Dubai Duty Free wins the Frontier Award for Marketing

Dubbed as the 'Oscars of the duty free industry', Dubai Duty Free fought off intense competition from the world's foremost travel and duty-free retailers to emerge the winner. The operation's entry focused on its 25th Anniversary campaign, which, according to the Frontier judges, highlighted an extended campaign that was well thought out and executed and had extraordinary results.

Accepting the award in Cannes, Colm McLoughlin, Managing Director of Dubai Duty Free said:

"I am delighted to accept this award which represents a ten month marketing campaign that celebrated our 25 years of business. The campaign brought together so many different elements and overall there was great sense of awareness and excitement around the milestone anniversary."

"The campaign spread across the entire operation and my thanks to everyone at Dubai Duty Free for their involvement. Thanks as always to H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority and Chairman of Dubai Airports, for his unstinting support."

Dubai Duty Free marked its 25th Anniversary on December 20th 2008, but the marketing campaign was rolled out in April of that year. A series of initiatives, including the publication of a book entitled 'Fly Buy Dubai' and a 30 minute documentary, form great historical references for the company as well as the duty free industry itself.

The Anniversary campaign culminated on the anniversary day itself, when a 25% discount across a wide range of products resulted in a spending frenzy and daily sales of $20m - the equivalent of the first full year of sales (in 1984). The anniversary celebrations came to a fitting end on January 9th when top British band, Simply Red performed for an audience of 500 guests at a black tie dinner at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Dubai.

This latest award marks the 10th Frontier Award received by Dubai Duty Free since the awards began in 1984. The operation has won the Marketing Award three times now (1986, 1990 and 2009), while it has won the Airport Retailer of the Year award a record five times (1985, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2007). In 1986, Managing Director Colm McLoughlin, won the Frontier Award for 'Duty Free Person of the Year' and in 2004, he became only the second person after Dr. Brendan O' Regan, the 'founder' of the duty free industry, to win a Frontier 'Lifetime Achievement Award'.