A major new integrated advertising campaign has been launched to unveil Dubai South as the ‘City of You’.
The work of New York-based agency StrawberryFrog, Dubai South is the new name for the re-branded Dubai World Central. The campaign covers television, outdoor, print and digital and is designed to instigate a ‘cultural movement’ around Dubai South’s core values of ‘humanity, dignity, optimism and community’.
The re-brand of Dubai World Central as Dubai South is one of the biggest ever undertaken in the Middle East, according to Sanjay Patney, director of corporate marketing at Dubai South, with the roll-out of the new campaign beginning at the end of August and accelerating throughout September.
“The long-term objective is to create a city that is the most desirable place to live, the most desirable place to work and the most desirable place to invest,” said Patney. “That is the rationale behind the changing of the whole brand outlook. In fact, I personally believe it’s probably one of the biggest brand transformation projects ever in the Middle East, because it’s not just a repositioning, it’s a rebranding and relaunching at the same time.”
The main objective of the campaign is to create awareness of the new city and its new name, and also to create a cultural movement for more human-centred happiness and a higher quality of life for the people of Dubai.
Both the name Dubai South and the tagline of the ‘City of You’ were penned by Scott Goodson, StrawberryFrog’s founder and chairman, with the agency chosen on the back of Goodson’s previous work for Emirates’ ‘Hello Tomorrow’ positioning and Downtown Dubai’s ‘Centre of Now’.
“What I have created is, I believe, inspiring and consistent with the business objectives,” said Goodson. “But the ideas go deeper and work harder. They are designed to touch people deeply and motivate them. What I’m interested in is not advertising per se, it’s our life as part of the human species, our ongoing efforts to achieve progress, evolution and change.”
The campaign features the work of illustrator Mats Gustafson, who created original watercolour sketches that capture Dubai South’s people centric approach city living.
The roll-out of ‘City of You’ coincides with the appointment of Horizon FCB as Dubai South’s retained creative agency.
“StrawberryFrog was appointed earlier in the year to specifically develop the creative strategy and execute the relaunch of Dubai South and a new real estate product we’ll launch at Cityscape Global in Dubai,” explains Patney. “StrawberryFrog are working for us on a project basis.
“The appointment of Horizon FCB is as the local retainer agency for Dubai South. We have several other businesses and products, like aviation, business park, logistics, commercial etc which will require a local agency to work with us. Additionally, they’ll also take the two campaigns (Dubai South and real estate) forward as and when required.”
