Manoj Khimji, Managing Director, The VantageSince Dubai Tourism and, by extension, Emirates airline began running ad campaigns outside MENA, the region has taken a real fancy to the fame and exposure of global awareness. This trend was soon followed by Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Oman, and, most recently, Saudi Arabia, following the launch of its inbound tourism objectives in 2019.
In advertising circles around the world, MENA became known for heavy above-the-line investments, world first media takeovers and media asset buyouts in order to build the region. Ad campaigns from tourism boards, airlines, sovereign wealth funds, destination marketing organisations (DMOs) and giga-projects enveloped London, New York, Paris, Moscow, Tokyo, Mumbai, Delhi, Shanghai, Beijing and beyond.
Some of us ad folk from the region would go to World Media Group awards, INMA conferences and Cannes Lions festivals and be instantly associated with the global campaigns that had been seen in delegates’ home countries. In many ways, it was very nice to finally have that kind of recognition amongst international peers, but it was often expressed with insincerity and irony. As if the Middle East was trying to buy attention and disrupt a tired and traditionalised marketing path. Imagine that.
“Experiential is the next frontier in OOH that MENA brands need to explore.”
As consideration of the Middle East increased over the past decade with new audiences and demographics now open to living in, working with, and visiting the region, so has the complexity of our marketing communications. We see brands taking a much more full-funnel approach, backed with better data, intelligent insight and brand lift studies, which are now included as hygiene in almost every campaign. The creatives have got bolder, the messaging more direct, and the world has taken notice.
There is a common gap, however, when we speak to and visit these markets; they can’t quite believe, understand nor fathom what clients in the Middle East are actually building. Not just announcing and planning, but actually building and completing. Of course this hasn’t been without incident nor a sprinkling of bad publicity from time to time, but on the whole the Middle East has delivered on its plans and promises – certainly to a far greater extent than many expected.
So perhaps what’s missing is the experience? The touch, the feel, the engagement in a direct one-to-one capacity. The region’s clients have begun to respond, from Abu Dhabi Tourism’s takeovers of Times Square, real estate activations in Harrods, and Diriyah’s World Travel Market activations at Outernet London. The reactions and results of these have been outstanding and testify to the appetite the world’s audience has to experience the Middle East.
It certainly signifies the time is right to bring more of this to the world. Following the resumption of normal service post-lockdown, travellers and investors have shown a greater willingness to discover more and experience better. The iconic Piccadilly Lights, used by a plethora of Middle East brands, recently launched its stunning The Venue – an 8,000+ square foot purpose-built activation space, over three floors, in the heart of cosmopolitan London.
This isn’t a retail space sometimes available for a brand to shoehorn itself into. It’s been specifically designed and built to match a brand’s key objectives: exposure, eyeballs, and engagement. Whether it’s displaying multiple assets of a tourism board or DMO, private meeting areas to crack deals, or providing state-of-the-art immersion technology to facilitate augmented reality experiences, The Venue enables brands to provide a real touch and feel dimension.
Experiential activations have the unique ability to work through the funnel, driving awareness through exposure and converting these via personal engagements and a feedback mechanism not seen in other forms of media. Not to mention how amplifiable these are on social and the organic reach a well-produced activation can generate. Most recently, Disney used The Venue and the wider Piccadilly Circus to preview and launch the new Tron: Ares movie.
The activation entailed a takeover of Piccadilly Lights, as well as having the movie’s headliner, Jared Leto, standing atop the iconic building in the world’s first ever rooftop red carpet. Simultaneously, below this, The Venue was turned into a fully immersive digital frontier for the movie, featuring LED-lit corridors, surround sound themed music, and futuristic set pieces that recreated the virtual Grid from the film. Passers-by coul interact with the Lightcycle, explore a high-tech digital control hub, and witness dynamic lighting and 3D visuals – all designed to blur the line between reality and the Tron universe. This 10-minute activation resulted in an estimated $5.4m of media value and a media reach exceeding 400 million.
The message is clear: customers want to experience brands, and brands want to interact with customers. For Middle East clients, this outcome is even clearer, with ambiguity around the world still a barrier to overcome. Experiential is the next frontier in OOH that MENA brands need to explore, push and demand innovation for.
By Manoj Khimji, Managing Director, The Vantage
