After decades of tension, Israel and the UAE finally normalized relations in 2020.
But while signing a peace accord is one thing, gaining the trust of Israeli visitors and investors after such prolonged tension was another. So the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) created something that spoke Israel’s language. Literally.
ADIO’s leadership redesigned their business cards completely in Hebrew, a first in the region, and then posted them on their official LinkedIn pages. This led to half a million views in just 48 hours, 1,500+ new contact requests from Israeli businesspeople, and an 180% increase in weekly new business leads.
Background
The historic signing of the Abraham Accords between Israel and the UAE in 2020 went a long way toward thawing the ice between the two nations. But just signing a peace accord wasn’t enough to gain the trust of Israeli visitors and investors after years of tension.
Our brief was to help the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) create something from scratch that would deeply connect with Israelis. We needed to not only welcome them to the UAE, but make them comfortable enough to visit and invest. And what better way to welcome a guest than to literally speak their language?
By simply redesigning these business cards in Hebrew, ADIO not only met its objectives, it far exceeded them, leading to 1,500 new contacts from the Israeli business community on LinkedIn and an 180% increase in weekly business leads. All without spending a single dollar on media.
Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)
We needed a profound yet simple and personal creative idea that demonstrated the UAE’s commitment to welcoming Israelis to their nation. We didn’t just want empty words. The best way to welcome any person to our nation, our home, is to make them feel comfortable to be there, to help them relax. The idea was to re-design the business cards of the Chairman of ADIO, His Excellency Mohammad Ali Al Sharafa and the Director General, His Excellency Dr. Tariq bin Hendi using the Hebrew language, a language that had been banned from the UAE for decades, to hand-out after meeting with Israelis to show how much they were willing to reach out to them and make them feel welcome.
Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)
Though the Israeli government had signed the peace accord with the UAE, our target audience was potential Israeli tourists and investors who were still skeptical given the years of tension. These men and women aged 21 and above (some with families and young kids) had lived all their lives at odds with Middle Eastern nations, so gaining their trust would be challenging. After years of conflict that had underscored regional wars and global affrays, the Israeli public and investors were uneasy about taking the first step towards visiting an Arab nation. We needed a profound yet simple gesture to prove that the UAE was committed to welcoming them to the nation and providing a great vacation and business environment.
Our Hebrew Business Card campaign resonated immediately with this core target audience, leading to a 180% increase in weekly new business leads and over half a million views in 48 hours.
Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)
Leading the welcoming party was the Chairman of ADIO, His Excellency Mohammad Ali Al Sharafa and the Director General, His Excellency Dr. Tariq bin Hendi who did the unthinkable, they redesigned their business cards in the Hebrew language, a language that had been banned for decades in the UAE, and they posted it to their personal LinkedIn pages. PR was used to amplify the posts and to help make the idea viral so that it was seen and shared by a global audience and more importantly, by the Israeli Public and Business people, to stimulate an emotional response from them and to help them open their hearts and minds to visiting the UAE.
List the results (30% of vote)
This small corporate gesture had a huge commercial and emotional impact. The ADIO leadership members who posted the Hebrew Business Cards online received thousands of congratulatory and supportive messages. They also received half a million views within 48 hours, over 1,500 new contact requests from the Israeli business community, and an increase in weekly new business leads of more than 180%. The campaign was so successful, LinkedIn mistakenly thought it could only be the work of automated bots, and temporarily banned their LinkedIn accounts. In other words, this single LinkedIn posts had more success on LinkedIn than even LinkedIn itself thought was possible.