By Muhammad Rafiq
DUBAI: Dubai Duty Free won the “Best Marketing Strategy” Award at the 3rd Middle East & Africa Duty Free Association (MEADFA) Awards held on 18th November at Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.
Held to coincide with the 22nd MEADFA conference, which was held in Abu Dhabi, UAE, the awards ceremony was held during the MEADFA Gala dinner and was hosted by Sherif Toulan, MEADFA President and CEO, International Duty Free (IDF) Trading and Agencies along with Rob Marriott, Vice President, MEADFA and CEO, Aer Rianta International Middle East (ARIME).
Dubai Duty Free was recognised for its 40th Anniversary marketing campaign, which was well implemented and demonstrated with extraordinary results.
Commenting on the award, Dubai Duty Free Managing Director Ramesh Cidambi said; “We are delighted to accept this award, which represents an 8-month marketing campaign that built up towards our 40th anniversary milestone in December last year. The campaign was wide-reaching with so many different elements and overall, there was great sense of awareness and excitement amongst our partners, our suppliers, our customers and our employees.”
Dubai Duty Free marked its 40th anniversary on 20th December 2023 and the marketing campaign was rolled out from April of that year. The campaign had a number of diverse elements that successfully created an awareness of the milestone anniversary, including a range of product and consumer promotions, podcast and videos, fun activations on social media, special supplements, print and online coverage in various trade publications and key UAE media.
As a result of the campaign, Dubai Duty Free achieved all its objectives and 2023 ended on a high note with record sales of US$2.16 billion, representing a 24% increase over the previous year. December finished with record monthly sales of US$221 million, an 8% increase compared to the same month in 2022. December sales were further fuelled by Dubai Duty Free’s 40th anniversary celebrations when the operation offered a 25% discount on 20th December, which resulted in a shopping spree of US$14.8 million for 24 hours.
This latest accolade marks the fifth MEADFA Award received by Dubai Duty Free since its inception in 2022. The operation won the Best Retailer award in 2023, the Sustainability & CSR Awards in 2022 and 2023, while the late Executive Vice Chairman & CEO, Colm McLoughlin received the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022.
Organised by the MEADFA board, the awards programme, which is now part of the annual conference, recognises innovative, dynamic and world-class travel retail specialists in the Middle East and Africa region.
Accepting the award in Abu Dhabi was Mona Al Ali, SVP – Human Resources, Michael Schmidt, SVP – Retail, Sharon Beecham, SVP – Purchasing and Zayed Al Shebli, SVP – Loss Prevention & Corporate Security.
