Dubai Race Launch

Brief

The Brief.

The Performance Communications team was tasked with looking after earned media, paid-media partnerships, influencer marketing and activations in the build-up to the first-ever Dubai Sail Grand Prix.

The campaign objective was to sell tickets by building awareness of the race and competing for visibility in a competitive sporting event landscape.

The Response.

Different from San Francisco, Sydney and St. Tropez, the key promotion challenges included low levels of regional awareness of the new series, the absence of a local team and the lack of an Arabic language spokesperson.

Game-changing tactics were needed and the team duly obliged with a campaign that included an earned media preview trip to the Cadiz-based Spanish leg, a crew swap between Sail GP’s hydrofoiling F50’s and traditional wooden dhows, and facilitating the education of 500 Dubai school children via SailGP’s Inspire Program.

The Results.

The 4-month campaign generated a combined global reach of 535 million, and $1.5m in PR Value. The event saw a high-footfall of media and influencers across the three days.

A successful paid-media campaign was run across Time Out’s channels, The National (including an 8-page pull-out preview) and ARN’s network, which also resulted in the Dubai Eye team hosting their show live from the event site.