Advertisers take Metro to beat crowded market - Emirates Business 24|7

<span style="font-style:italic;">Advertisers take Metro to beat crowded market - Emirates Business 24|7

Metro's growing reach is increasing its advertising horizon and it is evident from a massive launch campaign of Dubai-based Iconic brand – a retail outlet just being launched in Deira City Centre.

The Dubai Metro has been offering various advertising options in and around the stations and metro bogeys through Kasab advertising, but Iconic retail store has utilised this relatively new medium with substantial part of its advertising and marketing budget.

"Metro in the region may have been a new concept, but all over the world they are very popular and work wonderfully for communicating with commuters. Keeping that in view we stretched our imagination and included this platform in our launch campaign for the launch of Iconic concept store," said Raza Beg, CEO of Iconic.

"We wanted to touch all points of communication and in an overcrowded market such as Dubai, the Metro offers a creative relief to communicate with our probable clients.

"Our customers are everywhere, inside and outside the Metro and with repetitive reinstatements of our message, the Metro offers a very good return on investment."

Since its launch on September 9, 2009, the Dubai Metro has transported 13.68 million commuters from 10 stations. Seven more stations are scheduled to open on April 30 and three more by May 15, according to the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) of Dubai.

"Metro was always to be a strong means to communicate and that was evident from the response to our tender for the purpose that was won by Kasab advertising," said Peyman Younes Parham, Director of Marketing and Corporate Communication at RTA.

Elaborating on the effective reach of Metro, Parham said: "With more than 80,000 commuters a day, Metro is a very effective canvas for advertising. Most of our commuters are regular and include aspiring professionals of all nationalities, including nationals.

"Considering the wide variety of nationalities and professional background, Metro works out to be a very cost- effective means to advertise and communicate with a specified target audience," said Parham.

Many other brands such as Sony Ericson have been utilising Metro as a platform to advertise, but Iconic launch campaign has taken the brand communication on Metro to another level.

"Some of the most important stations that are waiting to be opened are bound to add to the marketing potential of Metro," said Parham.

The opening of Burj Khalifa station added another 10,000 commuters to Metro on daily basis and with the opening of other important stations such as the Dubai World Trade Centre and Karama station, the number will increase," said Parham emphasising on the growing reach of Metro and its effectiveness as an communication brand. With the launch of 10 additional stations, RTA expects the total number of commuters of Dubai Metro to increase up to 35 million people by the end of 2010. This increase in the number of commuters will add to the marketing potential of the Metro.

Extending his faith on the Metro as an advertising platform, Beg said: "Every brand has to be in touch with the common man and our brand also intends to achieve the same. We devised a very elaborate media mix with radio, print and outdoors. But for outdoors, we decided to use Metro that has been growing with increased number of commuters since its launch."