The Golden Mile: The Dubai Billboard
One of the highest performing marketing mediums, affectionately nicknamed the ‘ego of the city’.
How does such a technologically-advanced city like Dubai, still manage to have one of its most powerful media mediums as the billboard? The age-old marketing medium, the billboard, remains one of the highest performing mediums in the Emirate, affectionately nicknamed the ‘ego of the city’.
Sheikh Zayed Road is the longest road in the United Arab Emirates, 558 km (347 miles), stretching from the capital city of Abu Dhabi and ending in the Northern Emirate, Ras Al Khaimah, running parallel to UAE’s coastline along the Persian Gulf. Whilst the road is technically known as E11, the road improvements came with a change of name. Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Ruler of Dubai, named the road after the then President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. ‘Sheikh Zayed Road’ is a 14-lane highway and the main artery of the city.
So what does this mean for marketers? Many eyeballs. Giant landmark hoardings across this stretch of highway have dominated the landscape for years, creeping to an unprecedented number in 1998 during the boom years. The size of these billboards are unlike the scale in comparison to other markets. The ‘triple billboard’ measures up to 70 metres which for a brand is both a challenge and an opportunity to gain literal ‘ground’ in the market.
So whose idea was it? And who profits most? Speaking to Rehan Merchant, Group CEO of Emirates Neon Group (ENG), the initial concept was borne out of his fathers, Hanif Merchant’s, business trips to the then sprawling billboard metropolis of the US. Merchant’s family founded the first billboards in Dubai in 1989, persuasively convincing Dubai Municipality to emulate the billboard model to the then barren Sheikh Zayed Road.
‘At that time, billboards were a game-changer to the landscape…a real unicorn’, says Merchant.
‘My father was frequently travelling to the United States, the US is billboard country. The first billboards were actually shipped in from the US and installed in the late 80’s. Between 1989 and 1996 was the time where we participated in legislation to achieve a billboard on Sheikh Zayed Road’.
Despite the rapid rise of digital advertising, the giant roadside billboards still remain one of the most talked-about channels for brands in Dubai. This year, the billboards on Shiekh Zayed Road are at 89% occupancy, which argues that this offline channel is not dying — but simply getting stronger. The proof is representative in the brands choosing to advertising on it. Samsung has launched several billboards in Dubai to showcase the photo-taking power of its Samsung Note 10.
Are these just to be known as marketing nuances of a city, something that gains gravity over time and then feels like a ‘must channel’ for a core target market, or is there something much deeper?
Whilst the billboard was established in the US, there has been execration of the medium. Seen as an ugly disruption to public space, as once Founder of Ogilvy and Mather, David Ogilvy, wrote in his 1963 autobiography:
‘I have a passion for the landscape and I have never seen one improved by a billboard. Where every prospect pleases, man is at his vilest when he erects a billboard. When I retire from Madison Avenue, I am going to start a secret society of masked vigilantes who will travel around the world on silent motor bicycles, chopping down posters at the dark of the moon.’
- David Ogilvy, Confessions of an Advertising Man
Digital and social media are key growth channels as mobile commerce continues to grow and mobile penetration amongst residences is some of the highest in the world, at 173% (CommsMEA, 2018). Merchant believes this is already having an effect on the billboard medium and the pressure on it to adapt, ‘There is more pressure on outdoor to reinvent itself. Gradually over a period of 5 years we will see billboards transform into digital assets’. In 1999 ENG installed the first LED video wall in the UAE at the Strand Cinema Building in Bur Dubai’.
Meraas’ City Walk has recently launched a digital LED ‘giga’ screen, 175-meter long, estimating the exposure of 20,000 drivers on Al Safa road.
‘We are seeing a gradual shift from static to digital billboards’, says Merchant. ‘Whilst there is only approximately 25% of Dubai’s billboard inventory is digital it is 100% utilised’. Perhaps then quite literally, the writing is on the wall. Dubai’s billboard is here to stay.
The fact is, that while other media-obsessed countries such as the US and UK have moved to digital billboards, the static billboard remains in demand in the UAE. This explicitly lies in the hypothesis that marketing channel selection is determined by its environment — and assimilating to what is available and by the structural environment, is one way to reach an intended audience. By using the built environment to your advantage, like the longest highway in the country — is genius.
References Rehan Merchant, Group CEO, Emirates Neon Group (ENG)
