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Bates re-establishes presence in Myanmar after a decade to run Ooredoo business

Milla Chaplin

Milla Chaplin

Bates CHI & Partners has made an addition to its team on the ground in Myanmar to service Ooredoo, one of the two international telcos battling for market leadership in the country that hired the ad agency a year ago.

Though Bates has not officially set up an office in Yangon, the agency has established a small team in the commercial capital working in partnership with Ogilvy, its WPP sister company, and market research firm TNS.

Joining that team is Milla Chaplin as strategic account director. She moves from London where she worked for media agency Mindshare on clients including HSBC and BP.

Bates won Ooredoo Myanmar – one of Asia’s most exciting accounts – in August last year, and the business has been led out the network’s Indochina hub in Ho Chi Minh City.

Tue Nguyen, MD of Bates CHI&Partners Indochina, said that Chaplin’s appointment is part of the agency’s plan to accelerate growth in Myanmar.

“Milla has exhibited the ability to connect people and ideas to drive strategy and execution and she will be instrumental in taking our successful partnership with Ooredoo to the next level,” he said in a press release.

Bates was one of the first international agencies to enter Myanmar in the 1980s to service key client British American Tobacco. But the agency exited along with most Western firms when the political situation deteriorated and sanctions were imposed on the country.

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