Flexibility was the name of the game as Corporate Communications supported Emirates’ and Dnata’s sales activities to resuscitate a stagnant market place.

Corporate Communications co-ordinated its own network of some 90 advertising and PR agencies around the world to raise awareness of the Emirates Group brands and Dubai as a destination, linked by a unique virtual workspace called Empower.

The refreshed Emirates corporate identity continues to be rolled out internationally, and across all customer touch points. We have designed and helped implement a new retail identity for the airline in a flagship space in Dubai, and expanded roll-out of branding across airports and in Emirates offices.

International brand-building advertising is focused on TV, print, outdoor and on the internet, the results of which are regularly tracked with awareness and attitude studies. Tactical campaigns ran across the world, promoting a range of product enhancements, including new routes, increased flights, a new kids’ frequent flyer programme, inflight entertainment and Destination Dubai messages.

Our range of below-the-line material underwent a step-change this year with new point of sale material, leaflets, posters and direct mailers.

www.emirates.com has been continually refined and enriched, with additional content and functionality throughout the year. The new robust, dedicated server set-up is currently delivering 85,000 web pages a day to customers from all over the world, a 150% increase year on year. The site now supports online booking in over 12 markets, numerous special offers as well as providing an umbrella for the expanding number of regional sites and travel agency extranets.
We have also helped build and relaunched www.skywards.com, a major new Group recruitment website www.emiratesgroupcareers.com as well as site developments for www.dnata.com, www.sky-cargo.com and www.emirates-holidays.com. Online advertising now forms a regular part of our media mix and we have run numerous tactical internet-only offers this year.


Again Emirates grabbed the world’s headlines on TV, on the internet and in the daily press with its announcement of the US$15 billion aircraft orders and the Alliance engine decision. We won millions of dollars worth of television time and newspaper space in our relentless charge to build Emirates into a global brand.

We hosted some 350 journalists on familiarisation visits to Dubai playing a decisive part in putting the emirate back on the tourist map after the downturn of September and October.

Emirates launched a new multi-million dollar sponsorship with Godolphin, the racehorse owners, - and immediately benefited by “Street Cry” winning the Dubai World Cup with jockey Jerry Bailey sporting the “Fly Emirates” logo on his blue silks. As the World Cup is also sponsored by Emirates this was a double-strike with the Emirates logo seen around the globe by hundreds of millions of TV viewers.

We did not renew our three-year contract for the Emirates World Racing Series but kept a high profile at equestrian events, sponsoring the Singapore Derby and Irish Oaks. We also continue to sponsor the Legends Race of veteran jockeys as part of our Melbourne Cup Festival participation. In fact, in Australia we believe our promotions like the partnership with the Victoria Racing Club, the Collingwood Aussie Rules Football Club and Australian Film Institute have helped to boost our image with the Australian public.

We are proud to be associated with a battling Chelsea Football Club in the English Premier League in their tussle for top honours - the first year of our four-year contract with “The Blues”.


The inflight entertainment product has continued to be enhanced, and plans are now well advanced for exciting new features for our future aircraft on order - ensuring that Emirates inflight product will remain at the leading edge. All but one of our fleet is now fitted with a 40-channel entertainment system, with only one remaining A310 aircraft offering the 14 channel programme. The recent introduction of 18 video games for passengers has proven very popular. The growth of Emirates combined with the joint management of the entertainment product with SriLankan Airlines, has contributed to achieving improved economies of scale and efficiencies.

The Visual Services unit within Corporate Communications has supported many parts of the company with the production of quality films and videos for commercial and training purposes, as well as assisting with the staging and management of events associated with new route or product launches.