Masters DDB last week hosted a seminar in Colombo in association with its partner, DDB, the largest advertising agency in the US and the third largest agency worldwide, with which the Sri Lanka agency entered into an alliance in 1999 resulting in a new brand, Masters DDB.

Masters began business on April 1963 with a prayer and a staff of four. It was founded by the late Mr. Cyril Masilamany, the first head of JWT Ceylon and one of the pioneers of the country’s advertising industry.

Since then the agency has grown and has among its clients big names such as Dialog GSM, Hemas Marketing Pvt. Ltd. (Clogard), Mount Lavinia Hotel, Watawala Plantations Ltd. (Zesta), Elephant House soft drinks, Compaq, A. Baur & Co., Nations Trust Bank and John Keells Institute of Information Technology.

DDB was formed in 1986 by a merger of Doyle Dane Bernbach and Needham Harper Worldwide, "drawn together by their common commitment to creative excellence".

DDB serves more than 1,300 clients through 206 offices in 96 countries. It claims to be "the most consistently creative of the industry’s multinational networks," sweeping the International Advertising Awards at Cannes for six of the past seven years.

The agency’s major worldwide clients include Volkswagen, McDonald’s, Hasbro, Anhenuser-Busch, Sony, Johnson & Johnson, Mobil, Henkel, American Airlines and most recently Philips.

Mike Masilamani, the head of Masters, said that their connection with DDB was not very well known locally and the Colombo seminar was an opportunity to correct this anomaly.

Masilamani who joined the family business in 1983 said that the group today comprises of Masters DDB, Media Maps — an event management company, The Media Business — representing international media and M2 — a web marketing company.

M2 was responsible for kapuwa.com, an online dating service.

Mike says that he won a scholarship at the first SLIM Awards for the Most Outstanding Young Advertising Personality. "The scholarship took me to the Chartered Institute of Management in Berkshire." He smilingly adds, "this scholarship was permanently scrapped thereafter".

The Masters DDB seminar in Colombo was attended among others by Anthony Khoo, Vice President Account Management in Singapore and T. V. Natarajah, Group Account Director, also based in Singapore.