du, part of Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC) has been awarded the Advertiser of the Year prize by Dubai Lynx 2018, the MENA region's premier festival of creativity and recognized globally as a benchmark for creative excellence. The award is presented annually to an advertiser in the MENA region who sets itself apart through the high caliber of its creativity, allied with innovative marketing and communications campaigns over the past four years.
During this four-year period, du has won 39 Dubai Lynx Awards including 3 Grands Prix, 13 Gold, 16 Silver and 7 Bronze. Last year's success centered around the launch of #PostWisely, a campaign that encourages the online community in the UAE and internationally to be more mindful of what they share of their personal lives across social networks.
The Public Safety Announcement platform enjoyed a recent reboot in February 2018, questioning the ethics of sharing negative content to your social following and demonstrates once more the telecommunication company's strong desire to connect with its customer base on an emotional level.
"We are proud and honored to receive this award as recognition of our hard work throughout 2017, to connect with and shift behavior of residents of the UAE," said Osman Sultan, CEO of Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC). "As a leading brand of one of the world's leading nations we see it as our duty to deliver reliable and quality communications solutions whilst at the same time through storytelling contribute to overall wellbeing. Brands can no longer broadcast a monologue but must instigate and interact in conversations that contribute to the community in which they operate."
The award is the latest in more than a decade of success for the ICT solutions company, which has been able to launch campaigns that have a positive impact on the lives of UAE residents. In addition to "PostWisely", in recent years du released "Tropa", demonstrating a keen insight into the strong values within a large demographic in the community, and "DigitalFasting", reflecting on our need to be connected through technology during Ramadan 2016.
Highlighting the innovation in use today in its marketing communications, the telco is also hyper-targeting communities via social media alerting mobile users of network upgrades in their locale.
"Our communications celebrate the individuals in our society. With over 100 nationalities residing in the UAE it is impossible and ineffective for us to speak to them as one. du and EITC as a whole wants to humanize technology and integrate further into peoples' lives - we cannot do that as a faceless, humorless corporation without engaging or emotional values," Mr. Sultan added.
"With the onset of society-changing technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence and IoT connecting billions of objects together, it is essential we harness the possibilities whilst retaining our humanity," he said.
du was presented with the Advertiser of the Year Award at the Dubai Lynx Awards Ceremony on 14 March 2018 at the Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai, UAE. The celebration of the best creativity from across the MENA region brings to a close the three-day festival of inspiration and learning.
