2017 Winners & Shortlists

WELCOME TO DUBAI

BrandEMIRATES INTEGRATED TELECOMMUNICATION COMPANY-DU
Product/ServiceCONSUMER
EntrantSTARCOM Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
CategoryUse of Ambient Media: Small Scale
Idea Creation STARCOM Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Media Placement STARCOM Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

The Campaign

As the lead telco in market, Etisalat had the better outlet positioning in airport and significantly more retail outlets in the country than du. Our challenge was to take this disadvantage, and turn it into an advantage by capturing the market even before they landed at DXB. We delivered our battle for share of SIM to the skies.

Creative Execution

This campaign was part of a holistic journey with the key driving force being the partnerships with major airlines. The key airlines that we partnered with for flyer distribution were Jet Airways and Virgin Atlantic which targeted the tourists coming from the India Sub Continent and Great Britain. The flyers were then distributed to all on board during key travel periods that were identified based on UAE stats. Additionally, we also partnered with flydubai, a leading LCC in the region to brand boarding passes from key origin points in their network. Hence helping the brand be top of mind at all times of their journey and pushing them to convert upon landing. Adding to the above, that we asked the same Airliners to make an announcement on the purchase of these SIM cars prior to landing.

We witnessed a 60% uplift in overall Airport Tourist SIM sales compared to 2015 A total of 405K flyers were distributed within jet Airways and Virgin Atlantic for their flights coming into Dubai An average of 2M boarding passes were distributed via flydubai

The du telecom Welcome to Dubai campaign demonstrates an inspiring and innovative execution in “the use of ambient media – small scale” category. The idea was to effectively target incoming tourist in the region. By partnering with the region’s leading airlines and designing a first of kind execution in the region, we branded flydubai boarding passes along with distributing flyers via Virgin Airways and Jet airways inbound routes. This allowed du to be top of mind before entering the destination country. Thereby translating into a positive uplift in Tourist SIM sales in the UAE.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

One of the major Pre-decisions tourists take into account when landing at any destination is purchasing a SIM card. The strategy was quite straight forward as we needed to identify the key airlines that drove higher volumes of tourist traffic to the UAE. After the key airlines were identified we would then negotiate to have flyers distributed on board the flights which would remind them if they needed a tourist SIM they could purchase it at the du store within the airport.

Credits

Name Company Role
Omar Kishk Leo Burnett Communication Manager
Syed Akhter Leo Burnett Junior Communication Executive