For its launch, Al Arabia collaborated with one of the UAE’s most inspiring success stories: the Emirati entrepreneur behind the popular "Salt" restaurant chain, which was celebrating its 10th anniversary.

Al Arabia gave "Salt", a local restaurant famous for offering burgers on par with global brands, a unique opportunity for a joint campaign. The teaser phase started with an intriguing message across Al Arabia’s prominent digital billboards in key Dubai locations, reading: "Something salty is on coming… To be seen by everyone." This teaser instantly captured attention, making the campaign the most viewed in the city.

The campaign later revealed that the teaser was promoting SALT’s new burger for just AED 10, in celebration of its 10th anniversary. However, this campaign was more than just a regular ad, it was a clever showcase of the power and influence of outdoor advertising.

In an unexpected twist, Al Arabia also rented billboard space from its competitors, without revealing its involvement, to advertise the same teaser but with a different, witty message. Instead of "To be seen by everyone" the message on competitors' billboards read: "To be seen by [specific location]," highlighting the limited coverage of those networks compared to Al Arabia’s widespread presence, and utilizing each competitor’s brand color for the teaser, along with a witty revealer line. This smart move delivered a subtle message to the advertising and marketing community, underscoring Al Arabia’s superior network and reach.

Salt’s new AED 10 burger campaign was enhanced by Al-Arabia’s widespread network of screens and visibility. It cleverly compared Al Arabia’s strategic digital billboard locations with the traditional static ones, emphasizing the importance of targeted promotional campaigns aimed at reaching the widest audience.

The campaign wasn’t limited to outdoor ads. Salt showed its appreciation by changing all its packaging during the campaign to Al Arabia’s colors and the tagline "Seen By Everyone." Additionally, 1,000 burgers were distributed to top marketing and advertising agencies, each packaged with Al Arabia’s branding, reinforcing the company’s presence and highlighting its role in connecting brands with their target audience.

This campaign served as a unique model for community engagement, sharing positive success stories in a creative way.

“This campaign embodies what Al Arabia does best, ensuring brands are seen by the right people, in the right places, at the right time,” said Fai Bin Masoud, Business Development Director at Al Arabia. “We didn’t just introduce ourselves to Dubai, we made sure everyone saw us. And in doing so, we helped a beloved local brand make an even bigger impact.”

This wasn’t just a celebration of Salt’s 10th anniversary. It was also a bold statement announcing Al Arabia’s entry into Dubai, showcasing its distinction and challenging other players in a highly competitive market. With the rapid growth of social media, the campaign reinforced the strength of digital outdoor advertising, truly seen by everyone.

The event, initiated by Seventh Decimal, will bring together a diverse audience from across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, including representatives from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and Bahrain. Attendees will include local and regional media owners, advertisers, media agencies, and global Adtech providers.

The summit aims to provide a platform for advertisers and agencies to address the opportunities and challenges of the OOH sector in the region. With a mission to foster collaboration among stakeholders and gain insights into advertisers needs, the event seeks to drive growth and innovation within the industry.

Engaging Content and Expert Speakers

The summit will be opened by the World Out of Home Organization President Mr. Tom Goddard who said “I am really excited about participating in the GCC OOH industry Summit in Dubai and to updating the attendees on all the great things that are happening in our Channel, which is enjoying a true renaissance Globally.”

The event will also feature insights from speakers representing multinational and local brands who will share their expertise on the latest research, technologies, and strategic models driving the OOH sector forward. Topics will range from cutting-edge advertising technologies to strategies for maximizing impact in the evolving OOH landscape.

For registration and program details, visit: https://www.seventhdecimal.com/GCC-OOH-Summit-Registration

Digital out-of-home (DOOH) media company Hypermedia, a subsidiary of W Group, signed a strategic agreement with Abu-Dhabi-based data and technology provider Seventh Decimal to join Streach, its planning and measurement platform for OOH media, putting audience measurement at the core of Out-Of-Home trading, modernizing it as an integral part of any media mix. The partnership allows brands to shift towards data-driven decisions for both digital and static OOH, maximizing the effectiveness of their campaigns.

