Business
CBL Sera shines with the most number of key awards at Effies 2022

CBL’s Sera emerged triumphant at the recently concluded Effie Awards 2022 – winning the top awards of the evening – Most Effective Brand of the Year – CBL Sera; Most Effective Marketer of the Year – Convenience Foods Lanka PLC (Subsidiary of CBL Group); Gold Winner in Packaged Food; Gold Winner in Media Innovation; Silver Winner in Social Media and Bronze Winner in Youth Marketing. CBL Sera truly shone under the spotlight at the prestigious Effies Awards 2022 by becoming the most awarded brand of the evening. Celebrating and inspiring the advertising industry of Sri Lanka, the 13th edition of the Effie Awards Sri Lanka 2022 focused on the creativity and effectiveness of campaigns during these turbulent times.
Effie awards believe in the power of great ideas that yield great business results and the award-winning Sera Kottu Kottu campaign embodies the essence of what the Effies stands for. The brand’s award winning integrated marketing and communication campaign witnessed creative collaboration between Sera Kottu Kottu and Convenience Foods (Lanka) PLC, Isobar Sri Lanka and Kaali Projects, combining a wealth of expertise for a highly effective campaign.
Being an innovative brand, Sera Kottu Kottu feels the pulse of the youth and thus, in collaboration with Isobar Sri Lanka, created a campaign unlike any other by leveraging gaming in Sri Lanka and entered the world of online gaming with #GrandTheftKottu. The campaign drew inspiration from Grand Theft Auto, the world-renowned gaming series and open-world action-adventure game to create an interactive digital platform with the Brand Association of Sera Kottu Kottu. The GTA 5 platform was modelled to create a replica of Colombo and other iconic landmarks of Sri Lanka for an immersive journey complete with sights, sounds, and interactive gameplay.
“The Effies are about both the power of creativity and achieving business and brand objectives. The integrated marketing and communications approach of the Sera Kottu Kottu campaign made it an experiential campaign that stood out from the clutter. The campaign was aimed directly at the target group of youth and the campaign, first of its kind, achieved its objective of engaging the target segment. The clear marketing communication by the brand campaign has contributed to its success at the Effies!” explained Nuwan Rathnakirthi – Marketing Manager, Convenience Foods Lanka PLC.
“It is an honour for CBL Sera to win multiple awards at the Effies 2022. The CBL Sera Campaign was a trailblazing execution, providing our target audience with an exciting, experiential interaction, linking e-selling via social media platforms and creating marked interest and enthusiasm about the brand during the Pandemic. The awards celebrate the hard work and efforts of the Marketing Team and Isobar Sri Lanka in bringing out such a novel concept to life,” says Jayanga Perera, General Manager – Marketing, CBL Food Cluster.
Mohenesh Chamith Buthgumwa, Vice President, Dentsu Communications said,”This immersive and interactive campaign was able to capture the attention of our target audience like never before. The #GrandTheftKottu campaign set a new bar for brand marketing and we are happy to have been a part of this groundbreaking brand campaign for CBL Sera.”
The Effies bring together the advertising and marketing fraternity together to celebrate the best of Sri Lanka’s creativity. The Effie Awards Sri Lanka is organized by the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM), the apex body of the marketing profession, and widely considered as the most distinguished honour in the industry. Winners are selected across all forms of marketing and communication, with an emphasis on creativity and effectiveness.
CBL Sera is manufactured and distributed by Convenience Foods Lanka PLC, a fully owned subsidiary of the CBL Group (CBL) which is one of Sri Lanka’s leading FMCG conglomerates manufacturing biscuits, chocolates, cakes, cereal, noodles, textured soy, herbal porridge, quick soups, coconut products, spices and organic value added agricultural products.
Business
Women led LPO services firm Velox Partners enters new office space in Colombo

