LBR LBO Brand Summit 2017 – “Marketing is dead, now what? Building Brands in Post-Marketing Age

Description

LBR LBO BRAND SUMMIT - PROMOTING BREAKTHROUGH CRITICALTHINKING LBR LBO Brand Summit has been broadening the critical thinking of business executives by providing a platform for provocative, inciting and insightful debates and discussions on building resilient, strong and future-ready brands. For the fifth consecutive year “Lanka Business Online” (LBO) will be hosting the annual LBR LBO Brand Summit. Once again, on a stimulating theme – “Marketing is Dead, Now What? - Building Brands in the Post-Marketing Age”. The Summit is equally useful to practicing marketing professionals from corporates, other business professionals, academics and research, and those who serve in NGOs, think thanks and public sector. This year’s theme is of pronounced relevance and vital importance in today’s context. The concept of marketing – as a business philosophy and a business function- is being challenged by mounting human, social, technological and ecological trepidations. On one hand, technological changes are impacting consumer behavior in such a manner that the established marketing tools and models widely used by marketers around the world are in danger of becoming irrelevant and obsolete. On the other hand, technology is enabling marketers in multiple ways: greater insights of customer behavior, near real time visibility to consumer conversations, economical and impactful consumer engagements transcending various boundaries, among other benefits.

Session Intro

Session 1: “Building breakthrough brands in a post-marketing age” The last quarter century has seen the emergence of new challenges of anthropogenic origin to human civilization, including some serious existential threats. Intensified globalization has brought societies together in an unprecedented manner. The resultant proximity and interconnection has not necessarily made the world a better place. Norms and ethos of society are fast changing, and so are consumer preferences. Digital technology, which has been sweeping the globe for over two decades, has caused disruptions to all aspects of human life. In this context, is marketing as a business “philosophy” still highly relevant, or is it becoming irrelevant in the face of mounting upheavals. The same factors and trends are also altering the composition and dynamics of the marketing ecosystem. Hence, will marketing as a business function- advertising, distribution, promotions etc.-as we know it, come to an end? If so, have we truly reached a “post-marketing age”, and would conventional marketing still be relevant? Digital has also given birth to the “age of the empowered consumer”. Consumers are no longer willing to be passive participants of engagements designed by the marketers. Instead, they want to be co-creators of the brand experience and narrators of the brand story. The company-centric approach of managing a brand as an asset, thus may not resonate with the modern consumer. Building breakthrough brands would require intense customer-centricity and resonant brand experience. Session 1 - purpose The purpose of this session is to challenge the concepts, principles, functions and practices of marketing that have prevailed since the World War II, and to encourage participants to rethink marketing as both a business philosophy and a business function. What does the new brand-marketing landscape look like? And what are the challenges and opportunities in creating and nurturing brands in the post-marketing age? What are the areas marketers should focus on in building transformative breakthrough brands?

0850 - 1020	90	Session 1 - Building breakthrough brands in post-marketing age
Keynote 1	20	Session Chair	Keynote 1	Keynote 2
Keynote 2	20	Asanga Ranasinghe	Sunil Sethi	Vikas Mehta
Com break	5	Sector Managing Director/Group Marketing Director	Managing Director - Sri Lanka & Indian Subcontinent	Group CMO & President, Marketing Services
Discussion	45	Laugfs Holdings	Fonterra Brands	MullenLowe Lintas Group
		Panelist	Panelist	Panelist
		Nimal Gunawardena	Amal Cabraal	Supun Weerasinghe
		Chairman & CEO	Director/JKH, HNB, Lion Brewery, CIC Feeds	Director / Group Chief Executive Officer
		Bates Strategic Alliance	Fmr Chairman/Unilever Sri Lanka	Dialog Axiata

Session 2: “It isn’t digital marketing; it is marketing in digital age” Digital and social media marketing campaigns are generally centered on the tactical delivery of brand content, often repurposing advertising on conventional media. While it may be serving certain purposes, such an approach is weak in generating radically different new values, as it fails to fully leverage the true transformative potential of digital. Marketing in the digital age is about leveraging digital to a greater understanding of the consumer, and to build distinctive and deeply engaging brand experiences. Such an understanding will help to realign enterprise capabilities to serve the needs of consumers in a more relevant and profitable manner. Digital marketing is largely efficiency-oriented and company-centered- while marketing in the digital age is consumer-centric- and is about achieving effectiveness and advancing business results. Digital marketing generally follows the journeys consumers have created themselves, while marketing in digital age is about proactively shaping customer journey to create greater value to customers and gain a competitive advantage. Session 2: purpose The purpose, meaning and the strategies of “digital marketing” and “marketing in digital age” are vastly different. Often, companies tend to focus mainly on digital marketing of tactical nature, and are indifferent to the strategic and competitive advantages that can be accrued by rethinking the purpose and function of marketing in the context of the evolving digital landscape. The session will help participants to differentiate the two approaches - digital marketing and marketing in digital age – and guide them in building brands in digital age.

