Trailblazing
Triad: What’s the ad agency’s
mantra for rapid rise to the top?
In an industry
dominated by multinationals or with links to global giants midst
competition and market fluctuations, a local brand with small
beginnings rising to the top is no easy task. This is exactly
what Triad did in the Sri Lankan advertising industry. It has
been trailblasing of late making it an agency with over a
billion rupee in revenue today. Its rise to the top in just 15
years as a fully local brand is remarkable but two people had
belief, passion, and guts to lead the agency, and in the process
fully unravelling and harnessing local talent and helping
businesses to thrive with home grown marketing communication
solutions. In The Bottom Line’s popular The Mantra report this
week,
we look at the origins of Triad, its coming of age, the
challenges faced, the success and the passion and insights from
its two co-founders Dilith Jayaweera and Varuni Amunugama
Fernando.
 Two exuberant youth, who crossed their paths and clashed with
ideals when at Law Faculty, little did they realised that one
day the duo would be in business together, and would lead their
venture to the top much to the praise and equally envy of
others. The enterprising duo are Dilith Jayaweera and Varuni
Amunugama Fernando, the Joint Managing Directors of Triad
Advertising.
At Law Faculty they were engaged in different student unions and
often clashed in their activities. Yet it was these differences
as well as certain common traits between, that brought the duo
together later to co-found Triad Advertising.
Having turned 15 years in business recently, Triad, today is
arguably the most creative and successful marketing
communications conglomerate. This success within a short span,
midst competition and challenges in an industry dominated by
more established as well as multinational companies, epitomises
the true character, their skills and the values espoused by
Dilith and Varuni.
The beginnings
From his Law Faculty days, Dilith had a knack and a passion to
be different from what others did. A classic case was how he was
instrumental in devising a campaign for better welfare for Law
students, taking on the more established Union as well as the
accustomed administration at that time.
The differentiation in the value proposition shared with fellow
students via the Law College Association for Cooperation,
breaking away from traditional methods of communication as well
as messages, brought about a paradigm change.
After passing from Law Faculty, the duo had a brief stint at TNL
TV on the invitation of Ishini Wickramesinghe, but later decided
to venture out on their own.
Triad, essentially means a group of three people. Apart from
Dilith and Varuni, the other was Ishini who was originally
invited to join but turned it down because of conflict of
interest (as she was a running a TV station). Yet she gave them
her blessings and support.
Humble beginnings, stumbling blocks
Like all great companies, Triad, started small, had humble
beginnings and faced many initial stumbling blocks.
“Colombo Agencies was our first client,” says Dilith who recalls
that since Triad was a 2-man ad agency, it was a hard struggle
at the beginning. Since placing advertisements required
accreditation, Triad had an arrangement with an accredited
agency named Leo Advertising for scheduling of advertisements.
Initially the company was run from Varuni’s house. Six months
after incorporation, Triad managed to secure its first office at
Deanstone Place. Varuni recalled how initially they put together
the advertisements with help from various people, and doing the
work via bus transportation, akin to ad industry veteran Irvin
Weerakkody’s similar experience when he started.
It was at the Deanstone Place office, with the help of a Rs.
50,000 bank loan guaranteed by two well wishers including
Varuni’s husband Rohan Fernando, that Triad, bought its first
typewriter and a pager unit.
Varuni recalls that the pager came in handy because Triad didn’t
have a telephone of its own, and when clients left a message on
the pager, they use a public payphone nearby to call back.
Thereafter Triad moved to Glen Arbour Place where they used a
garage converted to an office. That office saw the introduction
of Triad’s first computer as well. By that time, Triad had grown
to a team of eleven. Dilith recounted that the first major
breakthrough for the company came from LM Apparels to develop 10
stalls for the Sri Lanka Expo 94 international exhibition
organised by the Trade Ministry. It was the essence of
differentiation that helped Triad to clinch the deal midst
competition from other companies. A few years later Triad, once
again moved its office, this time to Classen Place, and faced
testing times to accelerate business. Thereafter it got a
breakthrough when local clothing manufacturer Emerald put its
trust in Triad. With that partnership, both Triad and Emerald
prospered midst challenging environments.
