With the Middle East hosting its first-ever World Cup, Dubai Tourism wanted to capitalise on this opportunity and position itself as the number one destination for travelling football fans and holiday makers in 2023.

Setting itself apart from its neighbours, Dubai wanted to show the world its wide array of attractions, experiences and essentials (such as hotels), in the most captivating way possible, whilst also staying true to its cultural heritage.

The city’s connection to football was also key, with authenticity and attainability top of every fan’s wish list. Often regarded as the place where footballers come to party, the main objective now was to make this the place where fans came to celebrate.

The campaign had to cut through the negative noise surrounding Qatar, plus stand out amongst the other World Cup campaigns. The best player of the year and the biggest celebration in the region, achieved both objectives.

With the help of this year’s Ballon d’Or winner, Karim Benzema, we created a new iconic goal celebration on top of one of the world’s most iconic landmarks - the Burj Al Arab in Dubai. A fusion of classic goal celebration and traditional Emirati culture, the #BENZAYALA dance soon goes viral across the city - unbeknownst to Benzema. As the year’s best footballer travels around the city, showing off its many wonders, excitement builds and with it a crowd of people from all over the world, culminating in a joyous celebration in front of the Museum of the Future.

The Where The World Celebrates hero film was supported with a fully integrated global campaign across TV, OOH, social media and a digital hub. A TikTok activation also saw football-loving influencers spread the word of the #BENZAYALA across 17 different countries throughout the World Cup, encouraging participation in the celebration.

The creative strategy for the campaign centred around the insight that the 2022 World Cup would be the first global event since the pandemic started, where football fans would be allowed to come together for an international event. This combined with all that Dubai has to offer football fans compared to neighbouring countries.

Our media strategy saw us partnering with the world's largest football publisher (GOAL.com) to distribute our online film on their platform throughout the World Cup. Partnering with GOAL enabled us to reach fans in our 17 target markets across Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube and Instagram.

Our approach to talent saw us correctly predict the winner of the 2022 Ballon d'Or, meaning that the best player in the world featured in our campaign. The campaign was launched just moments after the award was announced, meaning that Benzema and the idea of celebration was very relevant amongst football fans.

The “Where the World Celebrates” campaign was launched with a partnership between Dubai Tourism and Footballco. The film was activated across Footballco websites, social handles and the FC Player sports video player in 19 markets – focusing on key Western European and Latin American markets.

This was supported by organic and paid campaigns on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok running across both Dubai and partner channels, as well as above the line campaigns in Dubai. The campaign launched following the Champions League final, capitalizing on a break in the football calendar to drive maximum reach and engagement for Dubai Tourism as fan anticipation built for the World Cup. The campaign then ran throughout the World Cup, with delivery tactically upweighted around key moments in the tournament.

All activity drove through to bespoke campaign hubs hosted on GOAL and Dubai Tourism, showcasing the World Cup experience in Dubai.

The Where The World Celebrates campaign reached 419 million people across 17 markets around the globe.

The hero film featuring Karim Benzema amassed 198 million views across multiple platforms via online films, OOH, cinema and social media. These views resulted in 3.6 million engagements in the campaign.

The impact of the Where The World Celebrates campaign on football fans' opinions of Dubai and their desire/likelihood to visit the city can be measured by a 22% uplift.

The campaign drove significant awareness for Dubai Tourism and over-delivered substantially against all KPI’s. Research carried out by META and Footballco’s Data & Insights team showed all questions, across all territories saw positive uplift across all brand metrics. This indicates the campaign had an incremental impact on the number of people considering Dubai as a holiday destination - thus delivering against a key objective.