In March last year, 15 teams from 15 cities represented their countries as participants in the Young Lotus program at ADFEST – a mentoring program, which last year was hosted by Cheil Worldwide.
 

We asked Randula de Silva from Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide in Colombo, Sri Lanka, to describe the experience of being a Young Lotus contender along with his teammate, Natasha Fernando. Here’s what he said…
 

What was it like to take part in the Young Lotus competition last year?
 
It was a great experience. I consider attending Young Lotus as one of the key moments in my career as an ad executive. Especially representing my country in a regional competition of this magnitude gave me an immense sense of pride and self-confidence. Even though we couldn’t win (unfortunately), I think what we learnt through the Jury’s feedback and from that experience will be something I can carry throughout my entire advertising career.
 

What was the most important (or memorable) thing you learned?
 
First of all I have to thank Cheil Worldwide for facilitating such a valuable workshop. There were plenty of things I’ve gathered and learnt from this workshop. Anyway since you asked me what the most memorable one was, I would say it’s the fact that if we embrace our local roots and the Asian flavor, it will give a better touch to our work. What we normally do is look up to other markets while overseeing our local insights, which is ineffective to a certain extent as it creates a gap between the consumer and the communication.
 

You only had 24 hours to respond to a brief during the Young Lotus competition. What was the toughest part?
 
Well, I would say the toughest part for me was to properly balance the creativity and the practicality of the proposal we were going to present.
 

Has being a Young Lotus helped your career or opened any doors?
 
Definitely yes, I could say being a Young Lotus has been the career boost I have been waiting for. 
 

Where do you work now & what is your role?
 
Currently I’m employed at Ogilvy & Mather, Sri Lanka as a Senior Executive – Digital. I’m working as the team lead for several of our key clients (both MNC & local companies) driving their digital growth in the local market.
 

What are your goals for 2018?
 
Well, if you ask me about career goals, yes I have goals till 2040. Anyway for this year it’s basically to deliver top-notch service to my client portfolio.
 

Do you have a hero or mentor who inspires you?
 
Most of the veteran admen in this industry inspire me, I mean there’s a whole load of things you can learn from their work. However if you ask for a one specific person, I would name Piyush Pandey (Executive Chairman and Creative Director at Ogilvy South Asia).
 

Can you tell me about the city where you live, and how it inspires you?
 
I’m from Colombo, the capital of this beautiful country Sri Lanka. It’s a highly diverse & a multicultural city, you can find people from all walks of life. I believe being brought up in a city like this has given me the ability to have different perspectives when looking at things. When you are able to look at the same thing from different angles it definitely sparks your creativity since you start seeing things which other people normally miss.
 


http://ogilvy.lk/