Victoria Yun, Co-founder, Focus Media MEAOver the past few years, the Middle East – especially the UAE – has experienced rapid expansion in digital adoption, e-commerce penetration, and urban development. Yet, as digital advertising becomes increasingly saturated and performance-driven budgets face diminishing marginal returns, brands in this region are rediscovering the value of a long-overlooked touchpoint: elevator media in residential and commercial buildings.
In markets such as China, elevator screens have shaped brand-building strategies for over two decades. Today, as Dubai transitions towards a more community-centric urban structure, this medium is emerging as a powerful growth engine with untapped strategic potential.
Attention has become a luxury: Elevator media owns the last uncontested seconds
In an era where mobile screens dominate attention, capturing even five seconds of consumer focus has become a premium asset.
Yet the elevator remains an anomaly.
People enter elevators multiple times a day. For a brief moment—before they instinctively reach for their phones – there is a rare and priceless pause. This moment represents one of the few remaining forced attention environments in modern cities.
For brands, this is more than exposure. It is an opportunity for:
- Pre-decision mental priming
- Daily memory reinforcement
- Repeated high-frequency contact in a distraction-free path
In a world full of noise, elevator media offers clarity.
The rise of community living creates a new frontline for brand influence
Dubai is evolving from a “destination city” into a “community city.”
People no longer only travel for consumption—they live, work, exercise, and dine within a defined radius of their neighbourhood.
This shift brings a new opportunity: Brands are no longer speaking to the entire city; they are speaking directly to the communities that shape daily life.
Elevator screens sit at the heart of this ecosystem. They allow brands to enter households through the most natural pathway: the daily commute between home and the outside world. It creates a form of presence that feels integrated into life, not imposed on it.
Offline media is entering its second growth curve
China’s market development has shown that when digital advertising matures, offline media does not disappear—it rebounds.
Why? Because consumers trust brands they can physically see in their environment.
Elevator media delivers three things digital cannot replicate:
- Tangibility
- Repetition anchored in daily routine
- A sense of brand stability
In Dubai, where communities are expanding at record speed, the opportunity is even larger:
- International and local brands are racing to occupy neighbourhood touchpoints
- New residential projects are creating fresh traffic infrastructure
- Brands are shifting from “visibility” to “everyday relevance”
Elevator media is no longer a supplementary channel; it is a foundation for long-term brand equity.
The true value is not the screen – it is controlling the entry point
The scarcest resource in any modern city is not digital inventory — it is physical entry points into consumers’ daily lives.
Elevator media secures this access. It captures consumers at the moment they transition between personal and public space. It places the brand on the “mandatory pathway” of community movement.
Whoever owns the entry point owns the brand preference.
The next decade of advertising in the Middle East will be scene-driven
As the region matures, brand building will shift from algorithm-driven tactics to scene-driven strategies. The winners will be those who embed themselves in consumers’ daily journeys in a consistent, trusted, and unobtrusive way.
In this landscape, elevator media will serve as a vital infrastructure for brand growth – not a traditional OOH format, but a behavioural gateway that aligns with how real people move through their day.
By Victoria Yun, Co-founder, Focus Media MEA