Session Chair	Keynote 01	Keynote 02
Rohan Jayaweera	Charulata Ravikumar	Jonathan Bonsey
COO	CEO	Chairman
Antyra Solutions	Razorfish India	Bonsey Jaden
Panelist	Panelist
Vidya Sivaraja	Rasika Karunatilake
GM Marketing- Sri Lanka & Indian Subcontinent	Vice President, General Manager and Head of Shared Services
Fonterra	Cake Labs

Session 3 “Customer Experience: will “Hyper-individualization” retire cookie cutter?” Traditional marketing assumes that cohorts and clusters targeted in marketing efforts are homogeneous. Thus, the same customer experience (CX) would have an equal appeal to every member in the target market. This assumption is not without flaws. However, in the absence of a better model, this “Cookie Cutter” CX has prevailed, as personalization of experience mass-scale was not possible. Digital on one hand makes the traditional practices less relevant to the customer in the digital age and on the other hand offer opportunities for designing breakthrough personalized customer experiences. Digital –which is challenging the traditional assumptions, strategies, structures, and economics of marketing- is making the traditional touch points less valuable than before. One assumption that is being seriously challenged is the shopper mission. The shopper mission of exploring and discovering is seemingly shifting to one of transacting. This is probably because social and peer references are gradually taking precedent over traditional messages fabricated by marketers. Ubiquitous instant messaging and social references, while being less intrusive, seem to be much more influential than in-your-face advertising bombarded through conventional media. The power of digital to make the traditional customer experience obsolete is well evident in the mobility space. Traditional taxi services are losing share to PickMe and Uber, which offer a personalized, much more convenient and transparent service by leveraging mobile, analytics and cloud computing. Session 3: purpose Traditionally, in most of the product and service categories, customers didn’t have much choice in enjoying an experience that is tailored to meet his or her personal wants, tastes and preferences. The customer interface of products and services have been standardized to benefit from the cost advantage of economies of scale. The lack of timely, accurate, reliable and dynamic information on customers, and the absence of an enabling infrastructure to design and deliver personalized services are the other factors that stifled innovation in customer experience, and compelled the marketers to offer “cookie cutter”, "One size fits all" customer experience. The session will enlighten the participants on the opportunities that digital is offering to build personalized, on-demand customer experiences. Detailed profiling of individual customers- by fusing data submitted by the customers themselves and behavioral data gathered through digital means – is now possible. The application of advanced predictive analytics to such data, together with the ubiquity of digital, will enable the future of customer experience - Hyper-individualization.

1150 - 1325	95	Session 3 - Customer Experience: will “Hyper-individualization” retire cookie cutter?
Keynote 1	15	Session Chair	Keynote 01	Keynote 02
Keynote 2	10	Kumudu Gunasekera	Himalee Madurasinghe	Kanishka Weeramunda
Keynote 3	15	Director	Chief Executive	Founder/Director
Keynote 4	10	Stax, Singapore	KANTAR LMRB	PayMedia
Discussion	45	Keynote 03	Panelist	Panelist
		Jiffry Zulfer	Premakumar Prashanth	Tharaka Ranwala
		CEO	CEO/Co-founder	Senior DGM
		PickMe	Direct2Door	Sampath Bank
		Panelist

Session 4 “Welcome to the new multi-screen world: understanding cross-platform behavior of consumers” A recent Google Research Study estimated that over 90 of all media interactions today are screen-based. The traditional television viewing experience has given way to a multi-screen environment in which people, programs, and screens are mobile—viewers can consume video content whenever they have access to a computer, mobile phone, or television set. As consumers balance their time between smartphones, tablets, PCs and televisions, they learn to use these devices together to meet their goals. Are we seeing the terminal-age of viewership of linear television? The proliferation of channels and diverse content on one hand may drive content consumption, yet on the other hand it certainly is leading to further fragmentation of audiences, making building reach for campaigns increasingly challenging. Media clutter and diminishing product differentiation too render traditional TV less effective. Thus, doubts have often been cast regarding whether TV advertising is still getting enough response to justify the considerable costs. Meanwhile digital, which has made content ubiquitous, is unshackling audiences from the tyranny of conventional TV. The snacking of short format video on social media is chipping away the share of conventional TV. Since multi-screen behavior is quickly becoming the norm, understanding it has become an imperative for businesses. Session 4: purpose The session aims to help participants learn:

• How users are engaging with multiple screens
• Challenges that multi-screen behavior poses to marketers, media planners, communication specialists and media
• How to find opportunities to reach consumers in “their moments”, and engage effectively with consumers as they engage with multiple devices simultaneously and sequentially throughout the day.

