2017 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

UAE is one of the world's fastest-growing destinations for business and leisure visitors. With the number of visitors constantly increasing, passenger traffic at the airports increased by 6% year on year since 2015. At present, Etisalat has better positioning of their airport stands and more retail outlets in the country. du saw an opportunity here but knew they had to find smarter ways to capture the market. They therefore created a unique tourist SIM plan for incoming visitors, offering an enticing and cost efficient local SIM alternative. Our job was to create a unique customer experience to compel tourists to choose du.

Creative Execution

Our journey began with the ‘tourist to be’ when they were in their home countries actively planning their visit to UAE. Performance based media was deployed in home markets building a subconscious link between their adventure and the coverage of du. We targeted people on travel sites, social media as well as leveraged partnerships with data service providers. Online communications were customized in 5 languages targeting nationalities contributing to majority of inbound traffic. We then geo-fenced airports via mobile advertising where they were also presented with branded boarding passes. Upon boarding, we leveraged partnerships with flydubai, Virgin and Jet Airways to pull off In-flight announcements, distribute flyers , be present in In-flight via magazines and screens. Upon landing, they were targeted with Airport screens within arrivals an via mobile geo-fencing Tourists were eventually targeted across top tourist attractions via In mall advertising, Metro branding and geo-fencing on Mobile.

The campaign delivered a 60% uplift in overall Airport Tourist SIM sales compared to 2015. Additionally, We saw a 39% uplift in overall Tourist SIM sales (including inner city stores) compared to the previous year . From an online perspective, our overall global campaign reach was at 94 M globally , thus generating 11K online book now registrations and 559K website visits

The du telecom 360 journey campaign demonstrates an inspiring and innovative execution in “Use of Integrated Media” category. The idea was to effectively target incoming tourists in the region. By designing a unique consumer journey, we identified the key touchpoints where we can target tourists across digital, search, social, outdoor elements, key partnerships and small scale ambient media. We planned a holistic campaign so we could stay top of mind at every point of the inbound tourist journey. Thereby translating into a positive uplift in Tourist SIM sales in the UAE.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Etisalat outlets are well positioned (first eyesight in airports) with more retail outlets in the country. A consumer could easily reach for first instead of best. du therefore had to be smarter, agile and relevant in their communication experiences. We designed a unique journey by identifying key touchpoints where we can target tourists. Starting from the booking stage, home airport, In-flight, destination airport and consequently the city , we targeted travelers across their tourist journey. We had relevant communications catering to all platforms. Online ads were customized in 5 languages by identifying nationalities of bulk traffic coming in from the top origin points. Hence, personalizing the ads in real time and making sure we were contextually relevant. Keeping in mind that we had limited budgets, we planned the campaign against peak travel periods of the year. Therefore splitting the campaign into 3 crucial bursts coinciding with peak inbound travel periods.