2014 Winners & Shortlists

Results and Effectiveness

A global audience of 794,000 came together from 215 countries, an increase from 180,000 the previous year, and watched the live stream of the iconic Downtown Dubai, Burj Khalifa fireworks on YouTube. That was over 17 years worth of content consumed in ONE night on the Downtown Dubai channel! An additional 21,687 subscribed to Emaar’s Downtown Dubai YouTube channel, with 12,000 people sharing the content. The total combined views of content for this campaign was over 8,450,000! The live streaming of Burj Khalifa to this global audience allowed Emaar to reinforce Dubai’s positioning as the world’s leading tourism destination.

Creative Execution

Social media was the key driving factor behind this campaign. We opted to enhance the user journey by producing content in both Arabic and English for the teaser campaign, using footage of the iconic Burj Khalifa to draw an emotive response from viewers and increase virality. #BeThere worked as both an invitation to physically attend the event in Downtown Dubai or ‘virtually’ through the live stream on YouTube and was incorporated within all communications. Multiple digital platforms were utilised from interactive Google Network Light Boxes, mobile, PPC, in-stream YouTube to Facebook sponsored and market place adverts. These all lead up to an interactive YouTube masthead within the GCC and a customized YouTube gadget which, once expanded, allowed viewers to watch the teaser videos and behind-the-scenes content, then switching to the multiple camera angles once the live stream commenced. We united more than 215 nationalities in one destination through our social media campaign focused on #BeThere.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

New Year’s Eve is a time when people come together to celebrate and eagerly anticipate the upcoming year. To commemorate this, Emaar puts on a grand fireworks show at the tallest building in the world Burj Khalifa, drawing thousands of spectators to Downtown Dubai. We were challenged with growing from a local viewership to an international audience of millions. Our objective was to reach and interact with this global online community, reiterating Dubai’s position as the world’s leading tourism destination. Social media being the ideal platform to help us create a deeper connection and to encourage the world to #BeThere, our campaign culminated with an interactive live streaming of the show with the option to choose viewing angles between: a produced feed, a unique viewpoint of Burj Khalifa and The Dubai Fountain or the opportunity to see Downtown Dubai from above in a helicopter.