Huawei: Winning the Smartphone Conversation in Myanmar

Myanmar's smartphone market is one of the most crowded in the region, with global and Chinese brands launching devices in rapid succession and competing for the same limited media attention. Product specifications alone no longer earned coverage.

Huawei Device appointed Ruder Finn Era, then ERA Communications, as its PR agency for the year from March 2018. The task was to win that competitive space: to make each launch feel like news, sustain visibility between launches and build the premium credentials of Huawei's flagship range.

The team built a year-long PR and communications strategy mapped to Huawei's product launch calendar, with the deliberate choice to go beyond feature lists and standard KOL activity. Every launch needed its own creative idea that gave media and consumers a reason to care.

For camera-led devices, photographers ran workshops with consumers, turning the product story into a skills story. Lifestyle media content partnerships placed the phones in everyday contexts. For the premium range, Myanmar's leading business figures were engaged as faces of ambition and success.

An exclusive media trip to Huawei's headquarters in China gave Myanmar journalists first-hand access to the company's scale and innovation, deepening relationships that paid off across the year.