Dubai International (DXB), a global gateway and strategic communication platform for brands

With its year-round sunshine, white-sand beaches and recordbreaking attractions, there is little doubt as to why Dubai continues to attract millions of tourists each year. Ranking as the No.1 global destination in the TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice Awards 2022, Dubai’s accolades are a testimony to its resilient efforts in driving international tourism recovery, backed by the proactive strides undertaken by the government to position the emirate as a world-class leisure and business hub.

As Dubai becomes increasingly popular among holidaymakers, digital nomads and business travellers, Dubai International (DXB) has significantly grown as the gateway to the city for global travellers and UAE residents.

Dubai International (DXB): the value proposal for brands

Delivering a specific environment and context, the airport is a place where people are positive, excited and receptive, and consider advertising as an integral part of their journey. According to a study conducted by Researchbods in October 2021, travellers agreed that the airport environment transferred the

onto brands as compared with any other media. In another study, conducted by JCDecaux, 85 per cent of airport passengers claim to be more attentive to the airport environment and 78 per cent pay more attention to advertising screens compared with pre-Covid levels, making the airport an impactful touchpoint for brands to communicate with their audiences.

Benefiting from a strategic location, with more than two thirds of the world’s population within eight hours by flight, DXB continues to be the world’s busiest airport by international passenger numbers for the eighth consecutive year. Dubai International realised an unparallel recovery postpandemic, which was highlighted by Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, when he said: “Travel is an amazingly aspirational commodity for people at the moment and we’re seeing that exponential growth, particularly in people coming to and from Dubai.”

In this context, DXB offers an outstanding opportunity for advertisers to associate their

DXB Arrivals: gateway to the city

DXB Arrivals is a strategic touchpoint for brands and retailers looking to connect with affluent audiences arriving in the city, be they residents or tourists. An uncluttered environment and a captive audience in a positive mindset are key advantages for advertisers, who can leverage different types of media solutions to achieve their communication objectives, or in the city.

With Dubai being recognised as a hub for creativity and innovation, advertisers are looking at DXB as a distinctive platform for unique experiences designed to turn airport passengers into engaged consumers. A recent campaign by adidas, where the brand unveiled a running track in the arrival corridors of Terminal 3, provided an engaging experience for visitors, encouraging travellers to opt to walk along the racetrack instead of using the travellators, rewarding those who follow the track with complimentary sneaker customisation at the adidas flagship store located in The Dubai Mall.

Communicating at DXB Arrivals gives a brand the opportunity to leverage on the high-dwell-time areas such as Immigration and Baggage Claim. Taking the brands’ digital campaigns to the next level, our digital media is equipped with dynamic content

capabilities, allowing brands to

helping marketers build contextually relevant campaigns that are proven to be 17 per cent more effective (The Moments of Truth Study by Clear Channel & Posterscope, Mar 2020). Malabar Gold & Diamond’s recent campaign used dynamic content solutions to welcome international passengers arriving in Dubai, a global jewellery shopping destination, in their respective languages, thereby creating deeper engagement with their audiences, while they waited for their baggage at Terminal 3 DXB.

Airports, a place to surprise

Airports have always been considered as a place to surprise and create a lasting impression through iconic displays and experiential concepts. Undoubtedly, one of DXB’s most iconic media opportunities in arrivals is The Wave, a gigantic 87-sqm curved screen delivering an immersive brand experience to passengers as they exit the airport. It is the perfect platform for brands to

before passengers enter the city, and luxury brands often leverage on this awe-inspiring digital media to drive audiences to their flagship stores in the city.

Brands can leverage on the Creative Heatmap tool, a unique offering by JCDecaux as part of JCDecaux Data Solutions, a portfolio of solutions designed to help advertisers achieve their marketing objectives at every step of the campaign. Using artificial intelligence to estimate the performance of a campaign by understanding which parts of the advertising visual the audience will focus on, Creative Heatmap helps advertisers establish whether the key branding or executional elements are likely to draw attention, and optimise their visuals to align with the environments they’re present in.

To conclude, with Dubai’s positioning as a desirable city to live, visit and conduct business in, more and more people are flocking here, making DXB, the gateway to the city, an to communicate with a

in an

Just like any industry, the media and publishing industries have been going through turbulent times. The innovation cycle is led by a few platforms, and publishers are at the mercy of the algorithms. This has been a vicious cycle ever since the term ‘digital transformation’ was coined, and it has meant that publishers needed to have digital presence.

This lasted for a few years and eventually technology, market dynamics, competition and user behaviour evolved faster than most of the traditional media houses could keep pace with. Print circulation became traffic on websites; million-dollar campaigns became programmatic; users opted out of reading and in to video consumption; viewability, segmentations, interests, user acquisition and leads became the currency; and user-generated content started to compete with the costly productions from media houses. We all know what the pandemic did in terms of impact on traditional media.

The contraction of attention span of consumers who are on the go became a matter of seconds. Some experts claim it is as short as three seconds. Digital publishers and content creators started to compete for budgets and attention. This is the reality of our industry, and to survive one must reinvent and pivot one’s role to continue to be relevant.

The big question is: How do you pivot and how do you stay relevant?

There is no single answer. There are many things that need to be looked into, and you need to have the courage to make tough decisions. These are calculated bets and need to be based on insights, market dynamics, ever-changing consumer behaviour, competition and other factors. Many questions are on top of my mind, including:

How is technology relevant to growth and revenue generation?

Premium content vs. user generated content?

New revenue streams to offset declining ones?

What is the new trend? Social commerce is picking up globally.

How can we repurpose our own assets to yield new revenue streams?

Do you continue to be tied to revenue streams coming from global platforms?

At the end of the day, we must work on all cylinders and must spread our bets and decision-making to cover as many potential opportunities as possible. It is a competitive world and, for small independent media platforms like 7awi, we must be ready to adapt to the new world we are living in. We must find the sweet spot that forces global platforms, brands, clients and agencies to see value in us, yet we can’t be competing with them. A world dominated by global platforms sets a runway, and we must be prepared to take off from that runway despite the visibility and the distance of the runway. Whether it is clear visibility or a short distance, we need to give it the thrust or reduce the load to operate in the most efficient way.

This is why I love this industry. It keeps us thinking of what to expect. We must

‘‘THE CONTRACTION OF ATTENTION SPAN OF CONSUMERS WHO ARE ON THE GO BECAME A MATTER OF SECONDS.’’

outsmart the status quo and read the signals ahead of us. Indeed, the media and publishing industry could benefit from support of local regulatory bodies by demanding support from the global platforms to yield more to the local media and publishing companies, similar to what has been done in France and Australia.

As an independent media group, we can never compete with the big players, but local regulations should enforce the big platforms to reinvest in the region and help grow the local media ecosystem to continue to operate independently and thrive to innovate. Today, local media cannot maintain a budget for research and development in a way similar to the platforms without some external intervention. I am confident this resonates with many small and medium-sized independent publishers in our region.

There are so many questions on top of my mind that keep me awake at night, but I am very optimistic that our MENA region, in particular the GCC region, is the next geography that investors will target. Investors will turn to places of stability and prosperity, and in the past couple of years our region has shown that we are primed up for growth.