The team also secured a bronze award for PR Agency of the Year, which added to its string of accolades and awards for 2014.
Leo Burnett and Arc Worldwide made history for the agency and the country by being the first Sri Lankan PR and communications team to win gold at the AOY Awards.
For over 20 years the AOY Awards have celebrated the achievements of the region’s advertising industry, recognizing strong leadership, creativity and innovation, stellar new business performances, the development of talent in the region, and contributions to the industry.
Commenting on the win, Caryll Van Dort, Director – PR, Arc Worldwide stated, “We are extremely honoured to be recognized as the Best Corporate Communications Team in South Asia at such a prestigious awards programme.
This accolade is a testament to the sheer passion and dedication of our team members, who work tirelessly to deliver exceptional results for some of the country’s top brands.
This award, is a fitting finale to an incredible year for Arc Worldwide, that was filled with many industry firsts, awards and milestones.
As we look ahead to 2015, Arc Worldwide is preparing to aggressively expand our business efforts, our use of PR innovations and our overall product offering in order to continue spearheading the PR and communications industry in Sri Lanka.”
Arc Worldwide, Leo Burnett’s PR arm is headed by Caryll Van Dort who has over 15 years of experience in marketing communications.
She specializes in media relations, crisis management and brand building related PR activities.
She leads a dynamic team of 12 professionals who manage a prestigious portfolio of clients consisting of the country’s leading brands.
The team is on track to increase revenue by 40% by the end of 2014, an estimated 20% above the average industry growth, making Arc Worldwide the country’s best performing PR agency.
The team at Arc offers an entire range of specialized PR solutions and caters to clients from a cross-section of industries.
The team acquired eight new retainer clients this year in the aviation, e-commerce, fashion, packaging and financial services industries and also strengthened its core partnerships with global brands such as Coca-Cola and Samsung.
Arc Worldwide also supported the industry by managing the Young Lions and Young Spikes Asia publicity programmes.
The Arc Worldwide team also pioneered the use of creative innovations in PR to support a variety of campaigns.
The team helped launch Chennai Express, a South Asian blockbuster movie that grossed over USD 419 million worldwide.
A re-enactment of the film at a railway station was staged to launch the movie in Sri Lanka and drew crowds of up to 5000 people and generated millions of rupees worth of media coverage.
The team also created global buzz around the first-ever ‘Mosquito Repellent Newspaper’, which was published by Ceylon Today and Mawbima to help combat dengue in Sri Lanka.
Following a ground-breaking campaign, newspapers infused with citronella oil – a natural mosquito repellent, were published to create awareness about dengue.
This innovative idea and campaign generated extensive media hype and received attention from many media houses and the cyber sphere.
Earning kudos from bloggers, newspapers, TV channels and even a congratulatory tweet from Bill Gates, the story reached all corners of the globe.
It was also amplified via 90 media outlets in 12 countries. An additional five publications also joined the fight against dengue, and replicated the idea, making it one of the team’s most recognized and awarded campaigns to date.
The year was also filled with many additional milestones for the Arc Worldwide team, which was the first PR team in the country to receive international recognition at some of the world’s leading advertising award festivals.
The team also won the first gold award for the country, for PR at Spikes Asia 2014 and the first bronze award for PR at the CLIO Awards 2014, for the ‘Mosquito Repellent Newspaper’.