The promise of the final frontier came to a still when Myanmar’s GDP for this year was revised down from 7.3% to a 6.5%.
Many reasons were cited, from the fall in oil prices to the uncertainties in drafting legislation for ease of conducting business to loose tax systems and poor enforcements but most detrimental is that there has been no increase in Foreign Direct Investments.
According to an Ad Age report in March 2017, “Foreign investors are taking a wait and see approach despite pledges and promises in 2013 to capitalize Myanmar’s growing and young population.”
“The promise of the final frontier is in fact a mass market of over 50 million people who will have access to products and services they once dreamt of owning, made available via a network of mass logistical and retail distribution network, only to find that there is lack of a reliable medium of mass communication. Myanmar may have impressive digital penetration numbers, but digital alone cannot build a brand. TV, at the very least that can provide rapid mass awareness, resulting in demand creation and consumption,” observers Raymond Khor, Chief Transformation Officer of Myanmar Media United’s Global Business Division (MMU GBD), license owner of 5 Myawaddy TV Channels, with MWD Documentary being its most prominent brand.
Raymond shares that within the first few weeks of studying Myanmar’s demographics, economic and broadcasting landscape (via the 2014 Union Census), he noticed a glaring gross error in the broadcasting industry TV Audience Ratings report.
“A global research agency began operations in Myanmar in 2014 and has been undertaking the task of generating it for the industry. To his surprise, he found that TV Audience data is collected via an age old “diary system” which is manually logged by the sample audiences. When asked why the People-Meter, a device available since the 80’s to reliably collect TV Audiences data was not used, reasons given included power cuts and inconsistent broadband signals.
“This is a very dangerous situation for Myanmar. And at this juncture of our economic growth,” adds U Kyaw San, Chairman and MD of parent company Myanmar Media United (MMU).
Being in the business since 1995, he referred to a TV Station Network Map and pointed out that the total population of TV viewers is extremely small at 6.8 million people and disproportionately skewed towards an Exclusive Urban Only (Yangon & Mandalay combined makes up more than 80% of the 6.8 million) TV Audience.
He adds, “TV Audience Ratings which are inaccurate in sample definition will misguide broadcasters and producers to develop content for the Urban Exclusive only, and in the long run, alienate the rural community. There are many reports that neighbouring countries like Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia see positive GDP contribution from rural communities with TV Advertising.”
The 2014 Union’s census report indicates that there are now approximately close to 24 million TV viewer across urban and rural Myanmar.
BEST OF GLOBAL DIGITAL MARKETING Conference 2017
For the seventh year running, we are bringing back the famous Best of Global Digital Marketing Conference to KL with a special focus on Content Marketing this year. Unique case-study based learning, as our team monitors over 200 digital marketing award shows across the globe and interviews the winners. Based on this extensive work, we produce in-depth case studies.
Speakers with digital domain expertise:
• Hando Sinisalu, CEO of Best Marketing International
• Kyoko Yonezawa, Creative Technologist and member of Dentsu Lab Tokyo
• Scott Gray, Experience Director, Mirum South Africa
Global Case Studies include:
BANKING & INSURANCE: Compare The Market, Advocards, Allianz, Ally Bank, Barclays….
TECHNOLOGY & STARTUPS: Hubspot, Pipedrive, MoveHub….
AUTOMOTIVE: Volkswagen, Volvo, Nissan, etc FMCG: Ariel, Unilever, Snickers…
RETAIL: McDonald’s, Harvey Nichols, Zalando….
TRAVEL & TOURISM: Qatar Airways, Transavia, Finland Tourism, Sweden Tourism, KLM…
Each best practice case study is presented based on…
Business problem: What is the market situation? Who are the competitors? What is the target audience? What are the main business/marketing challenges? What are the goals?
Solutions: What are the consumer insights? What was the creative strategy? What was the media strategy? What were the results of the campaign?
Lessons: What other marketers from other countries/other business sectors could learn from this case study? What are the main mistakes to avoid?
The Best of Global Digital Marketing Conference has won popularity in more than 30 cities around the world from Singapore, Moscow, Jakarta, Istanbul to Amsterdam, Johannesburg, Prague, Shanghai, Seoul, etc.
Date: 14 August, 2017 (Thursday)
Venue: Sime Darby Convention Centre, Kuala Lumpur.
Time: 8.30am – 5.00pm
Book your seats early! Call Ruby on 03-77262588 or [email protected]
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Discover what’s possible from those who made it possible. Plus a preview of The HAM Agency Rankings REPORT 2024.
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