By this time, Triad had also invested in its first second hand
printing press and began producing annual reports under a
subsidiary called ImageWise. Varuni described the acquisition of
the press as a “backward integration” strategy in a small yet
strategic way, which helped Triad to diversify its portfolio to
annual reports as well.
Turning point
Perhaps the turning point in Triad’s success, as well as the
opportunity to prove its prowess came, when the former President
Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga invited the company to
execute the General Election campaign in 2004, just under 10
years since its inception. Dilith recalled that the Campaign was
a sheer challenge in all aspects.
In comparison to the high-cost Ranil Wickremesinghe-led UNP
campaign, the UPFA campaign budget, according to Dilith was much
smaller. The UNP campaign was also handled by several senior and
experienced agencies and ad industry professionals.
However what Triad did in terms of conceptualisation,
creativity, and execution, made the campaign titled “Rata Perata”
a very convincing winner, apart from UPFA achieving a landmark
victory. Triad sure shot to fame on Rata Perata which also
triggered its next wave of growth. A recent and more lingering
success of Triad is the “Api Wenuwen Api” campaign promoting
patriotism and unity in the country.
Triad believes in strategically influenced, relevant
communications which have succeeded in building strong local
brands in this country.
Dilith and Varuni believe that success for an advertising lies
in the success of their clients. “Companies or organisations
want an effective and creative message as a solution to their
business, market problems or specific challenges. It is also
important that ad agencies must deliver such solutions
effectively and efficiently no matter what,” they emphasise.
A proven trademark of Triad has been helping local brands to
better compete with and succeed against multinationals. “Most of
the self-owned or owner-run companies or brands come to us, and
have remained with us because we have delivered solutions to
their marketing or business problems,” says Dilith adding that
this was possible only if an agency effectively understands the
client.
“We are hands on and if we see “no-fit’ with the client, then we
don’t hang around as well,” he added. This knack perhaps is born
out of Triad’s own character and belief that “Sri Lanka can”
which is Triad’s credo. Given the fact Triad itself is a home
grown ad agency, its creative work also reflects better
understanding of local insights, values and ideals.
“Ape kama” (loosely translated as “Our way”) is the trait of
Triad. It not only changed the landscape of Sri Lankan
advertising, it trail blazed the creative sphere and mindset
with “Ape kama” so much so, that “local” element or connection
in many advertising messages in the present day is a must. With
its creative “Api Wenuwen Api” Triad had also set another
benchmark with many others following the aspect of promoting
patriotism in their advertising messages and material.
Its success has been so notable, some local brands, have been
clamouring to hire Triad, and if it was handling a competitor
brand, the agency had in the past politely turned down such
invitations or offers.
It is to the credit of Triad, within and outside the Ad
industry, that the aspect of patriotism was best fashioned and
executed in advertising by Triad. That it didn’t simply confine
the sense of patriotism to creatives only, is proved by the fact
that Triad, on its own volition, distributed pennants embodying
the Sri Lanka flag for clients and others.
The agency continues to set trends and move ahead of the herd by
its latest example of launching an exclusive outlet, ‘Triad
Mantra’ to specialise in advertising and creativity in the Tamil
language.
Having diversified into related fields as well as a television
station, Triad is truly a conglomerate in marketing
communication. Its revenue from core advertising business alone
is over Rs. 1 billion, comfortably placing it on top of the
league.
Having started off in 1993 with 3 people, today Triad which,
since 2005 has been operating from a spacious office at
Gregory’s Road, has grown into a formidable team of 95.
From being considered a “small unknown agency” (their
homegrownness had even poked professional fun by calling the
agency as “Godayas!!”), Triad shot to fame a few years ago, by
winning the most number of medals at the final SLIM Awards.
