Sri Lanka’s first Instagram Collaborator Forum which was held recently was attended by the country’s trending social media platform’s biggest names, brands and personalities. The event, which was an initiative of Cyaniq.social, aimed to bring together prominent content creators, personalities, marketers, and brands dominating on Instagram under one roof to share, network and to collaborate.
Young Voice contacted the founder of Cyaniq.social, Dilshan Senaratne to give our readers a better understanding as to how Instagram has become a great platform for influential marketing especially with regard to Food and Beverages, Hospitality, Fashion, Consumer Goods and Electronic Industries and also to know more of future projects.
Instagram Collaborator Forum
The forum was the first of its kind to be held in Sri Lanka and brought to light a thriving and rapidly growing ecosystem of collaborators attached to the Instagram platform. An initiative by Cyaniq.social, the forum sought to make its case for the potential of the Instagram platform and content marketing at large as a truly viable and effective approach to marketing for local businesses.
“We started out on the Instagram platform very early in Sri Lanka at a time when the focus was not placed on the potential of social media at large. This early entry gave us the advantage of being able to grow very quickly from a network of collaborators numbered in the tens to today’s hundreds.
As it stands today, we have completed more than 50 projects with some of the country’s best known brands and the interest is steadily growing.
We are going to continue exploring the new frontiers of social media marketing and continue to try and break new ground, said Dilshan.
Event
The Instagram Collaborator Forum was segmented into three event sections, the first of which consisted of keynote speeches delivered by four well known figures on the Instagram platform whose contributions have helped the growth trajectory of the platform’s popularity among local youth.
Yasas Hewage, the Founder of the Sri Lankan chapter of the globally recognized Iron Man event, Bhanuka Harischandra, the Founder and CEO of Surge Global, Christina Peiris, Miss Sri Lanka for Miss Universe and Riaan George, the Luxury Blogger from India were among the keynote speakers for the evening.
The second segment of the event consisted of musical performances delivered by the Instagram platform’s favourites -Stephanie Sansoni, Julius Mitchell and Jude Perera.
The final segment was a networking session during which time brand representatives and the collaborators were given the time to network and make introductions with the view of collaborating in the future on the platform’s many avenues for partnerships.
Sponsors
Talking about the events’ main sponsor, FriMi, Dilshan said that they were delighted to hop on board as the Title Partner for the youthful, energizing and novel venture – the FriMi InstagramCollaborator Forum 2018, organized by Cyniq.Social.
A Spokesperson for the title partner expressing their enthusiasm to join the Forum mentioned, “We at FriMi enjoy a room full of energy and crowd full of inspiration and so the Instagram Collaborator Forum 2018 was indeed a great place to be! It was a wonderful opportunity for us to share our brand with like-minded people who thought different and did different; and also with Instagram taking up significant space among Millennials, we found this to be a fantastic platform to meet, greet, and share ideas and most importantly – network.”
FriMi is Sri Lanka’s First Ever 3 in 1 mobile app that gives you a Digital Bank, Mobile Wallet and Payment System at your fingertips! It is a unique lifestyle brand that offers total financial freedom to earn, spend, shop and save, while enjoying great deals with absolute convenience on an app that’s super simple and straightforward.
The event’s success rested squarely on the interest generated from partner brands, which was led by FriMi coming onboard as the event’s Title Partner. Among other well known partnerships, the FriMi Instagram Collaborator Forum also secured partnerships from Zesta, the Galle Face Hotel, Lake House, YES FM, Hello Print, Isle of Gelato, Bongo SL, IVolunteer International and Classic Travel among a host of others.
Future Projects
The Instagram Collaborator Forum was planned and organized in partnership with Events by Vibe and is indicative of the growth of social media related events and initiatives in Sri Lanka. It was an invitations only event and was intended to be a starting point for a comprehensive lineup of events scheduled for the year. Highlights from the event can now be viewed on the official Bongo SL YouTube channel in the FriMi Instagram Collaborator Forum 2018 playlist.