Dubai Opera
Launching a cultural hub for the Region
The Impact
generated in AVE
sold out on opening night
THE BRIEF
Dubai Opera is the UAE’s 1st Opera House.
Place Dubai as a global hub for arts and culture in the Middle East, that is accessible to all nationalities, cultures and demographics.
THE THINKING
In the months leading to the grand opening, we opted for the ‘FOMO’ approach and did not let anyone see the inside of Dubai Opera. No one was allowed to step foot inside Dubai Opera until 48 hours before the inaugural show. This meant no images to be released no hard hat tours, no exclusive previews – we wanted fever pitch to hit on the opening night –with people from around the world desperate to be the first to see inside this iconic building.
To build the buzz we focused on in depth interviews, teasers about the top shows and carefully placed features in all of the top titles, websites and with the key bloggers, making sure they all had content that was exclusive. With exactly 48 hours to opening night, 120 hand-selected media, broadcasters, news wires and influencers were treated to a sneak peak at “Barber of Seville” with a special appearance from Placido Domingo himself, creating a sea of coverage and excitement around the big launch night.
For opening night we hosted only the VVIP media with a gala performance from Placido Domingo which was named the “hottest event of the year” with people begging to be a part of it. We took it one step further by partnering with Costa Coffee to have the Dubai Opera logo sprinkled on every, single coffee for the first week of opening across their 85 outlets in the UAE.
THE WIN
- Opening night was sold out five times over, the coverage featured in more than 18 countries, successfully positioning Dubai as THE global hub for arts and culture across the Middle East.
- We generated more than $2.5MILLION in AVE. Every single top tier media in the GCC, blog, online, TV and radio stationed covered the grand launch. Record sales were report