2022 Winners & Shortlists

Why is this work relevant for Media?

COVID-19 dampened ability to travel and traveler confidence. Meanwhile, Expo’s postponement and media silence had eroded global brand awareness and interest. This left a huge challenge for Expo 2020 to drive excitement around the event and then evolve this excitement into interest/consideration to visit. By using media creatively our campaign achieved multiple goals. It moved people to a more positive frame of mind, encouraging travel. It pivoted Expo 2020 away from a business-only perception to an entertainment focus. Not only were awareness & consideration increased by 14% in international markets, but our leads target was surpassed by 111%.

Background

Expo 2020 was one of the most exciting wins for the UAE, promising worldwide awareness of Dubai, economic growth and a platform for urban transformation shaping the city’s future. At the start of the 2020 however, the events and business travel sectors were adversely effected by global efforts to contain the Covid-19 pandemic. In Dubai, Expo 2020 was delayed by a year, inbound travel declined and communities were forced to live through lockdowns. With the postponement of Dubai Expo 2020, the 18-month consequential media silence saw the erosion of awareness and interest worldwide. As a result, once new dates had been confirmed, we needed to shift the perception that Expo 2020 was only a business event and renew its brand image as a tourism and entertainment destination.

Describe the creative idea / insights (30% of vote)

Our objectives were three-fold. We needed to move the needle in terms of awareness and consideration and drive travel to Dubai for Expo2020 by showcasing what the mega-event had to offer our target audiences. This also meant creating a shift in perception, from Expo2020 being business-focused to entertainment-focused. Then, we needed to drive users to sign-up for additional information, creating leads that could be converted into tickets once those went on sale in July 2021. The idea was to re-ignite excitement in the rescheduled Expo 2020 through a media strategy, tailored by market while boosting family confidence in travel. This would involve partnering with trusted journalistic brands such as Sky News, BBC World and CNN, plus mass data mapping - connecting each country’s market state, Ipsos health and brand trackers with our unique omni-tools (investment tracker, audience planner and effective media budgets).

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Prior to the pandemic, our target audiences were holiday makers, business travelers, city explorers, frequent flyers, long-stay travelers and adventure travelers. Travel restrictions and new health and safety requirements in 2021 meant that we renewed our focus on three core audience demographics - families / leisure, youth / local and business travelers. For local and regional markets where awareness and consideration for the event remained high, the focus for the strategy was on getting people to take the final steps to visiting Expo 2020. Digital channels such as social and affiliates were earmarked due to their targeting capabilities, while TV and radio partnerships were activated with MBC and ARN. For international markets, where awareness and consideration had dropped-off, we took a different approach. The activation strategy was digitally-focused, and budget was assigned to driving consideration rather than conversion. These markets first needed to understand the Expo2020 entertainment offering.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

Digital allowed us to us to drill down and target our audience segments while remaining highly cost-effective. Digital video was used heavily to tell the story of Expo2020, and aid understanding by bringing to life the Expo2020 experience. We then partnered with journalistic brands that had trusted travel coverage (Sky News, BBC World and CNN). Activity in all markets started with hero creative assets to drive general awareness, and then moved to retargeting users with supporting content to hit their passion points. Finally, our diverse audiences were driven to register/sign up, demonstrating their interest in visiting Expo 2020. Our consistent flow of data helped us to pivot our strategy from country to country as lockdown and travel restrictions changed. The resulting data-led dashboard gave us the ability to target leisure audiences at a granular level and serve them with personalized messages to get the desired results.

List the results (30% of vote)

• Awareness in international markets increased by 14% from April to June 2021 • UAE-aided awareness remained steady at 95% • Intent to visit Expo 2020 increased by 14% • 111% more leads than planned