1325 - 1410	45	Lunch
1315 - 1405		Pre-session meeting over lunch at Cinnamon Grand Atrium
1410 - 1545	95	Session 4 - Welcome to the new multi-screen world: understanding cross-platform behavior of consumers
Keynote 1	15	Session Chair	Keynote 01	Keynote 02
Keynote 2	15	Thayalan Bartlet	Irene Joshy	Farhan Qureshi
Keynote 3	15	CEO	Regional Qualitative Director	South Asian Frontier Markets
Com break	5	MullenLowe Sri Lanka	TNS APAC	Google
Discussion	45	Keynote 03	Panelist	Panelist
		Kamal Amesur	Sabry Haniz	Laksiri Wickramage
		Executive Creative Director	COO	CEO/Deputy Chairman
		Hungama Digital	GroupM Sri Lanka	Derana TV

Session 5 “Content is king, let's light the bonfire” Will the passively delivered pre-fabricated brand messages (advertising including native advertising) continue to get the response they used to get in the past, in a world where the Internet is increasingly becoming the first port of call, brand differentiation is increasingly becoming difficult to establish and media is highly cluttered. People are more receptive to authentic content that is relevant to their needs and adds value to their lives, than towards a sales pitch in the form of scripted advertising. Content marketing is the creation (preferably co-created with consumers) and distribution of high-quality information that attracts and engages audiences online. Information that is contextually relevant to consumer needs. Content marketing through participatory and collaborative creation builds a sense of ownership and results in greater consumer affinity, deeper engagement and business results. Ever since the advent of the Internet, the content consumption behavior has taken a seismic shift. This has opened a vista of new opportunities to engage consumers with relevant content. Thus, it is a strategic imperative for brands, big and small, to develop comprehensive content strategies by leveraging digital with an aim to connect with consumers on a deeper and more committed level for the long-term. Session 5: purpose The session aims to help participants learn:

• The difference between native advertising and advertorials, and content marketing
• Content marketing as a source of social currency and practical value to consumers and a builder of emotional connection.
• Content marketing types (from user generated content to earned media, blog posts and social media posts etc.)
• Investments, resources and disciplines required to implement an effective, impactful and result-driven content marketing campaign.

1545 - 1600	10	Tea/Coffee Break
1600 - 1730	90	Session 5 - Content is king, let’s light the bonfire
Keynote 1	20	Session Chair	Keynote 01	Keynote 02
Keynote 2	20	Alyna Haji-Omar	Santosh Menon	Navonil Chatterjee
Com break	5	CEO	Managing Director	Chief Strategy Officer
Discussion	45	J Walter Thompson / Sri Lanka	BBDO Sri Lanka	Y&R
		Panelist 1	Panelist 2	Panelist 3
		Irene Joshy	Jonathan Bonsey	Kamal Amesur
		Regional Qualitative Director	Chairman	Executive Creative Director
		TNS APAC	Bonsey Jaden	Hungama Digital

