2022 Winners & Shortlists

Cultural / Context information for the jury

For 25 years, Global Village Dubai, has become a favourite family destination during the cooler winter months. With almost 100% brand awareness, the yearly challenge is to bring in millions of guests as soon as the new season starts in October. This year, residents and tourists were left speechless as a massive, yellow airship navigated through their neighbourhoods in October and November 2021 – a never-seen-before sight in Dubai. Q4 2021 was particularly challenging with many major new attractions opening in Dubai and a lot of competition in the market. The objective was to break through the clutter, create noise in a short time and stay top-of-mind for the first month, all with a not-so-big budget. The airship achieved that by sailing through tourist hotspots, and busy residential and commercial areas at peak hours every day. The resulting buzz contributed to an 80% increase in opening-month footfall, versus Season 25.

Write a short summary of what happens in the digital or ambient execution or campaign.

We wanted to communicate two simple messages to as many residents and tourists as possible – the season opening date and introduce the Park’s brand new characters. A single location on-ground execution would have limited reach, and we wanted to make sure our messages reached every single person in Dubai. With the largest airship in the world – 48.6 meters long, roaming across Dubai every day from October 19 to November 31 2021. The bright yellow colour made the airship an instantly recognisable icon as it travelled from JBR over the Marina, Downtown, Business Bay, Media City, JVC, The Palm, JLT, and more. It flew during rush hours over office hubs throughout the week and over bustling weekend hotspots. After opening the airship served to keep us top-of-mind for the first month and was even used to introduce the new characters, who actually landed at Global Village in the airship.