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Bates CHI & Partners wins brief to launch Qatari telco Ooredoo in Myanmar

Ooredoo, "

Ooredoo: “Fast, affordable, easy”, pic: corporate website

Qatari telco Ooredoo, one of two international telco firms to be granted licences to operate in Myanmar, has awarded its launch advertising account to Bates CHI & Partners, Mumbrella can reveal.

Ooredoo officially launched its network yesterday and an advertising campaign created by the WPP agency is to follow in the coming weeks.

Bates, which was one of the first foreign agencies to enter Myanmar until a prohibitive political situation prompted WPP to leave the market, will handle the business from Ho Chi Min City, its IndoChina headquarters. The agency has no plans yet to re-enter the market and set up a permanent base.

Bates won the business after a six-way pitch.

Ooredoo is offering “fast, affordable and easy” mobile internet access, and launched a “kick-off promotion” giving Burmese who buy a SIM card for 1,500 Kyat (US$1.50) free access to high-definition voice calls and fast internet. That offered ended last week.

On the brand’s website, a press statement claims that Ooredoo is “the first to bring… the most advanced 3G technology in the world to Myanmar.”

The company is competing for Myanmar’s burgeoning demand in mobile services with Norwegian firm Telenor, which is to launch its own service in the coming weeks.

Ooredoo’s chief strategy officer for the Myanmar operation, Nick Swierzy, told Mobile World Live recently: “We think we can get Myanmar using advanced services more quickly than other markets.”

The company has released a video to explain the roll-out process for its services.

In the months prior to the launch, it was suggested that Ooredoo brand may be at a disadvantage because the company is headquartered in Qatar, a predominantly Muslim country, at a time of ongoing ethnic tension in Myanmar.

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