The branding of Abu Dhabi will be familiar to anyone who has been in the city recently: its name, often accompanied by a swirling red-and-white oval in Arabic-style calligraphy, seems to be everywhere. Now, 18 months on from the launch of the "Abu Dhabi" logo and brand identity, the team that created it is hard at work on a new project: a campaign to attract foreign direct investment.
The Office of the Brand of Abu Dhabi (Obad) has been working with the Department of Planning and Economy for five months and hopes to have something to unveil within the next year, said Reem al Shemari, the Obad general manager. "We need to test it and to make sure it's working with all the target markets, and aligning with the vision of the Government," she said. It took two years for Obad to devise the Abu Dhabi brand. The logo is now a regular feature in the capital and beyond. It has been promoted at a number of international events after it was first exposed to European audiences at the World Travel Market in London in Nov 2007.
The brand accompanies iconic shots, picked from the 2,000 entries submitted to Obad's photography competition, and images of upcoming sports events, such as the F1 Grand Prix in November and next week's Red Bull Air Race. The signs greet visitors to the city on the route from Abu Dhabi International Airport to their hotels. The logo - and an accompanying campaign to help the emirate attract tourists, business partners and associations that will appreciate and respect the city's culture - was developed with the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority and the creative agency M&C Saatchi.
It was not until the group was well into the planning stages, however, that Ms al Shemari realised there was no Arabic word for "brand". "There's no translation," she said. "It's either 'identity' or a 'trademark'." Instead the group came up with a combination of two words, which mean "media identity", and they have transferred well, she said. The Abu Dhabi brand is grounded in the notion of "respect", and based on the emirate's culture, tradition and people.
From the outset the Government wanted to stay away from a "sun and sand" sales pitch, preferring something more meaningful and sustainable. "As we continue to develop and grow, it's important to stay true to our assets," said Ms al Shemari. The topic of branding was addressed in a session on the last day of the Global City 2009 conference at the Emirates Palace hotel. The dramatic pace of growth and ambitious scale of projects have put Abu Dhabi on the world map - a transition with which other destinations, even some that are much older and more developed, continue to struggle. For a brand to work, the people who live in the city have to believe in it, said Carol Colleta, the chief executive and president of the US organisation CEOs for Cities.
When Baltimore in Maryland rebranded itself with the phrase "Baltimore is better", it caused an uproar and was quickly revamped to simply "believe". Even then vandals amended the signs to read "behave", said Ms Colleta. The brand also has to attract locals, and a focus on attracting nearby residents is how Melbourne, Australia, went about reinventing itself as a destination to rival Sydney, said Kathy Alexander, the city's chief executive.
As an example of one of the challenges of developing a brand for a city, Thomas Sevcik, the chief executive of the Zurich-based creative agency Arthesia, said he had compared Rotterdam, Zurich and Amsterdam's descriptions of themselves on their official websites. They were, he said, almost impossible to distinguish. While many cities are proud of their population, location and international nature as a selling point, they alone are not always enough to differentiate a destination from its competition.
Branding works best in tandem with urban and regional planning, he said. "Positioning the city has to be the second part of developing the city." Ms al Shemari believes that is why Abu Dhabi's branding will go on to embody the emirate for years to come. The growth of the emirate has been so fast that her office was forced to be reactive, but it also meant the brand was maturing in step with other departments.
amcqueen@thenational.ae