With Streach, Hypermedia will enable its clients to accurately measure the exposure to their campaigns and understand the audience exposed, introducing metrics such as reach, frequency, impressions, sociodemographic, socioeconomic, and geo-distribution. Marketers can now use the same kind of insights they already use in their digital campaigns – a long-awaited goal of the OOH industry, which is one of the most brand-safe, transparent, and creative channels. Hypermedia believes that OOH measurement will be a key to its growth in the UAE. 

W Group Chief Operating Officer Philip Matta said in a statement, “Data science is raising marketing to prominence. Data insights support companies in making smarter decisions, thus delivering clients’ requirements most cost-effectively.”

Matta added that the company strives to “create a data ecosystem that allows a proper involvement between us as suppliers, advertising agencies (brands), and people (audience)” and build a “proper assessment to improve positioning, brand image, and audience engagement.”

Seventh Decimal CEO and Co-Founder Maud Moawad said, “As we are seeing more and more leading advertisers realizing the need for OOH measurement, it’s now the best time for media suppliers to endorse an audience measurement system that answers the local market specificities. We are thrilled by the trust that Hypermedia management has put in us by selecting Seventh Decimal as its audience measurement partner. Hypermedia will be joining other leading suppliers and media agencies in driving the transformation of OOH towards a more transparent, efficient, and accountable marketplace in the GCC.”

Talon’s strategy-led leadership will help educate brands and agencies on the extensive OOH opportunities for tapping into richer behavioral and location insights, in order to quantify the channel’s true impact across the customer journey.

Powered by its deep investments in market-leading ad tech platforms, Talon will offer smarter, data-driven, and creative-led OOH planning and buying, providing brands and agencies around the world with powerful and innovative capabilities to fuel outcomes-based OOH campaigns. 

Talon’s international footprint, on-the-ground knowledge, and expertise ensure the agency can effectively plan, buy, and execute client campaigns in over 100 markets. In partnership with local media owners, it will make it easier for advertisers in more markets to access and execute captivating and performance-driven OOH campaigns and drive OOH revenue growth.

Barry Cupples, Talon Group CEO, said in a statement, "With the continued growth of OOH revenues around the world, this is the perfect time for Talon to expand our global presence. Chadi is a first-class operator and we are delighted to have him on board as we continue to deliver our market-leading independent position within OOH. MENA now has the very best talent which, coupled with Talon’s data-fueled technology, will bring game-changing opportunities for advertisers. Supported by clear measurement, this will undoubtedly deliver strong client outcomes and brand performance, and ultimately provide top and bottom-line growth for advertisers, which is at the core of the service Talon strives to deliver."

Farhat has spent the last 25 years working across media, marketing, and communication within leading media agency groups in MENA. In his last role as Chief Investment Officer at Omnicom Media Group, he orchestrated multiple mergers and acquisitions within the industry, with the aim to unremittingly improve the product offerings to the company’s portfolio of advertisers whilst strongly contributing to the growth of the business year on year. Farhat is a passionate, focused, and highly driven leader. An envisioned and bold strategist, he has built an illustrious career across the Levant, GCC, and the wider Middle East’s media ecosystem.

He said, “I am hugely excited to be able to bring to clients in the MENA region a unique OOH planning and buying offering they cannot find anywhere else. Talon will provide advertisers with world-class regional and international service, innovative technology capabilities, creative executions, and high-touch collaboration to deliver measurable and optimized value as well as the unmissable outcomes that only OOH can offer.”

Communicate spoke with Francesca Vicenti, Group Innovation Project Manager, to understand how this move shows change lines in the OOG industry.

What prompted this partnership exactly? 

The many requests from advertisers and agencies to display Augmented Reality (AR) in Out-Of-Home prompted this partnership. We decided to partner up with Darabase because they have ready-to-use solutions that are very easy to implement and that create a real added value from a creative and experiential perspective. Brands can be certain that this partnership offers the best AR services content, which made the association between Pikasso and Darabase an evidence, being always dedicated to bring the best technology to the markets where we are present.   

