“Will this Bee sting me” She asked whilst going through my visuals for the new logo. Rest of the ladies chuckled and I knew it was something to do with the local idiom. Later when I realized what it meant I was so embarrassed. It is better to pre-test concepts, logo’s etc. Research is an investment and not a cost.

I had worked with the branding team to come up with a concept and logo for a localized campaign to promote a culture of entrepreneurship in four districts in Sri Lanka. The strategy was to use Forum Theatre as the main communication platform – An interactive art form which would work at grass root level. The entire campaign was branded and ultimately we came up with two alternative brands and logos. It was time to test it out. I went to Kurunegala and Anuradhapura to test it out. Females did not like the Bee at all and we used the Bridge concept ultimately.

I enjoyed my work during the next couple of years working as an external collaborator/ campaign consultant and travelled much to the North Central Province and North Western Province. I worked on branding exercises for the Micro and Small Enterprise Forums that were set up by this INGO and also published a media resource guide on SME’s in Sri Lanka.

I asked the Client what the name of the hotel meant and it rang a bell deep inside my soul. “Oh the place is special and we must make the entire staff believe in it” I said. So the process began. We went there, interviewed the staff, came back, brain stormed and came up with the concept – Where the river meets the sea right in this corner all the 5 elements (Fire, wind, water, earth and sky) come together to create enough energy to make dreams come true.

We worked together on the ambiance, the layout, décor and even came up with some structural changes and mural& fountain that depicted fire, wind, water etc. and created photographs to match my story for the website and brochure.

When the Tsunami hit Sri Lanka and devastated our tiny island my client wanted to do something. He contacted three celebrities and planned to appoint them as company spokespersons but I said No!

I had different ideas. I always felt that company spokespersons should be company staff. The key is to come up with a “message” that they really believed in and then train them to deliver it in the credible manner. I proposed that the Client initiates a Tsunami fund; a percentage off every item that is sold and contribute it to tsunami rehabilitation. We used company staff in our TV commercials to communicate the message to the public. It worked!

The staff got highly motivated and the client was able to contribute millions of rupees from the money that was collected for over 4 months.

This was one of our first Hotel assignments. The owner had dropped in at my Brother in Law’s place to give a message to him and that is when he met me. He casually asked me what I was doing for a living. When I told him that I was in advertising and PR business, he asked me whether I could develop and produce a brochure for his Hotel. That was beginning of a long relationship. I visited the place, spent a couple of days with his staff, checked out wild life sanctuary and told the staff that every single one of them (from security guard to the general manager) must not only be wild life enthusiasts but “tour guides”. They must learn about animals, fauna and flora, the whole nine yards.

For the concept I used a small child with Hotel staff where photographs of different staff members pointing out to the wonder of the wild around to this little child were used. There were frequent visitors to the Hotel – a lone Elephant, a Wild Boar, a Rabbit, who sneaked in to the outer sections of the Hotel. The copy was written in poetic style to bring out highly charged emotions. The idea that is was a safe location was conveyed. The luxury of the hotel that was amidst of a jungle was made obvious through carefully planned and art directed photography.

I worked on the outdoor branding as well. I supported the marketing manager to build databases and carried out direct marketing campaigns supported with PR articles in local newspapers and offshore travel magazines. Couple of years later, when the owner was negotiating a price to sell this hotel to one of the key conglomerates in the country, he got the price he wanted because of the brand equity we had built. One of the greatest compliments came from a rival advertising agency who worked with the new owner. “We wish we came up with an idea like that” they told me.

I had just started my communications consultancy. Just my wife and I and that’s what made Avanke` in those early years. I got a break to work on a peace campaign for a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO). I constructed the team- translators, production crew, media placement agency… and that’s just about it. Once I presented the campaign idea, visuals (which were developed by my partner advertising agency based on our concepts) and TV story boards, I found that I had to also convince the donor organization. However they saw our passion and belief. “As surely as there would be a full moon on Poya day, Peace Will return to Sri Lanka” I said – And our entire campaign, Press, Radio and TV ads projected our faith in the human spirit.

Civil war had ravaged Sri Lanka for 24 years. But we believed.

I believed that our country would return to peace then.

I also believed in Avanke` that it would make a difference to our clients.