Thereafter it won the best agency in the past three national ad
awards competition ‘The Chillies’. Last year it became the first
home grown agency to win an award at the AdFest 2008. These
awards are a testimony of the recognition of Triad’s creativity
from the advertising industry professional groups.
AdFest win has inspired the youthful Triad team to set its
sights on bringing home the first Cannes medal.
Secrets of success and the future
Whilst differentiation or “being different” in a positive and
dynamic sense has been a core strategy of Triad, a key
contributor to its success is the team spirit within. As Varuni
puts it, people at Triad feels there is no “management and
staff,” and that all are staff. In fact this team spirit was
personified when Triad began vying for Ad awards under the
banner Triad Team.
“If you genuinely practice team work you can achieve anything,”
Dilith emphasises adding that with a team spirit, people take
greater ownership.
Dilith also says that client servicing is another key reason for
Triad’s success whilst Varuni adds that proper planning as well
as sticking to basics are among other contributory factors.
Using IT ahead of the industry as well as strict financial
discipline with a strategy of reinvesting earnings back into the
business, have helped as well.
Though Varuni is the daughter of senior and highly respected
politician and Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama, Triad is emphatic
that its success hasn’t been due to “political influence” nor
did such a connection play any part.
“When some agencies have this wrong perception, it actually
helps us,” quips Dilith who stresses that it was Triad’s overall
solutions offering inclusive of excellence in creativity, client
servicing and delivery, that holds sway.
“We pitch for new accounts be it government or private in a
transparent, competitive, ethical and professional manner,” he
points out adding that there are several big government accounts
which many other agencies are handling or have been holding on
to for a long time.
Through fifteen years, the Triad team has evolved with the
majority of them growing with the agency, while certain hand
picked professionals with industry experience and recognition
have joined to add power to the team.
US-qualified Sarva Amaresekera has joined as the Chief Operating
Officer while ad industry professional Michael Holsinger joined
as the Executive Director. Both Dilith and Varuni are also firm
believers in early and proper succession planning- hence the
infusion of new and young blood to the Triad team.
Having consolidated its leadership status locally, Triad has now
sets its sights on the globe. “We have developed a set of proven
strategic thinking, tools, best practices and creatives which we
feel can help companies in the region and elswhere,” Dilith
says. Several Triad clients are also expanding internationally,
and relying on Triad’s solutions in such overseas markets as
well. India is an immediate market whilst Australia, UK are some
of the other destinations which are under Triad’s radar.
According to Dilith, Varuni as well as Sarva and Michael, the
future holds great promise for the company. The Triad team
stands energised and focussed to continue its momentum for
another fifteen years and more.
Dilith was also of the view that the advertising industry is
uniquely positioned to play a more proactive role in shaping
positive opinion and mindset among stakeholders. “As an industry
we can do a lot,” he reiterates.
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Advertising Strategy Lights
the Way
ADVERTISING is very effective when a brand is differentiated
from its competitors on dimensions important to consumers.
Advertising is an effective vehicle in stimulating the expansion
of many parity products. Although different brands of peanut
butter, detergent, bottled water, and cough medicines do not
have unique benefits, they often have different market shares.
Advertising often has an important part to play in sustaining
brand equity. Long-lived advertising campaigns that presented
Marlboro as the masculine cigarette and Pepsi as the drink for
the young have helped sustain these brands’ position and market
share. Moreover, consistently advertising a product’s position
serves as a barrier to competitive entry.
The many years of advertising connecting Samsonite to durable
luggage, prompts people to think of this brand whenever they
intend to buy luggage.
The starting point in developing effective advertising is
consumer insight. Pantene found that consumers believed that
shiny hair implied healthy hair. They developed an advertising
campaign based on this fact and it propelled their brand into a
leading hair care product.
The “Got Milk” campaign focused on the negative outcomes from
being out of milk is based on the observation that consumers
consider milk important only when they are deprived of it. These
and other consumer insights emerge from conducting focus groups,
depth ainterviews, and surveys.
Source: Dawn Iacobucci (ed), Kellogg on Marketing, John Wiley
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