Speakers

Charulata Ravi Kumar CEO @ SapientRazorfish India More than just an achiever, Charulata Ravi Kumar is a leadership figure in her field. As the CEO of Razorfish India (www.razorfish.com), she takes on the role with in-depth understanding of the India market. Her main goal is to ensure Razorfish India remains the destination for smart, curious, creative and entrepreneurial-minded people, and to further strengthen Razorfish India’s existing core competencies. She is an avid speaker and has spoken at various events, including The Wharton India Economic Forum (WIEF), Philadelphia. A successful entrepreneur, she is also a Corporate Leadership coach and teaches at eminent institutions in India. Charulata has been a consultant and regular columnist for The Indian Express – a leading Indian daily newspaper. A regular speaker and jury member at Leadership, Digital and Women’s forums in India, she was recently conferred with the “Pillar of Hindustani Society” by the Trans Asian Chamber of Commerce. She was awarded the Linkedin Power Profile in 2015. It has been a transformational journey of 27 years for her from Calcutta to Mumbai via Middle East and London with stop-overs in US, Europe, Singapore, Australia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. With global experience in Business Transformation across the best Marcom groups – Publicis Groupe, WPP and IPG with agencies such as JWT, Lintas, Bates, Grey Worldwide, she set up the first Integrated Marketing Agency in Middle East and India. With a penchant for treks, sports and wine trails, she loves cooking and writing is her biggest passion. In her free time, Charulata teaches social skills and “science through play” at Anchorage, an NGO for adults with down-syndrome. Session Chair: Rohan Jayaweera COO @ Antyra Solutions Rohan was the first employee of Google for Sri Lanka and during his time he helped brands, organizations and the Sri Lankan government to develop its digital practices. He managed all engagements to and from Google for Sri Lanka during his tenure, which included digital practice, policy framework, publisher, video & telco partnerships, community and entrepreneurship development. Rohan has a deep understanding of channel/partner synergies and eco-system development having worked for some of the leading technology brands in the world. Rohan is passionate about entrepreneurship. He is a key note speaker, presenter, and moderator for numerous events & was invited to speak at the inaugural TEDx in SL on entrepreneurship.   Session Chair: Kumudu Gunasekera Director @ Stax Inc Kumudu Gunasekera, Ph.D., is a Director in the Singapore office where he works with our global teams to deliver actionable insights to clients worldwide. Prior to joining Stax, Kumudu was a Principal with Parsons Brinckerhoff (Washington D.C.), the professional services arm of Balfour Beatty, a global infrastructure group that delivers services essential to the development, creation and care of infrastructure assets; from finance and development, through design and project management to construction and maintenance. At Parsons Brinckerhoff, Kumudu successfully led global, multi-disciplinary consulting teams on large (> $ 1 million) and small (< $ 1 million) strategic consulting assignments in Burkina Faso, Canada, Curacao, England, Mali, Nigeria, Panama, Scotland, Qatar, Sri Lanka, and the United States. He was the project director and chief model architect of PRISMTM proprietary (U.S patent pending) transportation software. Kumudu was the founding editor (2006-2013) of the Economic Forecasting Review and a monthly columnist (2007-2013) of Roads & Bridges. Additionally, he has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals and industry magazines; has presented at conferences, workshops, focus groups, and stakeholder meetings in Canada, Pakistan, Panama, Scotland, Sri Lanka, and the United States; and has instructed numerous undergraduate, graduate, and professional courses. Kumudu earned his Ph.D. in Economic Geography, and a joint M.A. in International Relations and Environmental Policy from Boston University. He has a B.A. in Economics from Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Session Chair: Alyna Haji Omar Chief Executive Officer @ J. Walter Thompson Sri Lanka A mother, wife, daughter, sister, recovering hypocrite, part optimist, part pessimist, Earth Horse ’78, ex girlfriend, best friend, full time enthusiast, part time conspiracy theorist, writer, free thinker, incorrigible dreamer, CEO, qualified marketer, failed weight watcher, paddy open water diver and one time back packer who hopes never to experience the eternal sunshine of a spotless mind. On her Mac, you’ll find: 17 years of brand strategies that have influenced change, inspired conversation, created culture and one or two that did squat. In addition you will discover campaigns that got people talking, thinking, laughing, won awards, got criticized and one or two that she’d like to label ‘what was I thinking!’ Alyna has handled a diverse portfolio during the course of her career including brands such as Dialog, Munchee, Heritance, Sri Lankan Airlines, Coca-Cola, Baby Cheramy, Johnson & Johnson, Cinnamon, Tigo, Etisalat, Walls, Nestea, Keells and UNICEF to name a few.   Sunil Sethi Managing Director - Sri Lanka & Indian Subcontinent @ Fonterra Brands He has over 28 years of fast moving consumer goods experience and brings in broad-based expertise in the areas of strategy, operations & business development. Having worked across Asia Pacific, Sub-Sahara Africa and some Central Eastern Europe markets, he brings in a deep understanding of consumer, customer, trade & cultural nuances. He started his journey in the corporate world with Wipro Consumer Care in India. He has also worked for some blue-chip multinationals like Frito-Lay, Diageo, Colgate Palmolive, Mondelez (erstwhile Cadbury/Kraft) & Kellogg. He has proven his expertise in leading start-ups, growing mature businesses & successfully managing crisis situations. Sunil joined Fonterra in February 2016 from Kellogg’s where he was Vice President – Sales, Asia Pacific & Sub Sahara Africa. Prior to Kellogg’s role, he was the Managing Director for Mondelez Malaysia – leading a multi-category US 200mn dollar business with 3 manufacturing sites & 1600 employees.   Jiffry Zulfer CEO @ PickMe A serial entrepreneur counting 16 years of founding and successfully running several technology-based ventures, JiffryZulfer, currently has himself invested in the most successful tech based business solution in the country. As the Founder-CEO of PickMe - a ground breaking technological innovation to an everyday problem i.e. taxi hailing - Zulfer is example of modern day Tech Entrepreneurs. An early entrepreneur in the Tech space in Sri Lanka, Zulfer ran a server solutions company out of his room when he was still in School. He then went on to develop a peer to peer trading platform for which he closed the initial round of funding, this was during the time when the dot com bust and twin tower attack occurred. Subsequently Zulfer set up a fully fledged Internet Agency, which he successfully exited. Just Prior to PickMe, he contributed as CTO and part of the founding management of anything.lk which was re-branded as wow.lk following its acquisition by Dialog. Anything.lk, a daily deal company, was the first of its kind in the ecommerce space in Sri Lanka, and was a successful tech startup that attracted media attention at that time. Crediting his talent as a driving force in technopreneurship, Zulfer was awarded the ICTA Young IT Professional Award (May 2006). Zulfer a strong advocate of the shared economy, believes car ownership would soon become a thing of the past. Zulfer owns no vehicles and gets all his work done through PickMe, which he says is cheap, convenient and productive. He says ride sharing is the smart alternative for car ownership, which also benefits both the overall economy and the environment. He believes Sri Lanka has come along way and we are ready to embrace the next wave of growth.   