2010 Winners & Shortlists

Results and Effectiveness

“Dubai as a vacation destination” witnessed a remarkable lift of 54% and a 23% lift in awareness of Emirates. (Source: Dynamic Logic AdIndex study) Time spent within the digital diaries averaged 90 seconds. (Double Click) In terms of getting people to share their own positive stories, consumers were posting their comments on sites such a Twitter and YouTube as far afield as China, demonstrating that compelling content can change perception.

Creative Execution

We took the existing content and together with the New York Times created an online journal called “Diaries of a Dubai traveler”. The diary shared pictures, videos, experiences and stories of people in Dubai. We also collated all the positive stories about Dubai from the archives of the NYT to make the diary even richer in content. On the leading US video site, Hulu.com, we ran a 2 min version of our documentaries in an ad format typically reserved for movie trailers where consumers are accustomed to seeing quality content. A takeover on the Yahoo! travel channel, Discovery channel website and the ‘Road To Dubai’ golf cup on ESPN Asia, also helped to position Dubai as a destination for leisure, exploration & sports. We also overhauled a dedicated Emirates Youtube channel where people could easily browse different videos, add their comments and share their own stories about Dubai.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

In 2009 the world’s press turned on Dubai. Journalists were falling over themselves to humiliate the Emirate, and as a result Emirates airline was suffering. Outside the UAE, all people were reading, seeing and hearing was that “Dubai is over”. The city built on sand had collapsed. They perceived Dubai as being faceless and lacking personality; a harrowing collection of empty skyscrapers and people living in their cars. To change this negative perception, we decided to give the people of Dubai a platform to share their stories, experiences and passion to the world. Therefore we created mini travel documentaries about the real people of Dubai and ran it across all the key International TV stations. However, travelers trust other travelers and not TV campaigns therefore we needed to take this content beyond TV to give our audience the chance to interact and share their own stories.