Pandals are the perfect advertising platforms for the country's biggest companies, including Myanmar Brewery Ltd. Pic: Lwin Maung Maung

MYANMAR’S Thingyan Water Festival begins on April 13 and is looming large. Just as many people are preparing for the festival, so are most large businesses – which often sponsor pandals from which people throw water.

Thingyan pandals have become increasingly popular for the last 20 years.
Pandals are the perfect platform for young people to model trendy new fashions and hairstyles. Pandals are also the perfect advertising opportunity for many of Myanmar’s biggest companies who are keen to cash in on the huge numbers of people who come out to play. Businesses and companies use Thingyan as a battlefield to advertise their brand names.

U Htay Myint, Premier Coffee’s marketing manager, explained to The Myanmar Times: “Some pandals are visited by an average of more than 20,000 people on each day of Thingyan, depending upon its location. So we need to grab that opportunity to increase brand awareness of our products. We spent between K5 million to K10 million for our pandal and another K10 million for the Emperor Music Band we co-sponsored in last year’s festival,” he said.

“Companies that sponsor water-throwing pandals are not focussing on the profit but expect to build brand awareness for their products. If they sponsor a pandal they get the right to advertise their products on that pandal. So their profits come in the form of raising the profile of their company,” said U Htay Myint.

Sedona Hotel in Yangon also has plans to build a pandal this year – spending at least K10 million on the project said Daw Thinza Latt, sales promotion manager.

Pyae Sone Win Naing Co – the local representative company of Panasonic air-conditioning servicing – will sponsor a portion of the Sedona’s expenses, with the rest expected to come from ticket sales.

A ticket at the pandal will cost US$20 per day, Daw Thinza Latt said.

“We are not only focusing on recovering all the expenses; instead we’re trying to create an enjoyable environment for our clients. We will serve coffee and refreshments in the morning, lunch and evening coffee and snacks,” she said.

While many pandals are built by independent contractors, Sedona’s own team will build their platform.

Many companies sub-contract the detailed advertising and decorative work to professional organisers. These businesses undertake all building, plumbing, security and electrical requirements, leaving the company that pays for the work to come along and enjoy the party.

One such company is the 99 group, which has three years experience in pandal organising. A representative estimated that the cost to build a large,100-foot-long pandal would cost more than K30 million this year.

He said a medium-sized, 60-foot pandals would probably cost nearly K20 million and use nearly K4 million worth of timber. Pandal makers usually use resinous woods and wood-oil timbers.It takes between five and seven days to build a pandal, he said.

Before the pandal is set up, the builders must secure permission from the Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC). Application forms – along with a deposit of K200,000 – must be submitted with the pandal’s design. No recycled timber is allowed to be used in the construction.

After five days of merrymaking, the timber can be resold, which helps builders recover half of the original cost.

Ko Myint Ni Maung, an organiser of 99 group, said: “We build a pandal every year and we spend more than K10 million every time. We usually break even on our expenses and make roughly 10 percent profit after the five days of the festival.

Most pandals are located on Inya Road because of the availability of water. There were more than 300 pandals spread out across Yangon last year, including 255 of the larger-sized platforms.