Vikas Mehta Group CMO & President, Marketing Services @ MullenLowe Lintas Vikas has worked with the global MullenLowe Group since 2006 in various leadership roles. He’s lived in India, VietNam and Singapore; and managed agencies|businesses across 15 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. He moved to India in 2013 to head marketing for MullenLowe Lintas Group as the first CMO in Indian advertising. Named President, Marketing Services in 2015 by the group, he runs - A full service digital agency – LinTeractive - An experiential marketing agency – LinEngage - India’s leading PR agency – GolinOpinion A brand consulting firm - LinConsult Champion of an ‘omni-channel’ approach to building brands, Vikas believes in ‘marketing for a digitised world’ more than ‘digital marketing’. Papers authored by Vikas have won over 100 regional and global awards on marketing effectiveness including numerous ‘agency of the year’ titles. Prior to joining MullenLowe Group, he has worked with Publicis and Leo Burnett.   Thayalan Bartlet CEO @ MullenLowe Sri Lanka Thayalan Bartlett is an advertising professional with 26 years of experience behind him. He commenced his career as a rookie and eventually became the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of JWT Sri Lanka, a position he held from 2006 to 2011. He was promoted to a regional role and served as Chief Operating Officer of JWT Indonesia from August 2011 to August 2013. After leaving JWT Indonesia he began consulting for clients and agencies in Indonesia until he took-up a new position as Chief Executive Officer of MullenLowe Sri Lanka in August 2016. Thayalan’s extensive experience spans categories like FMCG, Telecom, Banking & Finance and Tourism. He has been involved with brands like Unilever, Nestle, HSBC, Millicom, Dialog Axiata and Airtel. Thayalan has been responsible in winning creative awards for the agency and also played a lead role in establishing a Guinness World Record for GlaxoSmithKline for its brand Viva. Following his appointment as CEO in 2005 he recorded a 36% increase in new business in his first year of his tenure and then led the agency to be the most awarded agency in his final year as CEO of the Sri Lanka office. In 2009, Thayalan was awarded the WPP Atticus Award for Advertising for his paper “marketing in the age of turbulence”. He is a regular invitee as a panelist and speaker related to brand communications. In recent times he has been spending time to understand the role and impact of digital media and its influence on advertising. His views go against the grain of digital’s role in an idea centric brand world. He blogs at: http://blogbarty.wordpress.com sharing his views on advertising and brand related trends that can sometimes conflict with popular belief. Thayalan has served as a judge on the EFFIES panel in 2009 and was one of the top 20 business leaders nominated to the Super Brand Council in 2010.   Irene Joshy Regional Qualitative Director @ TNS APAC Irene has over 17 years of research experience. She started her career as a lecturer at Mumbai University and has since worked in reputed market research agencies like IMRB International, Indica Research (Ipsos) & The Nielsen Company. Irene has also worked in advertising and on the client side in an insights role. She was a Senior Brand Planning director for Lowe and the Consumer Insights Manager for Colgate Palmolive Pvt. Ltd, India. In the end, Irene returned to her passion – qualitative research at an agency. After heading the qualitative practice for Nielsen India, she later moved to TNS India. Irene currently leads one of the largest teams in qualitative for TNS China.   Tharaka Ranwala Senior DGM @ Sampath Bank Tharaka is a Senior Deputy General Manager – Consumer Banking of Sampath Bank PLC responsible for overseeing the entire retail banking area of the bank which includes of Branch Banking, Deposit Management, Electronic Banking, Credit Cards, Delivery Channels and Marketing & Business Development. Tharaka is also the Overall Pillar Head for the CSR activities of the Bank. He has over 16 yrs experience in the Banking Industry in roles of increasing responsibility in Marketing & Retail Banking. During this period he had stints in Brand Management, Corporate Communications, Market Development, CSR, Consumer and International Marketing. He has served both as a Judge and Chief Moderator at the Sri Lanka’s premier advertising awards, “The Chillies”. He has also been a Judge at the “Effie’s” in 2011/2012 & 2013 and was the Jury Chair in 2016 and Brand Excellence Awards in 2010. Tharaka is a Fellow of CIM (UK) and a member of SLIM. He possess a postgraduate Diploma in Marketing (CIM – UK) and is a Chartered Marketer. He is also a Certified Professional Marketer (CPM) of the Asia Pacific Marketing Federation. He has won numerous awards both locally and internationally which includes the “Brand Leadership Award in 2006” and the `Marketing Professional of the year in 2014’ at the CMO ASIA Global Brand Excellence Awards. Tharaka is the Vice President of the International Advertising Association (IAA) Sri Lanka and also a Board Member of the CSR Sri Lanka (Guarantee) Limited, which is the apex body for promoting CSR initiatives in Sri Lanka. He is also Director of Siyapatha Finance Ltd., a subsidiary of Sampath Bank PLC.   Navonil Chatterjee Chief Strategy Officer @ Y&R A post-graduate in Marketing Communications from MICA, Navonil Chatterjee has close to 20 years of experience in advertising across various clients like Unilever, ITC, Nike, Pepsico, Tata Motors, Titan, Madura Garments, Godrej, Heinz etc. Featured by Media magazine as one of Asia’s top 10 young planners, Navonil has won several national and international marketing effectiveness awards that include Gold in Effies, New York AMEs, PMAA, Asian Marketing Effectiveness awards etc Navonil entered the industry as an over-enthusiastic management trainee in McCann Erickson Bangalore in 1998 and moved to JWT in October 2000, where he worked till 2015.  During his 15 year stint there, he was chosen as JWT’s first ever Global Brand Pioneer and was also a part of JWT’s global High Potential Group. In 2015, Navonil moved to Rediffusion Y&R as Chief Strategy Officer, India. He heads the strategic function of Rediffusion India across its Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai offices. Navonil is a frequent guest lecturer at reputed institutes like IIM and ISB. A compulsive non-vegetarian and an avid sports lover, Navonil is a devout worshipper of Zinedine Zidane and Sourav Ganguly.   Jonathan Bonsey Chairman/ Bonsey Jaden Jonathan has over 20 years of brand and strategy development and design experience in Asia, Europe and the US. After 5 years as Managing Director at Addison Design in Singapore, and 3 years in San Francisco, Jonathan branched out to set up Bonsey Design in 1993, and has led his team towards award winning designs across the Asia Pacific. In 2014 Jonathan partnered with the Jaden Group to establish Bonsey Jaden in Singapore. He is one of Asia’s most experienced design consultants and is an active speaker and contributor to the development of branding and strategy in Asia.     