2013 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

In 2002, Mubadala, the investment and development company of the Government of Abu Dhabi, was established to facilitate the diversification of the Abu Dhabi economy and provide tangible social benefits to the Emirate. In 2012, Mubadala celebrated its 10th Anniversary and took the opportunity to reflect on a decade of achievement and look forward to the future. With a focus on creating a sense of pride and purpose amongst employees and celebrating the organization’s journey, the 10th Anniversary was a landmark campaign for Mubadala. The senior leadership supported the initiative across the entire organization, at a Group, business unit and asset level. Mubadala and its partners developed a fully integrated communications campaign, comprising media relations, branding, employee and stakeholder engagement programs to ensure consistency of message across the celebration. With a strong focus on employees, the 10th Anniversary encouraged participation through competitions, giveaways and a formal internal celebration, as well as a family day. Bespoke content was created to effectively capture the narrative of Mubadala’s journey, including a book and documentary. The focus throughout all content was the real stories of people that had played a role in Mubadala’s journey. The program was a resounding success with high levels of engagement across the organization. Outside the company, key opinion leaders within the Abu Dhabi community, many of whom had business or family connections to Mubadala, provided extremely positive feedback. Greater awareness of the diverse work Mubadala undertakes was also established.

The Brief

The primary objective of the campaign was to recognize the contributions of those that had been part of Mubadala’s journey – employees, partners and Abu Dhabi business leaders. Secondly, the campaign sought to build a broader understanding amongst those key stakeholders about the role Mubadala has played in supporting Abu Dhabi’s economic diversification through the creation of key industry platforms – from metals to aerospace, renewables to semiconductors. Finally, the campaign was designed to recognize Mubadala’s role in providing real social benefits for the Abu Dhabi community, from youth engagement to creation of healthcare and education facilities, and the impact this has on the wider evolution of the Emirate.

Results

Feedback from within the organization and externally was extremely positive for Mubadala’s 10th Anniversary campaign, which achieved the objective of engaging employees and building awareness. Employee participation was high – over 1,000 employees witnessed the official celebration which was broadcast live to five key assets. More than 1,600 employees and their families attended the weekend family day. In addition, hundreds of employees submitted or voted in internal competitions, and commemorative gifts were provided to over 4,000 employees. The campaigned offered the opportunity to communicate 10th messaging with key stakeholders across Abu Dhabi and partners internationally including GE’s CEO, Jeff Immelt, who hosted an exclusive event for Mubadala, and more than 400 guests at Mubadala’s F1 hospitality. More broadly, the Abu Dhabi community was able to learn more about the role of Mubadala through key media coverage in The National, Al Ittihad and Sky News Arabia, and content throughout social media.

Execution

•Brand treatment – dedicated 10th Anniversary treatment applied to all branding touchpoints for celebrations including website, intranet, internal communications •Employee events – official celebration event held at HQ and telecast via satellite to five key assets. An employee fun day with entertainment, business unit themed displays, attractions and catering to thank the families of staff for their support •Employee participation initiatives – photography competitions, dedicated intranet space for user comments, social media embassies with live content updates, gifts provided to all employees •Dedicated content – documentary and commemorative book given to employees and shown at multiple events •Media relations – exclusive interview opportunities with key media for CEO Khaldoon Al Mubarak to celebrate the journey and recognize employees, partners and supporters •Stakeholder engagement – personalized copies of the commemorative book provided as gifts to stakeholders and influencers, support from key partners including GE, hospitality at Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The Situation

In October, 2012 Mubadala celebrated the 10th Anniversary of its operations. The organization wanted to leverage the milestone as a means of recognizing the contributions of people in Mubadala’s journey, and highlight the impact the organization has had on the wider development of Abu Dhabi. Mubadala tasked its communications team to develop a campaign that would recognize and engage with its 20,000 employees world-wide and raise awareness externally of the breadth of work undertaken by the organization. Given the relatively modest length of operations in global business terms, the campaign focused on this celebration as a moment in a longer journey.

The Strategy

The campaign will position employees at its core, in order to recognize their achievements and engage them in the forward looking direction of the company. Through bespoke and interesting content, primarily focused on stories of personal achievement, employees will be educated about the breadth and reach of the Mubadala organization beyond their team focus and daily roles. This is fundamental in and organization of the scale and diversity of Mubadala, particularly as teams are based in multiple locations internationally and many parts of the business are assets operating independently. The employees will then become the organization’s ambassadors, communicating the company’s 10th Anniversary story with a sense of pride in both personal and collective achievements and building broader awareness Mubadala amongst stakeholders, partners and the community as it continues on its mission to support the development of Abu Dhabi.