2010 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

The Al Gharbia Watersports Festival was staged in Mirfa, Al Gharbia in May 2009. The festival included a range of water sports and beach competitions including a national photography competition. The festival was part of a series of festivals to promote Al Gharbia, the Western Region of Abu Dhabi, both locally and internationally. A short lead up period meant that Zed had to work rapidly harness all available market resources in order to generate maximum interest, in a minimum time frame. Zed’s objectives were: To publicise the Festival to local and expatriate audiences To encourage competition between local and international sportspeople and especially the youth of Al Gharbia To drum up interest in the Al Gharbia region

Success of the Campaign

The first Al Gharbia Watersports Festival 2009 was a resounding success. After nine days of energy and action and an astounding 50,000 visitors, the WRDC had more than achieved its objectives. These included the encouragement of social, cultural and sporting activities among residents of Al Gharbia; the support of local athletes, especially the younger generation of the region; and a drive to raise awareness of the potential of Al Gharbia. The Al Gharbia Watersports’ Festival represented a carefully deployed marketing mix in order to achieve the maximum effect in the minimum time frame. The festival attracted a lot of public and media attention - thousands of visitors, bluetooth and website hits and the amount of press generated are proof of the event's success - and has become a media role-model for future Al Gharbia festivals.

Describe how the campaign/entry was launched and executed across each channel in the order of implementation.

One of the biggest challenges was reaching a vast Al Gharbia region at minimum expense. So a broad range of media was used to raise awareness of the festival such as English and Arabic newspaper and online ads, radio commercials, billboards, press releases and a new Al Gharbia festivals website. We also mobilised a fleet of branded vehicles with trailers carrying poster advertising. These vehicles toured the region around Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and other parts of the Emirate and raised awareness of the event by disseminating over 60,000 flyers around shopping centres and schools. Additionally, the vehicles were equipped with bluetooth transmitters that sent over 40,000 messages. At the venue, flags flanked the main road from Abu Dhabi to Mirfa, while advertising and flags were used to mark the beach. Promotional T-shirts, hats and branded water bottles were distributed to the competitors and the visitors.