As the home of the Dubai World Cup, the world’s richest horserace, Dubai Racing Club had a bit of a dilemna; how can they harness the immense interest they receive for that one big race day into an a sustainable, thriving business opportunity.

AGORA was tasked with an important project: Create a stand-alone identity that would promote Dubai Racing Club’s conference & banqueting facilities while taking advantage of it’s established brand values. We knew first hand that Dubai Racing Club offers conference and banqueting facilities in a retreat – like atmosphere with 5-star catering, world-class business services and the added value of combining race nights within any given program of events. That’s the first rule of experiential marketing; experience the brand from the customer’s perspective. The rest is made easy once these insights are achieved.

So we put our business hat on. And in so doing, devised a comprehensive, integrated campaign across all the brand touchpoints. The home of the world’s richest horserace effectively became the home of many-a-business-conference.

What happens when you tell a mother what to feed her baby?

We knew the answer to that one. It takes a brave soul to take this project one.

Research told us that mothers stopped feeding their babies ready-to-eat preparations at twelve months and switched them over to home-made. We had our hands full.

We tapped into women’s groups, talked to grandmothers, experienced moms, not-so-experienced moms, we even talked to dads. The results of our talk-a-thons gave us valuable insights into the emotional and rational needs of these outstanding caregivers.

The insights we gathered helped us to develop a range of products that directly addressed their requirements. Then we spoke to them in language that they could relate to.

Sales continued to climb, exponentially. Customers were customers for much longer. And babies continued to grow up as Gerber babies. After all, the feeding system we communicated to them wasn’t our invention. All we did was listen and create what they asked us to and in the process, shared in the joys of nurturing.

Think OB/GYN and you think womanly thoughts. Especially if you happen to be the all-male doctoral team so many women rely on for top-notch medical advice and care. So, the natural question arose; how do we womanize a male practice.

Having great, enlightened women on our team helped, for starters. They started with transforming the feel of the clinic, so that the patients could be relaxed. Every single touchpoint was transformed, from reception to magazine selection, coffee type to herbal teas, soft music to soothing aromatherapy candles. Every experience was monitored and catered to.

We transformed the brand identity to reflect this new, caring makeover. Then new, soft spoken brand communications were developed to (quietly) shout out this makeover marvel.

Mars and Venus were finally in alignment. If only at one great clinic, on a beachside road, in a growing little city.

Dubai Racing Club recognised Silks’ appeal had been slowly diminishing over time.

With one year to go before moving to a new state-of-the-art venue, they approached us with a dilemma: Do we write off the current year and launch something spectacular next season or do we make this year the cliffhanging season finale? We chose drama.

To feed their clienteles’ enthusiasm while luring new members to the fold, Silks had to live up to their brand values. To do this, we had to reinvent each touchpoint to truly reflect the aura of this exclusive members club. In other words, we had to show that they could walk the walk.

Research revealed insights into the brand’s identity and how it related to members emotional as well as rational wants. We set about filling these gaps by updating every single touchpoint and linking them all into the Silks legacy.

To reflect the revitalised image and positioning, core brand touchpoints became the hallmarks of the refreshed branding program. The entire customer experience was reshaped and glorified. In addition to the new communications campaign, members benefits and totally updated members lounge, signature Silks welcome drinks and canapes were created, thereby cementing the exclusive nature of this aspirational club.

Once we were able to get the experiential touchpoints right, we then focused on the communication touchpoints. The campaign was developed to touch our varied audience in language that they could relate to, in a forum they feel they belong.