Corporate Rebranding

When initially launched, Dubai World Central was primarily conceived as a mega real estate offering. Changing marketplace, economic conditions and mind-sets of people within the region and across the globe had rendered this message less relevant and appropriate. After an organizational restructuring and re-prioritization of Dubai World Central’s business objectives, there was a need to align the brand to better communicate DWC’s new value proposition.

MBLM focused on shifting the perspective from functional to aspirational—highlighting a vision for what the 140-square-kilometer master-planned aerotropolis could provide. We developed a concept dubbed “propelling commerce” that highlighted the end benefits to the customers of DWC and cemented the project as an economic engine/platform for Dubai’s future economic growth. We also streamlined the brand architecture to put a greater emphasis on the cohesive whole—maximizing the marketing expenditures and investments around a single brand rather than the eight brands that were focused on in the past. The same strategy was visually executed with refinements around the identity and unification across the different components.

The new brand positioning helped provide a framework for the internal organization to speak about the project and helped seed a common language and foundation for all marketing activities.