Marketing Profile: Emirates Airline
The last time I flew through Iceland on Iceland Air, the advertisement from Iceland Tourism on the back of the seat in front of me said: “Iceland, the third windiest place on earth….” And then the screen changed, and it said proudly: “The first two are uninhabitable.” I still don’t understand why that would encourage me to visit.
But I will concede that getting people to stop over in your country by having an airline is a pretty good tourism development strategy. Particularly when you live on a windswept rock in the middle of an ocean between two heavily populated rich continents.
Emirates is also an airline, and Dubai is also a place to stop over, but I think the story is bigger than tourism and much more like Singapore than Iceland. Like Singapore, the states in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) became independent from the UK 50 years ago. And like Singapore, the UAE has world stage ambitions.
A Quick Intro to the UAE
Abu Dhabi and Dubai are the biggest and most recognized of the seven member states of the UAE. Their leaders serve as the president and vice president/prime minister of the UAE. Therefore, the Ruler of Dubai, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, is also the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE. And another busy guy with the same last name, his uncle, Ahmed bin Saeed Maktoum is the founder of Emirates Airline, and the president of the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, and the chairman of Dubai World, a development/investment company.
To simplify all of this, just remember that the Maktoum family has ruled Dubai for 189 years. They have endured occupation by the Ottomans and the British and have been working like crazy to elevate Dubai and the UAE ever since they Brits left in 1971.
Picking the List to Target
Citizens are naturally proud of their nations. As competitive beings, humans just cannot stop making lists ranking countries on everything from infant mortality to millionaires. As it happens, Iceland has the lowest infant mortality. 1.54 deaths for every 1,000 births. And Singapore has the world’s highest percentage of millionaires. One out of very six households.
Seeing themselves at the top of a list is important to all citizens, and which list leaders target is revealing. The worst manifestation of this phenomenon plays out in North Korea and Iran, where the leaders’ desire to be on the list of countries with the bomb is pushing their subjects further down on the list measuring life expectancy or educational attainment.
Fortunately for the citizens of the UAE, the House of Maktoum has been working to elevate Dubai and the UAE on some very different lists. Last month, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum launched the Dubai Economic Agenda – with these specific goals for the next 10 years:
Double the size of Dubai’s economy,
Get on the list of top 3 global cities,
Get on the list of top 3 international destinations for tourism and business,
Be the world’s best city to live and work in, and
Get on the list of top 4 global financial centers.
Clearly Dubai and the UAE prefer economic prosperity to bombs and missiles. They are doing pretty well so far. Here is where they stand right now:
21st in US News country rankings in 2022 (UAE)
19th in GDP per capita, $47,793 in 2022 (UAE)
World’s tallest building: Burj Khalifa, 2010, 163 floors (Dubai)
4th most valuable airline brand at $5 billion (after Delta, American, and United Airlines)
Emirates Airline
Believe it or not, we are finally to the part of this profile about Emirates Airline and marketing. The airline cannot be viewed without this context however because it is part of a complex and concerted effort by the UAE to grow an entire economy and reduce their dependence on income from the oil business.
Emirates Airline was founded in 1985 and has grown to serve 155 airports in 81 countries. Emirates operates a wide body only fleet of 119 Airbus 380s and 145 Boeing 777s. It is currently operating at 80% of pre-pandemic capacity and plans to be at full capacity by the end of 2023. Its 90,000 employees deliver over 300,000 passenger kilometers per year at full capacity. It is difficult to stack up the size rankings as the industry recovers from a 2/3 drop in volume during the pandemic, but in 2020 Emirates was considered the largest international airline by IATA, an airline trade group.
Fly Emirates, Fly Better
Emirates clearly positions itself as a premium brand. The company slogans have included "Be good to yourself and fly Emirates", "From Dubai to destinations around the world", "Fly Emirates Keep Discovering", "The finest in the sky", and "Hello Tomorrow"; the current slogan is "Fly Emirates, Fly Better". Their messaging is working. Just try to find someone that does not know you can have a private cabin on an Emirates A380 and even take a shower. The other airlines took out the lounges in favor of more seats, Emirates brought back lounges in their planes.
Emirates’ sales and marketing budget dropped from $1.5 billion to $.5 billion during the pandemic and now appears to be on the rise back to pre-pandemic levels. They have a track record of investing heavily in sponsorships over advertising. There are at least 40 teams and events in 10 sports ranging from Cricket to car racing where Emirates has invested in brand building for over 30 years. The Emirates brand is front and center at grand slam tennis events and the Americas Cup, the oldest trophy in sports.
In 2013, Bernie Ecclestone convinced both Rolex and Emirates to sign long term sponsorship deals with Formula 1, and for 10 years they were both front and center at every race. Emirates was reported to be paying $25 million per year for the sponsorship, but when Formula 1 raised the price for this year, Emirates passed and rival Qatar Airlines took over as the official airline of Formula 1.
The stated strategy of Emirates sponsorships is to dominate sports branding opportunities at the other end of the routes they fly from Dubai. Tennis and Sailing are big in Australia and New Zealand, so Emirates sponsors the Australian Open and the New Zealand Americas Cup team. Soccer, Rugby, and Cricket are big in the UK, so Emirates sponsors six soccer clubs and two soccer events, two rugby clubs and four ruby events. And then carries this strategy all around the globe.
In addition to building the Emirates brand where the international travelers hail from, Emirates is bringing the international travelers to sporting events in the UAE and other nearby destinations like Bahrain. The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship is ongoing right now through March 4th. And the Mubadala World Tennis Championship will be held in December. There are now two F1 events in the Arab world, two SailGP events, plus golf, cricket, soccer, marathons, and many other events.
Last year, after Emirates declined to renew their sponsorship of Formula 1, Sir Ben Ainslie, skipper and partial owner of the British SailGP team, called up Boutros Boutros, the Marketing Chief of Emirates, and offered him the title sponsorship for Team GBR. After all, SailGP is the Formula 1 of sailing. Last week, they announced a three year deal. You have to give Ainslie some credit for making the call. Emirates has been sponsoring the New Zealand Americas Cup sailing team since 2004 and New Zealand also has a SailGP team. It clearly never hurts to ask!
As a kid growing up in the Philippines, every time I saw a list ranking countries for something, I always looked to see where the Philippines ranked. It was often at the bottom and it always made me wish for the top. Back here in America, we are quite used to being at the top of the heap. Internationally everyone dials #1 to call the USA, the Philippines is #63, and the UAE is #971. Yeah, I know it’s meaningless because there is no #2 international code on the telephone and you dial #7 for Kazakhstan, but even silly rankings make a difference.
The House of Maktoum is determined to put Dubai and the UAE on the top of the economic lists and are deploying Emirates Airline to get them there. This will be another one to keep an eye on over the next ten years.