Tsunami in 2004

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.