What categories of clients do you expect to adopt it and why? 

Telecommunications and electronics will be the first ones to adopt AR for their OOH campaigns, as they are always very close to all tech innovations. But, eventually, many other sectors such as automotive, fashion, and personal healthcare are in search of new ideas to engage through a ‘wow’ effect with their customers. 

In which markets will this new offering be deployed and when? 

Our AR offering will be deployed in all of our ten markets immediately, as the main advantage of the Darabase technology is that it is triggered by a QR code that can be displayed on both static and digital billboards. Therefore, our entire inventory is included.  

Could you explain the cost-effectiveness of these solutions? 

The four ready-to-use AR solutions proposed by Darabase have a maximum cost-effectiveness as they are priced under $10,000 a month up to 50,000 impressions. Moreover, the same activation can be run in several markets within the same contract, which makes it affordable for almost any brand.  

Pikasso will rely on Darabase's technical platform, but how important it is for industry players like yourself to engage in digital transformation and how are you approaching that?  

We have engaged in digital transformation for years now, having introduced to our markets every single innovation in DOOH, from selling digital billboards and large formats by network or more contextually (by day, part of the day, on special occasions, or triggered by certain events, etc.) to the introduction of the convergence between mobile & OOH with Bluebite, a NYC-based company that provides QR codes tags, ten years ago. Since the Covid pandemic, QR codes are back in the trend line and everybody is using them on a daily basis.  

Offering AR solutions was long due as brands need to create an environment of qualitative experiences with their customers. So, we are very excited about this partnership, which precedes another big transformational announcement that we will share with you in March.   

Most organizations have one aim: to grow their company into a successful business. The key to this is marketing the brand and the evolution of digital technology in the past decade has exponentially increased the choice of marketing channels. In the highly competitive area of retail marketing, brand owners, creative agencies and Print Service Providers (PSPs) are increasingly having to justify brand investments by proving the value of different marketing formats. When it comes to the marketing budget, brands rightly want to make the most of every cent they spend.

Many organizations today look increasingly to online channels to grab the attention of their current and prospective customers, attracted by analytics, which can be used to calculate ROI. What some brand owners may not realize, however, is that contemporary campaign management tools can also effectively measure the impact of print, such as response rates to direct mail and printed marketing collateral. Print remains the backbone of any brand campaign, playing a critical role at every stage of the customer journey, from initial brand awareness, to first purchase, to nurturing long-term brand loyalty.

Agile digital communications

For brand owners, the appeal of digital marketing lies in its ability to adapt quickly to changing situations. In contrast to the long lead times of analog print, digital production technologies give print the same advantage, enabling PSPs to react quickly to tactical promotions or campaign adjustments, and offering brand owners the capability to adapt and personalize their print marketing collateral and produce selective amounts for short-term and highly targeted campaigns.

The key benefit of today’s on-demand promotional communications is agility to respond to campaign data. Using the latest digital print technology, a brand is able to use data to tailor communications, fine-tuning campaign messages to achieve maximum effectiveness when targeting potential customers, and small adjustments in targeting can be made relatively quickly and simply as the campaign evolves.

Cutting through with promotional print

Print is welcomed by consumers in an environment where digital marketing is increasingly interruptive and intrusive. With digital communication, it’s so easy for consumers to set up email inbox filters to move unwanted marketing messages into ‘junk’ or ‘clutter,’ or to automatically click the ‘delete’ button. In a progressively digital world, 70 percent of people agree that physical mail actually gives a better impression of the company that sent it than email[1].

