Located on Interchange 3 of the Sheikh Zayed Rd in Dubai, the Emirate’s busiest artery, the new ADCB billboard is seen by 200,000 motorists a day. According to initial local, regional and international research, this billboard is the longest recorded.
The 400 meter long and 12 meter high billboard, built by Jumeirah Outdoor Media, was secured by OMD, Omnicom Group’s media specialist, on behalf of ADCB, for one year. It currently runs ADCB’s Mortgage Services campaign.
Besides size, the billboard’s location is also crucial to this campaign, since it is on the way from the city to ‘New Dubai’, where most of the real estate developments open to foreign ownership are situated.
This billboard is the pinnacle of ADCB’s campaign for its Mortgage Services. Skewed heavily towards outdoor, the campaign also features bridge banners with people ‘cut-outs’, lamp posts and newspaper insertions. It is UAE-wide, since several Emirates are opening their property market to foreign ownership.
“A product launch such as that of Mortgage Services required a major attention-grabbing device, particularly at a time when the real estate market is flooded with ads and offers,” says Martin Scott, vice president and head of marketing services at ADCB. “In order to reach the majority of people, while remaining focused on targeting and cost-efficiency, we felt that this site provided a strong clutter-breaking opportunity.”
While the trend in outdoor in the UAE is large-scale formats, these require the backing of a strong strategy and support formats.
“The outdoor market in the UAE is currently going through growing pains and every site requires careful evaluation,” says May Aoun, director at OMD. “This particular site scores highly on all criteria of quality, targeting, innovation and even cost. It is the most visible part of a wider media campaign.”
The visual, created by Impact/BBDO Dubai, features long queues of people trying to get into an ADCB branch to secure their mortgage. The new product, which has several key advantages such as a high loan-to-value ratio, long tenure and attractive rate options, is already proving very popular.
Interesting figures:
• The billboard is lit up at night with 85 projectors
• It is unique in having a 12m x 6m neon sign like a branch would
• There are more than 170 ‘individuals’ queuing on the billboard,
including 52 appearing as cut-outs at the top and base
• The structure is made up of 6,000 scaffolding pipes held together
with over 10,000 clamps. It is covered with 2,000 plywood sheets
• The structure took some 20,000 man-hours to build, while the sign
took four weeks to print and one week to install on the structure
About ADCB:
Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) was formed in 1985 as a public shareholding company with limited liability, its paid up share capital, AED1.5 billion (US$410 million), is one of the largest in the UAE. ADCB is among the top banks in the UAE, with assets as of 31/12/2004 of AED38.393 billion and net profit of AED 801 million in 2004.
www.adcb.com
About OMD:
OMD is the leading global media specialist network, with a presence in over 80 countries. OMD belongs to the OMNICOM Group, the world’s largest communication group that also owns three agency networks, BBDO, DDB and TBWA. The first-ever Gunn Report for Media named OMD as the world most awarded media network. It recently won more Media Lions in the 2005 Cannes Festival than any other media network. OMD employs more than 4,300 experts globally and works for 15,000 companies.
www.omd.com
