- Peyman Younes Parham, right, Director of Marketing & Corporate Communication, with Ramadan Abdulla Mohamed, Director of Operations RTA, at the press conference.
In a press conference on Sunday at the headquarters of Roads and Transport Authority, senior handlers announced they hired Saatchi & Saatchi Co. to reach out to an expected 23,000 riders per hour in each direction of the Red Line when the metro opens September 9, 2009.
The RTA did not divulge the cost of the project but said it will reach out to Dubai residents through newspapers and magazines as well as signboards and radio stations.
Saatchi & Saatchi has an extensive global reach with more than 150 branches and 6,000 employees in 86 countries.
Starting soon, the campaign will run for one year over three phases and will educate the public about all things metro from the “metro operation, fare, public services, (and) station services” to “multi-modal integration and security and safety”.
Ramadan Abdulla Mohammad, Director of Operations Department at RTA Rail Agency, told reporters that the campaign is an important reminder to help people change their movement patterns to reduce traffic congestion.
The push is to boost the existing six per cent public transport ridership currently in Dubai to 17 per cent of people using the metro.
The project will transform “the behavioural pattern, lifestyle and thoughts of many people in Dubai., to materialize this transition, intensive marketing and awareness campaigns have to be launched”.
Elias Ashqar, Regional Executive Director of Saatchi & Saatchi Co. called the new campaign “a fantastic strategic project” and thanked the RTA “for your trust in Saatchi & Saatchi”.
Ashqar said the campaign has the “potential to transform the minds of a lot of people in Dubai”.