Vidya Sivaraja GM Marketing- Sri Lanka & Indian Subcontinent @ Fonterra Vidya has 17 years of experience in the FMCG industry across 2 multinationals, multiple countries, global and local roles. Currently she is the General Manager Marketing & Emerging Markets for Sri Lanka and cluster of markets in the Indian Subcontinent region for Fonterra. Having worked on strategy development, deployment with focus on execution excellence across multiple countries with different dynamics, category maturity, speed of change, blurring boundaries – she knows the importance of marketers need to be fluid , need to be vital with disruptive thinking & the need to think like a start-up and have owners mindset. She has also been part of the panel for Brand Excellence, Effie’s and a speaker by invitation in different forums. She is passionate about building brands and people and in her free time she supports women in start ups.   Kanishka Weeramunda Founder/Director @ PayMedia He started his career in the corporate world as an IT Officer and with time rose to become the CIO of a leading private sector company, Laugfs Holdings, a diversified business conglomerate in Sri Lanka and ventured in to his own business predominantly in Banking and finance sector. With over 15 years of experience in the local and international IT sphere, the area of expertise spreads across Insurance, Manufacturing, Retail and Energy sectors. Acquiring his Bachelors of Information Technology from the University of Colombo Sri Lanka and his Masters from the University of Manipal In India and Masters in Human Resource Management from E-Asia University, Malaysia. The acquisition of knowledge continues through reading for a PhD in Management. As a visionary of the future, the knowledge acquired is passed to students in global universities, prominently visiting faculties of University of Middlesex, Post Graduate Institute of Management in UAE and Qatar, American University of Emirates, in UAE with designations as a Member of the British Computer Society (BCS) and as a Chartered IT professional (CITP). Currently he is the founder and Chief executive of PayMedia (Pvt) Limited and the Director of Edulink International Campus.   Himalee Madurasinghe CEO @ KANTAR LMRB With over 25 years of business experience of which 18 years of market research at LMRB, Himalee is a pioneer in the use of specialized research methods, leveraging innovative techniques to help design strategy for leading companies in diverse business sectors. She has been actively involved in insight and idea generation with her clients in building powerful brands.   Himalee currently serves as the country representative for ESOMAR in Sri Lanka, being the first to be appointed to this position in 2011. She is also the current President of the Market Research Society of Sri Lanka (MRSSL). She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Ottawa, Canada, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Law from the Open University of Sri Lanka.     Premakumar Prashanth CEO/Co-founder @ Direct2Door Prashanth Premakumar is the CEO and Co-founder of Direct2door. He is a passionate entrepreneur, determined to build a data driven enterprise. Prashanth comes from a strong data analytics background having graduated in mathematics and statistics from University College London and having started his early career in quantitative finance. He believes in building simple solutions to common problems with business intelligence and data analytics as the core tools. Direct2door is one such company which is revolutionizing the use of data analytics in every aspect of their operations. They were the second runners-up at the Venture Engine 2016. Prashanth’s vision is to establish a data driven household concierge platform.     Nimal Gunawardena Founder, Leader & Strategist Bates Strategic Alliance, Strategic Alliance PR and NGage Integrated Nimal Gunewardena is a flower child of the Woodstock generation who escapes at 17 to absorb US life and idealism of the era. His 40+ years in marketing, communications and edutaining starts with early days of creativity in advertising, music and theatre. After writing Sri Lanka’s first rock opera and running off to play in a rock band in Iran in the ‘70s, he reverts to his career in advertising and marketing, taking a break to work in New York as Asia-Pacific Regional Director at AFS Intercultural Programs. His 10 years at Reckitt & Colman culminates as Marketing Director, when he gets headhunted to lead JWT Colombo. In 1993, he starts his own pioneering IMC enterprise and becomes an evangelist for PR, supported by Bates and Burson-Marsteller. He continues to teach and provoke thought while edutaining with his compositions and blues piano. He believes marketers must forsake consumerism and use their capabilities to save the world. Chartered Marketer, CIM Fellow, CIPR and AMA member. SLIM Past President, Four A’s Founder President and ONUR Board Member.   Sabry Haniz COO @ GroupM Sri Lanka Sabry Haniz is a product of Wesley College, Colombo.  At present, he’s reading for his MBA at the University of Wales.  Since 1998, he has been with the WPP group.  He started at JWT as a Media Group Head, went on to become the Associate Vice President cum Media Director.  Later, he had the distinction of being the first Sri Lankan to head Mindshare.  Now he’s the COO of GroupM Sri Lanka and a member of South Asia Executive Committee. He is proud to have been part of the team that has shaped GroupM into becoming Sri Lanka’s largest and most awarded one-stop shop for marketing Investment. He is a member of several industry bodies/committees including SLID, IAA, RAC and TAMAC. During an illustrious career spanning nearly two decades, he was instrumental in many ‘industry firsts’ including the setup of the first ever AOR in the country, research-media partnership via the launch of People Meter data panel system.   Asanga Ranasinghe Sector Managing Director/Group Marketing Director @ Laugfs Holdings Asanga Ranasinghe is a highly qualified, well experienced professional with a breadth of exposure/ experience and proven leadership success both in Sri Lanka and internationally in the fields of marketing, sales and customer development, supply chain, manufacturing and R&D. Asanga will be one of the very few leaders in the industry, who has such a wide experience across the value chain of an organisation. He also has the honour of being one of very few in Unilever, who has worked in Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan at senior leadership positions. Asanga has over 20 years corporate experience at Unilever. Having joined Unilever Sri Lanka as a Management Trainee in 1993. He has held many leadership positions in R&D, Manufacturing and Supply Chain before being expatriated to Hindustan Unilever in India in 2002 as the South Asia Regional Coordinator for Innovation and Supply Chain. He returned to Sri Lanka in 2004 as the Customer Development Director. Having won many accolades for his pioneering efforts in sales, he then moved to marketing to become the Marketing Director of Unilever Sri Lanka, with the added responsibility of Corporate Communication and Sustainability as well. He has also served as a statutory director of the Unilever Sri Lanka Board. His last assignment at Unilever was as the Vice President - Marketing at Unilever Pakistan. When in Sri Lanka, he was a member of the Regional Board