Images of saffron-robed monks protesting on the streets on Yangon have broadcast on TV networks all over the world, many in real time, via video cameras and mobile phones. Personal accounts of the subsequent clampdown by the Burmese army have been fed to newscasters by email, text messages and blogs. Notices have been posted on Facebook and Burma’s tumultuous recent history updated on Wikipedia.
Now, however, ‘normalcy’ (a word used by foreign minister Nyan Win) has returned to Myanmar. The country’s two internet service providers have been closed down, overseas mobile connections tampered with, emails blocked and landlines and faxes severed. Burma has, once again, plunged into darkness.
A regime change now seems depressingly unlikely. But should the situation improve, it wouldn’t take long for Burma to pick up where it left off in the ’90s, says Michael Lim, MD of local shop Today Advertising.
“Myanmar’s media market is now probably worth less than US$15 million, and domestic advertisers are cutting back in response to the political situation,” he says. “But this country has enormous potential.”
Sandwiched between India and China, Myanmar couldn’t be more fortunately located. Its infrastructure is creaking, but solid. And it has vast resources, including oil, natural gas and a young, highly literate population of 49 million.
Myanmar’s media market has an increasingly sophisticated private sector in which 80 weekly journals and monthlies publish more informative fare than the state-run Government mouthpieces. “The moment the situation clears, we’ll move in,” says Alan Couldrey, regional director of Ogilvy Indochina. “Yes, media is tightly controlled. But the same is true in Vietnam, and look at it now.”
Indeed, Burma could become the next Vietnam, reckons Peter Skalberg, Southeast Asia director of BatesAsia (one of the first agencies to enter Burma in 1993). “Burma is where Vietnam was 10 years ago,” he says. “It would most likely open up in a similar fashion: FMCGs first, then service brands. We still have a business name (there) which we could reactivate should things change.”
Matthew Godffrey, who used to run Bates regionally, had the thankless task of closing Bates Myanmar in 2003, following public criticism of new owner WPP for supporting the junta by doing business in the country. The Publicis Asia-Pacific CEO says: “The industry would have to start from scratch. Research companies would need to take the lie of the land, and getting licences for agencies would take time.
“But a free Burma could mean a refocus on Indochina as a sub-region of huge potential. It’s an area of 150 million people which we started to get excited about 10 years ago. Burma would be the final piece in an interesting puzzle.”