As part of wider omnichannel campaigns, sending a customer a highly targeted, personalized direct mail is a powerful way to gain their attention and raise awareness of a brand. What might come as a surprise to brand owners is that customers actually like receiving direct mail with 48 percent regarding it as a good way for brands to connect with them. [2]

Another effective way of reaching customers is through transactional communications, such as invoices and statements. Brands can take advantage of these functional documents to cross-sell and up-sell by combining invoice data with promotional messages. It’s interesting to note that while the average recipient spends some 15 seconds looking at direct mail, they spend nearly three times that with a transactional marketing document.[3]

Grabbing customers’ attention out of home

Print’s role in building awareness is not confined to the home environment. Another example of print’s unique role in raising brand awareness is outdoor displays.

Outdoor advertising continues to be one of marketing’s success stories; 83 percent recall seeing Out of Home (OOH) advertising within the last 30 minutes before shopping. [4] With 98 percent seeing an outdoor ad every week4, it’s an effective print application as it’s not something that can be ignored, avoided or blocked. Most of us positively welcome the engagement provided by OOH advertising, such as on public transport.

But outdoor marketing is no longer just a case of just pasting banners, posters and other promotional graphics. Greater sophistication in targeting, planning and analysis means that businesses have a larger and smarter suite of marketing tools as their disposal.

The value of print

Every brand should acknowledge and understand the role and value of print in wider brand marketing campaigns alongside digital platforms. Science has even shown that paper can be more impactful and memorable than digital. Direct mail requires 21 percent less cognitive effort to process than digital media, suggesting that it is both easier to understand and more memorable.[5]

As a PSP, you can now offer a wider portfolio of digitally printed material than ever before in the promotional journey to raise initial awareness of a brand – from postcards to customized mailings to wayfinding and backlit signage. Collaborating with your client from the very start will ensure you are aligned on the campaign’s objectives, and allow you to showcase your whole portfolio of applications. 

It has never been easier to prove the calculable value of print in complex marketing campaigns that take advantage of all available channels to engage the consumer. PSPs can now offer brands complete end-to-end solutions, devising and producing measurable marketing collateral that can power a brand from a standing start to a global bestseller.

More brands than ever are competing for shoppers’ attention – and advertisers are looking to Print Service Providers (PSPs) like you to help them cut through. To show what print can do in integrated brand campaigns today, Canon collaborated with designer, photographer and filmmaker Clive Booth to create a stunning array of promotional materials for the launch of the fictitious beauty brand, Elemental. This collaboration helps PSPs and their brand owner and agency clients to envisage how easy it is to integrate different printed applications to create a cohesive multi-channel campaign – resulting in one compelling brand story.

[1] https://www.royalmail.com/business/system/files/Mail-in-uncertain-times-august-2017.pdf

[2] http://www.wilmingtonmillennium.co.uk/news-repository/direct-mail-viewed-in-fonder-light,-survey-finds.aspx

[3] http://www.infotrends.com/public/Content/Events/Logos/transpromo08/resourcecenter/Oce1.pdf

[4] http://www.outsmart.org.uk/why-ooh-works

[5] https://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerdooley/2015/09/16/paper-vs-digital/#687aa88d33c3

Tell us a bit about Elevision and how it has grown

We started the company in 2011 launching our pilot phase with towers on the Palm and Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT). The following year, our objective and focus was to create a critical mass both in terms of viewership and network size, which meant more R&D, and a review of certain processes.

2013 was subsequently our biggest year with 690 percent network growth. At the time, we weren’t focused on revenue growth per se; we just wanted to create a critical mass. By 2014 we had that critical mass operating in 75 towers, which allowed us to target advertisers and agencies. As a result, we saw triple digit revenue growth over 120 percent in 2014 and now in 2015 we are going to be refocused again on network growth and are projecting to double the size of the network.

Today we are in 79 towers and we plan to add another 80 to 100 towers to the network. We’ll do this in the first three quarters in Dubai and will look towards Abu Dhabi in Q4.

How has outdoor as a medium changed in the last few years?

The region owns many traditional advertising platforms and standard large formats, such as hoardings and billboards on Sheikh Zayed Road, will always have a place in the media mix. But Digital out of home (DOOH) is growing phenomenally in the West and I think we will close the gap here soon enough. Currently it’s the result of not having enough DOOH networks here. But healthy competition is coming into the market place that is creating a wider appetite for the medium.

