The Insight

For 14 years Abu Dhabi Festival has brought world-class international musicians, performers, and dancers to Abu Dhabi, as well as bringing the creative talent of the UAE to the world on international platforms. In a market where such classical arts and culture performances have suffered from a perception of exclusivity, it was our task, in our sixth year working on the Festival, to drive ticket sales and public attendance by telling the emotional and engaging stories behind Abu Dhabi Festival.

The Idea

We devised a campaign around the Abu Dhabi Festival 2017 theme of ‘Culture and Tolerance’ that fully communicated its entertainment offering, while engaging the public on a deeper more human level. From the press launch in November, we secured widespread in-depth coverage of the Festival, it’s headline performances, sponsors and partners, as well as the many community and education events and initiatives.

The newly-launched bilingual interactive and dynamic Abu Dhabi Festival website, designed and built by Edelman, brought the Festival in line with its international counterparts and for the first time, created a virtual home. International and regional media opportunities throughout the 30-day Festival ensured that Abu Dhabi was positioned as a leader in the field of cultural events, and highlighted the capital as a cultural destination of distinction.

The fully integrated campaign ensured that PR and Social Media were working in partnership to drive pre-Festival anticipation, ticket sales ahead of the launch and to maintain engagement across the month-long festival.