Building Dubai's image

Whether it's a huge roadside billboard advertising the Palm Jumeirah in Paris, a digital representation of Nakheel's The World project hanging above a tunnel in Madrid, a CNN advertisement for the Dubai International Financial Centre on a TV screen in the USA or an image of the upcoming Burj Dubai tower embalzoned all over London's traditional black cabs, the conclusion is the same: Dubai is promoting itself all over the world.

As the city's profile continues to grow worldwide so does the ambition and scale of the global marketing campaign the leaders in Dubai are undertaking to push 'Brand Dubai' further and further.

Dubai's global marketing and public relations think-tank, under the leadership of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, seems to believe the perfect way to further build Dubai's image is to brand it as a modern, global capitalist powerhouse, delivering unparalleled benefits to international finance and consumer markets.

This, of course, follows what Dubai has already done on the world stage in terms of selling itself as a dream-like oasis where anything is possible.

The world has already been exposed to every variety of advertising campaign promoting Dubai as a tourist destination. It has become known that the Palm Islands are the largest artificial islands in the world, so big they can be seen from space.

Furthermore, anyone who likes plush hotels will be able to tell you that the sail-shaped Burj Al Arab hotel, is the first seven-star hotel in the world and that its suites cost up to $15,000 a night, and come with an army of butlers and a fleet of helicopters and Rolls-Royce limousines.

People all over Europe - where Dubai has focused its marketing campaign - would know that Emaar's $8 billion Burj Dubai Tower is set to be almost a kilometre high, and will be the world's tallest building when finished next year.

Next step

However, it is the next step in the city's marketing strategy that could make all the difference, according to branding expert and author of The Revenge of Brand X, Rob Frankel.

"Dubai has sold itself as the luxury holiday destination and the place where dreams can come true for the last five years. You would have to have had your head in the sand for a long time not to know what it is going on there today," he says.

"Now everyone is aware of what Dubai has to offer, and it's time for the team behind 'Brand Dubai' to really push home the awareness that they have created, while adding something new to the mix."

One thing Dubai cannot be accused of is not having something new to offer. Aside from Dubailand, the standout attractions coming up include Tatweer's multi-billion-dollar Badawi project, which will be the world's longest hotel strip featuring more than 30 hotels with 29,000 rooms in total.

Some 140 billion pounds ($275 billion) will be spent to further push 'Brand Dubai' up until 2010. The money will be spent to build even more free-trade zones, to build the busiest ports and airports to boost the city's tourism market.

It will also be directed to building one million new homes for three million new residents, and building a global sporting centre, which can accommodate the Olympic Games.

Within three years, Dubai will boast even more free-trade micro cities - an aviation city, cargo village, aid city, exhibition city, silicon oasis, festival city and a sports city, which many of them are already close to completion. The majority of this progress is down to Shaikh Mohammad.

From a trading enclave with a few wells, two date plantations and a modest palace to its name in the 1800s, Shaikh Mohammad has almost single-handedly transformed Dubai with his ambitious vision.

He established premier sporting events with record prize money, notably the 4 million pounds ($7.8 million) Dubai World Cup horserace meeting and the 1 million pounds ($1.9 million) Dubai Golf Desert Classic. He also made sure Dubai firms sponsored leading sports, notably cricket and football.

Dubai's Emirates airline sponsors football teams around the world including Britain's Arsenal, which plays at the newly dubbed 'Emirates Stadium'. The airline also sponsors the Australian national cricket team and referees at international rugby matches.

Dubai's state-run investment vehicle Dubai Holding has also bought stakes or claimed entire ownership of many high-profile companies, most notably DaimlerChrysler and Britain's Tussauds group.

A subsidiary of Dubai Holding - Dubai International Capital - is also set to take over England's Liverpool Football Club in a £300 million ($ 589 million) deal, which is expected to go through this month.

Global player

All of these moves have increased Dubai's profile not only as a tourist destination but also as a serious player in the business world.

"Dubai's high-profile business deals have definitely raised its profile, especially the big football deals. Today Dubai is not just known for luxury hotels, holidays, great shopping and year-round sun, it's also known for business, finance and deal making," says Tim Allen, at UK-based consultancy, Brand IT.

Dubai's emergence as a serious business hub kicked off in 2004 when Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) opened for business. Today, most of the world's biggest investment banks and brokerage houses - including JP Morgan and Credit Suisse - have offices at DIFC.

Dubai's own bourse - the DIFX - has also added credibility to the city's claim to be the financial capital of the Middle East.

On the aviation front, the fact that Emirates airline is spending 20 billion pounds ($39 billion) to double its fleet of Boeing and Airbus jets, and that Dubai's airport is doubling in size in 3 billion pounds ($5.8 billion) extension and another new 5 billion pounds ($9.8 billion), six-runway airport makes you realise that Dubai could well surpass Singapore, which many observers have thought Dubai followed its suit.

"Dubai clearly followed the blueprint of Singapore's success but will almost certainly surpass it. With millions of tourists coming [to Dubai] every year, the fact that the city is now the region's business hub and the aggressive way they are pushing Dubai through all mediums all over the world I can see the place growing and growing," says Brand IT's Allen.

Infrastructure is racing with rapid development

While 'Brand Dubai' tries to break record after record in its bid to attract larger numbers of visitors to the emirate each year, facilities on the ground are threatening to put the skids under the growth in arrivals.

Road infrastructure, for example, is struggling to match the rise in vehicle population, resulting in traffic snarls. The Dubai International Airport, meanwhile, has been stretched beyond limit, routinely handling 25 million passengers annually against its 24 million passenger handling capacity.

Faced with such a tall order in improving transport infrastructure for ground and air traffic, the government is bracing itself for substantial investment in expanding the arterial Dubai-Sharjah road, investing in the proposed city metro rail, and completing the expansion of Dubai Airport by the year-end.

The Roads and Transport Authority of Dubai has proposed to invest $191 million to expand the Al Ittihad road, (connecting Dubai and Sharjah), which is choked with thousands of vehicles from 7am until 10pm daily.

One thing is clear to all those who travel on Dubai's roads - the metro system is needed sooner rather than later. The metro, which is slated for completion for second quarter 2009, is being planned to cover a 70-km stretch, 30 per cent of which will run underground, and the project will cost an estimated $3.96 billion.

The metro is designed to carry 1.2 million passengers daily, which Dubai's authorities hope will reduce the number of cars on the city's roads.

Launching electronic marketing

In the late 1990s Dubai's leaders developed a strategic vision for the year 2010. The goal is to triple the number of tourists visiting Dubai, from the current five million per year to 15 million.

However, it seems that Dubai's authorities are not satisfied with the five million visitors a year they are attracting. As such, potential visitors to Dubai are being targeted by a new website, which hopes to become a one-stop-shop for information on the emirate.

The Dubai Guide, which was launched by creative agency Hana Advertising, plans to generate revenue by giving Dubai-based businesses the ability to showcase their products and services to users.

There are already several websites offering visitor guides to Dubai, but The Dubai Guide is positioning itself as a searchable database of companies that visitors may need to call upon during their stay.

"Member companies have the provision to provide real-time information on their products and services. The idea is to give confidence and a sense of familiarity about Dubai to the international traveller," said thedubaiguide.com's manager, Halima Ali Noor Awaleh.

A 'call back' facility is also under development and this will allow browsers to request a telephone call with the portal's member companies. It is currently only available in English but Arabic, Russian and Chinese versions are planned.

The writer is a freelance journalist based in Paris.