MUMBAI: Last week Lowe and Partners presented at TED's global conference, TEDGlobal in Rio Di Janeiro, sharing its work for the Colombian Ministry of Defence to promote voluntary demobilization of the FARC Guerrilla faction and their inclusion back into society.
 
Jose Miguel Sokoloff, President of the Lowe and Partners Global Creative Council presented the work on behalf of Lowe and Partners, and the team at Lowe SSP3 in Colombia. His speech focused on the work that he and his agency do in Colombia to assist in the demobilization of the FARC Guerrilla terrorist faction (a conflict of over 60 years) and their return to Colombian society. He shared his thoughts on how creativity and the truly innovative way in which Lowe SSP3 has communicated directly with the FARC members, plus the success rate in actual demobilizations, has been critical to success.
 
“In my lifetime I have not lived one day of peace in my country,” says Sokoloff. “Home of the world’s oldest standing guerillas, Colombia has seen 5.7 million of its inhabitants displaced and 220,000 of its people killed from its wearying guerrilla war.”
 
Sokoloff is proud to be part of the evolving peace process in his homeland. He passionately believes in not standing idly by, when he can participate and use creative thinking, innovation with interactive campaign strategy and beautiful story-telling to one day, bring an end to a war he has lived all his life.
 
Sokoloff commented: "I was honoured and humbled to speak at TEDGlobal. We believe in the power of human emotions, and we have learnt a lot from them. I want to share our experiences and our learnings from our eight year, ongoing journey with our Client, the Colombian Ministry of Defence, in trying to help shape the outcome of the internal conflict here in Colombia. There should be lessons there to help resolve other conflicts around the globe."
 
His work towards bringing about a new, peaceful Colombia is at the heart of his multi award winning FARC Guerrilla demobilization campaigns and has seen him awarded around the world. The campaign has been recipient of the only D&AD Black Pencil awarded to a Latin American agency and a Titanium Cannes Lion – again a Latin American first. Additionally the campaign has been awarded a prestigious UK IPA Effectiveness Grand Prix, a Jay Chiat Grand Prix for Strategic Excellence and an El Ojo Grand Prix.