak99]

I came across this ad from Sri Lanka while bloghopping. It brought back memories - mostly painful - of my time there.

This is a typical Sri Lankan "sales" ad. The client is usually a distributor/importer, the agency a small shop or an in-house department. Sri Lanka is a sales-oriented market, where an importer usually orders a container or two and wants to dispose off his stock. He isn't interested in building a brand. And an aesthetic layout is unnecessary. Everything has to be big and bold. Everything has to be said. And the visualiser (if you can call him that) needs to showoff what little he knows of Photoshop.

I've worked with these clients. I've tried to create sales-oriented ads that work harder for them. I've tried to teach the visualisers a few simple design rules I picked up as a copywriter. I've failed spectacularly at both.

More on advertising in Sri Lanka from where this image came from.
http://wijitha.blogspot.com/search/label/Ad%2BMark

[Ek Kanya]

Hahaha... Spectacularly ridiculous, I must say! What were you doing in SriLanka?

[naveak99]

What was I doing in Sri Lanka?
I'm asking myself the same question

[vikram sharma]

(aside) perodua? never heard of that car.

this ad looks like an indian diwali release. doesnt it?

[Payal]

But there must be some larger mncs who are asking for better local work, i am sure Indian work cant be adapted in srilanka? What about Unilever/Nestle/pepsi etc?

I guess with the hope of the strife ending, maybe the market for all kinds of things will pick up. Do you have any samples pf what you did there? Would be interesting to see that...

[naveak99]

Some more work from Sri Lanka. This is a viral done by Amila, who used to work with me. Compare it with what Dentsu have done with Dhoni for Aircel.

[youtube]_JQCl7HqwdM[/youtube]

[naveak99]

Sorry...that didn't work. Here's the viral.

[youtube]_JQCl7HqwdM[/youtube]

[Hasmukh]

hahah, even though I cant understand the language (tamil? sinhalese? something else?), its still very funny. but i love teh concept of selling pocket facebook in buses. i think the concept is awesome! was this a viral video or were the people actually selling these pocket facebooks?

heres the dhoni ones.

[youtube]aErIQAWz1u0[/youtube]

[youtube]BlN0o-autTo[/youtube]

if you ask me I didn't like them too much. I dont know WHY should I change my number to aircel right now?

maybe if they
1) give me great new phone for FREE
2) offer REALLY REALLY cheap and attractive plans
3) offer me a 20 year interest free housing loan

[Paramvir]

hahaha

me an naveak99 were having the same conversation the other day. what would make anyone change their established numbers and move to a new number and new service?

anyone?

[Hasmukh]

like, maybe folk at Airtel and Reliance have a marcom budget of lets say rs 500 crores. imagine spending 12 crores a year, buying 12 surprise users a posh 1 crore home each! if the cities are different, it will cost even less! maybe less than celebrity endoresemt and definitely more buzz!

[naveak99]

Param, how did you manage to embed the youtube video? the embed code didn't work...and neither did the youtube tab here.

[Paramvir]

Yo naveak99! You need the video string from a YouTube URL: thats the part after the = sign in a YouTube URL.

Just get the video string in the text box, select it and click YouTube button! Simple! bringing your mouse over the youtube button will also tell you what to do

[Desh Premi]

but there are agencies like Ogilvy and mather etc in Sri Lanka. Why didnt you opt for those?

here's a scam ad, I think from Sri Lanka only...



from your aforementioned blog.

[Desh Premi]

heres quiet a good looking brochure...