Velox Partners, a tech-based legal process outsourcing (LPO) firm, expanded its presence into Colombo to augment its existing law firm. Velox commenced operations in January 2020 prior to the onset of the pandemic. Today, it has expanded its services across numerous verticals Commercial law, Litigation, Conveyancing and Company Secretarial Services, with Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) Services being the core. It is geared as a fully-fledged legal service provider servicing clients across United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore and Southeast Asia.
Velox is female-led with over 90% being women comprising versatile and experienced lawyers. Their expertise bridges multiple disciplines of law with a local and global clientele. The two powerhouses leading the firm are its founding partners Lihini Fernando and Dakshika Perera whose collective experience spans over three decades.
Velox Partners saw Covid-19 restrictions and remote working as an opportunity to position the firm as a tech-based entity and launched its LPO arm. Providing back office legal services to law firms across continents was seen as a viable business model that is both functional and lucrative. Furthermore, the partners of Velox realized the potential of positioning Sri Lanka as a LPO Hub, where the LPO sector enables foreign remittance to the island nation to rebuild its economy. This also provided an opportunity particularly as LPO services can be offered remotely, without a physical office presence.
Velox has serviced clients in over 14 jurisdictions worldwide providing solutions on the ethos, ‘Beyond Legal’. Velox believes in combining business efficiency and tech enabled processes to differentiate itself from the conventional law firms.
Lawyers at Velox are solution providers guided by industry expertise. The team comprises professionals based in Australia, the United States of America, Singapore, and Sri Lanka which enables them to draw cross country perspectives in providing services. Velox is now poised to use their multiple years of experience across continents to provide smart legal solutions.
Business
Estonian TV crew gets a taste of Sri Lanka for the first time

Sri Lanka Tourism, under its Scandinavian market promotions hosted a Media FAM with 4 Media personnel from Kanal2 TV from Estonia. The tour started off on February 28 and ended on March 8. The purpose of hosting this tour was to receive more high-end tourist arrivals from Estonia, as well as the other Scandinavian markets including Lithuania and Latvia.
Subsequently, this tour was hosted in collaboration with the Sri Lanka embassy in Sweden which contributed to make this tour a success. The FAM Tour covered all the main tourist attractions in Sri Lanka, including wild life, Ayurveda, Boutique hotels, and also cultural attractions.
All these attractions were filmed and the destination will be promoted on air via Kanal2 TV, through the TV show ‘’ Kaugele Siit’’ (far from here). The first episode of this programme is scheduled to be telecast for 45 minutes. This travel programme has 420,000 followers as their audience. Kanal2 TV was also the official Media partner for the Winter Olympics 2018, a Sri Lanka Tourism press release said.
The release adds: ‘The visitors were quite impressed with the 8-day tour which they had, enjoying every moment of their tour. They were equally mesmerized with the warm hospitality which they received from the Sri Lankans, which they are mostly renowned for. They enjoyed the traditional Sri Lankan cuisine, and the variety of dishes which they tasted. Nevertheless, they had the opportunity of exploring every attraction of the paradise island to convey the message to their fellow Estonians, that Sri Lanka is a unique travel destination which has everything in store for the enthusiastic traveler.
‘They also had a cooking demonstration by courtesy of Siddhalepa Ayurveda Resorts & Spas Wadduwa, and also a Yoga treat at the same venue. Visiting the Turtle Hatchery at Kosgoda , the Elephant orphanage at Pinnawala, going through a safari at Eco park was also another amazing experience which they had during their stay.’
Business
The Academy of International Business signs Memorandum of Understanding with the University of the Pacific

Academy of International Business Sri Lanka (AIB) held its second graduation at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall with over fifty graduates successfully passing out. At the recent graduation, the business academy signed its MOU with the University of the Pacific.
The signing of the MOU is a major milestone for the business academy. The courses offered are DBA, MBA, and BBA top-up programs through AIB. Prof Liam, Rector – of the University of Pacific, expressed confidence that the program delivered by AIB will be very beneficial.
The event was graced by passed graduates, teachers, and lecturers, the ceremony was hosted by the chief guest and the regional director of ABE(UK) Dr Praveen Mahendran. “The ABE(UK) is one of the long-standing professional awarding bodies from the UK and AIB is proud to be associated with ABE and approved by the awarding body.
Hard work, competency and capability are the values that produce results, through the AIB and its programs these are achievable. Every student is encouraged to show their full potential”.
The distinguished guests were the Vice President of the BNI Pioneer Chapter, Dilan Fonseka. He emphasized, the importance of students gaining experience in entrepreneurial skills and business development by enrolling at BNI. AIB is a member of BNI, which creates multiple opportunities.
About the Academy of International Business: AIB is recognized for its management programs, digital marketing, marketing, and English language programs such as IELTS, and PTE. It’s widely popular among students in search of pursuing business and management courses.The Director of AIB Sri Lanka, Chrishankar Janathanan, expressed the institute’s commitment to providing the best quality education. It’s not only a center that is simply cornered to the education sector but also has focused its efforts on recruitment services and digital agency services.
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