of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Sri Lanka Region functioning as the Head of Corporate Integration & Market Interest Groups Professionally, Asanga is a Chemistry Special Hons graduate from University of Colombo. He also holds an MBA from the Postgraduate Institute of Management, University of Sri Jayawardanepura and also has a Professional Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing (DipM MCIM), The Charted Institute of Marketing, UK. He is a Charted Marketer & Fellow Member of CIM, UK   Farhan Qureshi South Asian Frontier Markets @ Google Farhan is a communication/media strategist with over 15 years of relevant experience gained from working directly in diverse markets (US, Afghanistan, and Pakistan). His expertise and skill set covers all facets of communication management with special focus on the consumer goods, banking, media, airline, and telecommunication industries. Key achievements that differentiate Farhan from others are: - Farhan is one of the rare media specialists in this part of the world who understands the needs of sophisticated companies having worked at Millward Brown in the US on communication research engagements with the leading Fortune 500 companies (Coke, Pfizer, American Express, IBM, etc.) - In Pakistan, he is one of the very few professionals in this field to have won numerous awards for creating strong Integrated Marketing Communications (IMCs) to enhance productivity. - He has successfully set up the FIRST of its kind below-the-line (BTL) Quality Audit Company for the group and won P&G’s assignment based on his strong understanding of this business and credibility. Key clients forming Farhan's portfolio include P&G, The Coca-Cola Company, telnor, Samsung, Engro, Total Lubricants, American Express, Pfizer, IBM, The Home Depot, Disney, Microsoft, Nokia, Emirates, Ulker, and Roshan Telecommunications. Farhan holds a Master of Science degree in Communication Research from Boston University (USA) and an MBA with specialty in Marketing from the Institute of Business Administration Karachi, Pakistan.   Laksiri Wickramage CEO/Deputy Chairman @ Derana TV Laksiri, a product of Trinity College, Kandy has over two decades of experience in the field of Marketing, where he has contributed towards building one of Sri Lanka’s “best loved brands” - Elephant House. At the time of leaving Ceylon Cold Stores, a subsidiary of John Keells Holdings, he was the Vice President of the Food and Beverage Sector.             Santosh Menon MD @ BBDO Lanka Santosh Menon is MD, BBDO Lanka. Under his leadership, BBDO chose to become Asia's first carbon neutral advertising company and commemorated the event by creating the 'First ever billboard that cleaned Air'. BBDO continues to find purpose by being a force for good in Sri Lanka and through its client work for ' believers in glass' it even promotes shifting from plastics to glass. Santosh Menon has over 25 years of experience in advertising. He has worked in India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. He was MD at FCB Indonesia. And has led on clients as diverse as P & G (India), Baygon (Indonesia) and Fonterra (Sri Lanka). He first came to Sri Lanka in 2003 and has led many successful communication campaigns over the years on Anchor, Anchor Newdale, RATTHI, CEAT, Janashakthi and HNB. Besides being an advertising professional he also loves photography, bird watching and is a huge nature buff.     Rasika Karunatilake Vice President, General Manager and Head of Shared Services @ CAKE LABS Rasika has 20 yrs. experience in the IT industry and has played key roles in Marketing, Sales, HR, IT, Finance, Project/process Management and General Administration at CAKE LABS. Prior to this he worked at Millennium IT where he led Delivery for several high profile accounts in the global capital markets domain.           Kamal Amesur Executive Creative Director @ Hungama Digital Services A digital native since 1999, Kamal is a Chemistry graduate but the catalysis that spurred a complete shift in his profession were the creative equations that kept running in his head. With a PG Diploma in Graphic Design he sought to make his mark in design and advertising. With 16+ years of experience he can unabashedly say that he has the insights coupled with a keen understanding of the digital consumer which helps him to translate ideas into effective solutions. Some of the clients he is directly working with include Singapore Tourism Board, Godrej Securities, Godrej Corporate and Mars Foods among others. He has also been actively involved in many National and International award-winning campaigns for HDS and has been a jury member at the Promotions and Marketing Awards of Asia, the ABBY Awards, DMA Asia & the Globes. Whilst not working, he likes to breathe or rather do Pranayam. He has been practicing Yoga for over a decade and conducts classes as well in his spare time at no charge. While he believes in healthy living, he does have a secret vice that is far from healthy - he can never say no to a well-done cheese vada pav   Amal Cabraal Director/JKH, HNB, Lion Brewery, CIC Feeds Fmr Chairman/Unilever Sri Lanka Amal Cabraal is a well known leading business professional with a career spanning across four decades. During his illustrious career he had a long spell at Unilever serving in senior positions, including Marketing Director and Chairman of Unilever Sri Lanka, Sales and Marketing Director at Unilever Bangladesh and a senior position in Sales while based at Unilever India. As the Chairman of Unilever Sri Lanka he has left an indelible mark by delivering outstanding business results and nurturing and inspiring a team of corporate professionals and a motivated workforce. During his tenure as Chairman he successfully led one of the most complex, large scale supply chain restructuring and rebuilding a Sri Lankan corporate has ever undertaken. He presently holds advisory and board positions in some of the leading blue chip corporates in Sri Lanka. Amal is a Chartered Marketer and holds an MBA and has had executive education at INSEAD. His passions include traveling and golf.   Supun Weerasinghe Director and Group Chief Executive Officer Dialog Axiata PLC Supun held the positions of CEO and Managing Director of Robi Axiata Limited in Bangladesh from 2014 to 2016 and Group Chief Strategy Officer (GSCO) of Axiata Group Bhd in Malaysia prior to returning to Dialog Axiata in 2016. At Axiata, he also served as the Head of Network Transformation Strategic Business Unit under which he led the Group Technology, Carrier Collaboration and Axiata Intelligence Unit. Supun started his career at Dialog in 1999 and held multiple roles such as Head of Strategy and CEO of the Mobile Business before being appointed as the GCOO in 2010. Supun is a fellow member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, UK and holds a BSc in Accountancy and Financial Management and an MBA. He is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School. Sunil Senapati Senior Business Manager @ Oracle Corporation Sunil Senapati is Senior Business Manager – Oracle Applications, specializing in enhancing customer experience in Oracle Corporation. Sunil is responsible for CRM Applications interactions in the ASEAN region. Sunil has worked on many IT transformation projects and been instrumental in achieving over all ROI at various multi country – multi system projects. Current responsibilities includes defining the go-to-market initiatives for SRM range of products, Applications Architecture definitions and developing partner network.    