So it becomes an educational process, evangelizing [people] to the DOOH capabilities. Last year was focused on that: meeting with direct clients, meeting with agencies, working together on promoting the product, letting advertisers know what the value proposition is

As a consequence, customers are understanding what differentiates us from static and are beginning to tell stories on a digital platform. The new digital unipoles on SZR are a perfect example of this. Damas, for instance, is executing and taking advantage of the medium perfectly.

What are some of the problems or challenges you face?

The biggest challenge is awareness. If you don’t live or work in our towers, you might not know we exist. Whereas if you drive up and down Sheikh Zayed Road, you are familiar with the properties when they are presented as part of a media plan.

Once we have the opportunity to showcase our screens and network there’s very little objection. We haven’t had any agency or direct advertiser say no because the medium speaks for itself. When it comes to DOOH, you have a captive audience that’s distraction-free and you see a high level of repeat impressions. On average, Elevision viewers will see each ad one and a half times a day, so the message retention is there and as long as the ad content resonates with the viewer, it’s very effective and brands are beginning to take that on board.

How does DOOH fare in terms of cost-effectiveness versus static billboards?

On a per viewer basis, we’re in line with all of our competitors. It really comes down to viewership. A banner on Sheikh Zayed Road may be anywhere from 175,000 to 250,000AED for a month and you’re reaching approximately 300,000 cars a day. There’s a lot of wastage there. With Elevision, you can get our entire network for a fraction of that amount.

We also break our network into residential and commercial networks and within each we have ‘circuits’. As an advertiser you can choose to advertise on the entire network or just the residential or commercial networks. For hyper targeting you can leverage circuit located within networks the cost for which depends on how many buildings are taken. Other than that, there are slight variances, such as, Downtown Emaar’s per screen rate is higher than JLT based on the fact that viewers have a higher income bracket and more disposable income.

Which are some of the clients you’ve worked with?

We’ve worked with brands in almost all industry verticals. From BMW, Mini, Audi, to The Westin, JW Marriot and Ramada hotels. We also regularly air campaigns for Du and Etisalat, as well as government agencies such as the RTA and DEWA. Many financial services brands such as Julius Baer, ADS Securities, ENBD and Noor Islamic have campaigned with Elevision.

For instance, BMW launched their i8 hybrid sports car on our DIFC ticker. They also used the residential and commercial networks to run multiple messages. They had static ads that we animated; they incorporated some of the TVCs; and we also ran press releases on the news section. So they used every component of our screen and provided us with multiple pieces of content. That’s the most effective way to use DOOH and companies like BMW are using us exactly as a DOOH network should be used.

Similarly, MediaOne, provides us with tons of content and they are always rotating different messages. They’ll do [advertise in] different buildings every week and even within that week they will change the content four to five times.

How do you measure success on DOOH?

We don’t have that per click type of metric that you can measure but hotels and F&B outlets see a very real uplift in sales when running a campaign with us. Or they’ll run a campaign with us for a specific outlet and specific promotion and they’ll see the results.

Are you looking at including more innovative technology to provide better insights and analysis to your clients?

The technology definitely exists and we’re studying and researching specific solutions. It is being used quite a bit now in the West and we will use it with Elevision. Although right now we don’t feel we’ll see much return on the investment that this kind of technology requires. Our clients are not requesting those [specific] kinds of details yet and that’s a result of DOOH still being in the embryonic stage here in the region. As it develops and as clients start to use us more and we become part of the regular media mix then they will start demanding those metrics. And once they do, we’ll deploy the technology.

What is the kind of analysis you’re looking to provide in the future?

There are some facial recognition type technologies that can tell you the gender and age of the viewer. There’s also some technology, which takes it one step further: it will tell you the demographics of users walking into the elevator and then air an ad most relevant to them. We are [also] currently exploring technology that determines the specific details of a viewer and then adapts the content accordingly. This is further out in terms of deployment, but its exciting technology that has great potential once adopted.