2016 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

Most people see airports as dead time and time spent there is cutting into their holiday, a business trip or delaying a long trip time. However, Dubai Airport has been designed to be more than just an airport. Originally we were asked to create five 30” ads to showcase the brand and introduce the quality offering in the areas of dining, shopping, relaxing, refreshing and enjoying, and also to entice our audience to find out more either online or in person. We realised once we started working on the brief that everyone has fond memories of airports as children. We remembered they are exciting places, filled with possibilities, adventure and of course aeroplanes! You could go anywhere and do anything from an airport. So we captured this child like spirit while showing off all the airport has to offer by calling on a very special passenger, Pedro, a penguin who when he got off the plane in Dubai, never wanted to leave the airport buildings. It might have had something to do with the sushi restaurants... We created an initial two minute brand film and three follow-up product-specific films to focus specifically on the shopping, dining and relaxing opportunities available. We also created bespoke edits for the airport screens, Instagram and Vine. Taking a real penguin to the desert has its challenges so we shot our footage in two stages. Firstly we shot footage in the airport of all the amenities and people enjoying them. And then secondly in a Manchester studio, we captured our penguin on green screen, with the help of many fishy treats. We weaved the two elements together with the addition of some stock footage to complete the story and our edits.

As the world’s biggest airport, 70 million travellers pass through the terminals every year. These passengers come from all over the globe and from all backgrounds. This means they have any number of different priorities and tastes and 80% of them have no idea of what is on offer to them. Not only did Pedro fall in love with the airport and everything that it has to offer but thanks to his story many of our passengers did too. Passenger dwell time rose by 14%, hotel bookings have doubled and retail revenue has continued to rise. And the love didn’t just stay in the airport. Pedro’s story was viewed over 1 million times online across YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Vine. And the little penguin continues to share his adventures with his friends and fans all around the world on Facebook and Twitter.