BBDO Lanka

BBDO Lanka, the 288th office in the BBDO network, commenced operations in August 2011. Though a relatively new player in the Sri Lankan ad scene with a dedicated staff of over 30 professionals, BBDO Lanka’s client portfolio extends over a wide scope of brands from CEAT, Fonterra, HNB, Janashakthi Insurance, Kansai Paints, Marico, Millenium IT, Piramal and Taj Samudra to name a few. Soon after its first year of operations, BBDO was awarded Campaign Asia-Pacific Magazine’s ‘Rest of South Asia Creative Agency of the Year 2012’ – Silver and took home the ‘Agency of the Year’ award at its Effie Awards Sri Lanka debut in 2016. Being a socially conscious establishment, BBDO Lanka launched its Force for Good initiative in early 2012, becoming South Asia’s first advertising agency to be certified carbon neutral, which in turn led to the ground-breaking development of Asia’s first mechanical air-filtering billboard. Follow BBDO Lanka: FB - https://www.facebook.com/BbdoLanka/ YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3YIbV9Mec0523BpQxHttKw

IronOne

IronOne Technologies is a specialized enterprise software products and solutions provider which specializes in mobile driven secure application solutions for large corporates with direct offices in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore and USA while it operates in fifteen markets through business partnerships including Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, and Indonesia among others. Ironone Is An Award Winning Company With Many Accolades Including “Exporter of the Year 2016 ”, “Gold Award in the large company category 2016” by the Women’s Chamber of Industries and Commerce of Sri Lanka, “Special Award of recognition for achievements in Export 2016” by the National Chamber of Exports of Sri Lanka, the “National Best Quality Software, Sri Lanka” Gold and Silver Awards during the past 2 consecutive years as recognition of its superior quality standards, inclusion in list of the “Most respected companies in Sri Lanka in 2016” by the LMD Magazine. Ironone is partnered with leading telecom companies in many regions. Partnerships include Maxis in Malaysia, SingTel in Singapore, Robi Axiata in Bangladesh among others. IronOne has a staff strength of approximately 120 members ranging from IT professionals to a global delivery and global marketing and sales team spanning the 15 international countries of international presence.

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