'This is our Dubai, whats yours?' Ad Campaign launched to target UK and Ireland
15/MAY/2009
'This is our Dubai, whats yours?' Ad Campaign launched to target UK and Ireland
Braving the global recession, Dubai has launched a massive advertising and marketing campaign in the UK and Ireland, revealed officials of the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM)Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM).
The intention is to increase tourism traffic to Dubai during the Dubai Summer Surprises period from June 11 to August 14. Tourism is one of Dubai's most important sectors. It contributes directly towards 19 per cent of the emirate's gross domestic product.
However, industry experts believe that combined with the retail activity that Dubai encourages by means of various festivals and special promotions, this contributing figure could be as high as 30 per cent.
"We are constantly devising special advertising campaigns specific to the region and with a global approach. This campaign in the UK and Ireland is specific to that region, while we are working on an all-new global campaign to be launched very soon," said Eyad Abdul Rehman, a senior official at DTCM.
DTCM is very busy in organising everything and will be announcing the new global campaign sometime next week," said Rehman. He added that the department is finalising the finer details of the campaign and already in discussions with other involved parties including Emirates airline.
Dubai has been consistently increasing its dependence on retail and developing this sector with multi-million dollar investments in infrastructure and hotels in every category. Dubai's intention is to attract 10 million visitors by 2010 and increase the number to 15 million by 2015, which will be twice as many as there were in 2007.
Officials did not share the cost of the campaign, but considering it will be covering all the media platforms including print, electronic and outdoors, industry experts define it as a "multi-million dollar campaign".
Dubai has also been affected by the global economic recession, but figures according to the Dubai Tourism Board convey that the emirate is being resilient to the global gloom.
The first quarter of 2009 actually saw an increase of five per cent in tourism flow when compared to the same period last year. Hotels have recorded decline in occupancy and are offering discounts on room rates, but Khalid bin Sulayem, Director of the Dubai Tourism Board, stated during the recently concluded Arabian Travel Market that "the tourism industry is healthy and strong".
The UK remained the top source market for Dubai tourism industry in the first quarter of the year, followed by Iran, India, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Russia, Pakistan, France and Kuwait - same as the first quarter of 2008.
The campaign specifically aimed at the UK and Ireland markets has been created by London-based agencies Initiative and IM London (formerly Independent Marketing). The campaign, which is to be predominantly in print and digital media, sees an increase of 40 per cent on last year's advertising spend and runs alongside the existing public relations campaign that is managed by The Communication Group plc, reported UK media.
The campaign makes an emotional approach with the slogan "This is our Dubai, what's yours?" and the identification of distinct target market segments including couples, active men, pampered women and premium families. The campaign is to last 12 months.
"This is a regional campaign for the UK and Ireland, but in addition to our regional efforts, we also devise unified global campaigns and in the weeks to come we will be disclosing details of our new international campaign," said Rehman of DTCM.
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