2016 Winners & Shortlists

Brief Explanation

Maximise footfall during UAE National Day. Create awareness of the mall’s integral part played in realising the ambitions of the UAE. Spark a sense of real community inside the mall. Initiate a social media movement. Dubai Mall is the world’s mall. Everyone goes there. Mall of the Emirates is a more intimate experience. It’s where the people of the UAE go – both nationals and expats. The insight that we selected from the research we had undertaken was that the people of the UAE have made the country what it is today. And even though expats make up 70% of the country’s population, 92% of all residents – including nationals – believe that they reflect the ambitions of the UAE. This insight was complemented by the execution. A flag has never been printed from the words of a people, before. The especially-made media piece gave even more incentive to people to participate, because what they had to say literally helped to create the flag.

Results and Effectiveness

Over the course of ten days, one flag was created with the voices of more than 100,000 people. Brand affinity rose by 11%.

Creative Execution

The UAE flag is a symbol of the Union of the nation. The idea had to be about the people and the nation. So our process began with words of encouragement and love, spoken by people in the mall. The machine used to record the words also initiated a printer, which printed the spoken words onto a large poster in the colours of the flag – red, green, white and black. The result was a UAE flag, filled with loving words by the people of the UAE. The UAE flag has never been customised or manipulated in such a way. Once clearance was given by the relevant authorities, we created something that has never been used as a piece of communication in this way.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Mall of the Emirates is one of the UAE’s oldest and most established malls. it sells itself as more than just a shopping destination. It provides experiences. As part of this promise, activations like this one act as an engaging platform for its customers to experience more than just going to shops. Voice of the Nation is a UAE National Day initiative, and therefore very close to the heart of the public as a whole. The mall has one of the UAE largest footfalls and creating a user-generated piece of communication is a measure of the mall’s reason of being.