Check out the latest interview with Adham Badr, the Brand Manager of Barbican, Aujan Industries and Barbican Turbo’s number one fan.
1. Why has Barbican chosen to sponsor Barbican Turbo for a 3rd year?
Well, we see Barbican Turbo as the number one custom car show in the Middle East now, its come along way in such a short space of time. Sponsoring Barbican Turbo has given us a cost effective way to gain exposure for Barbican with our customers and to interact with them face-to-face. We can’t get this type of interaction anywhere else and our Return on Investment is unbeatable so far any other way.
The youth market is notoriously difficult to reach and to impress, meaning we have to think hard and devise better ways to get to them and in many different ways. Barbican Turbo allows us to do this and to do it the best we can. By continuing to support it each year, by being more creative or innovative than the previous we are also able to get the respect of our customers and are able to hold on to them too.
Awareness of the brand among our core target market has definitely increased especially as the event is jointly branded with Barbican and so have sales, although I can’t give you specific figures I’m afraid. Being part of the event has undoubtedly created new customers, generated
preference for Barbican and reinforced the brand with existing customers as well, what more can I say.
Extensive pre and post show marketing activity, positive P.R. for Barbican and activity during the show helps to improve the brands position too – through education about the brand and
the flavours available, sampling and indirectly through entertainment on the Barbican stage. The show attracted over 19,000 visitors in the 1st year and over 26000 in the 2nd year over the 3 days between Barbican Turbo and its sister event Adrenaline Sports Live presented by Rani and that’s great news for us.
Our excellent working relationship with United Business Media who is the organiser of the event also means that the decision to continue to sponsor the event was an easy one to make and we look forward to developing this relationship in the future and working with them for the third year and longer term.
2. What are your expectations for this year?
We’re extremely excited about the event this year as it will be even bigger and better than the previous two. The event should attract some 30,000 visitors over the 3 days – a truly phenomenal amount of people for a show in its 3rd year.
UBM has plenty of activities planned to engage with the community and is also on a massive push to add a proper exhibition to the event, Barbican Turbo will be the number one event for custom car and aftermarket parts as well for entertainment and lifestyle in this field. In my mind, I see all of the custom car, modified car, car tuning, aftermarket parts and accessories brands and garages from around the UAE and beyond at the event. That’s what we would like to see.
As I’ve said, this year Barbican Turbo will include an exhibition for all things custom, modified, tuning car and bike, plus the Best in Show competition, the UAE Sound Off, the UAE Power Championships, RC cars competition, the Top 50 bikes, the City Ride, world-class drifting and drift taxis, the gaming zone and the Barbican stage.
As a brand Barbican wants to further cement our relationship with the event in the minds of our customers as there is a direct link between our brand, our customers, custom cars and motorcycles and the urban and youth culture. We also want to give our customers and visitors to the event an exciting and enjoyable experience and we’re 100% sure we will do this.
3.What kind of presence can we expect this year?
Our presence will be increased at the event this year and will include the branding of flags, the drifting arena, and directional signage, the entrance archways and of course the Barbican stage. The stage will be covered in branding and will include sampling of all 7 Barbican flavours by hosts and hostesses – last year we gave away over 5000 bottles as samples mixed into cocktails with our Cocktail flarers from the U.K. Urban-based activity and entertainment also attracted visitors and included dancers, DJ’s, free-runners, graffiti artists and 2 headline acts. The prize-giving for the Top 100, Sound Off and Dyno competitions were also held on our stage.
Of course, in typical Barbican style we’ll also be doing plenty of promotion before the event, this is definitely crucial in attracting our customers to Barbican Turbo and has given it further credibility among custom fans in the region.
4. You mentioned promoting Barbican Turbo in other media, tell us more about that?
Sure, Barbican and United Business Media are marketing the event heavily across various channels to build excitement among our core target market of Emirati males, age 18-24, to make them want to visit the event and to maximise attendance. We will also use our media buying agency to assist with media planning, we even have plans to do our own Barbican Turbo custom car TV show.
Marketing activity has increased this year and focuses on social marketing; there is over 3200 fans on the show Facebook group and over 1100 followers on Twitter who Barbican Turbo interacts with daily; online advertising on sites such as Facebook, Google, MSN instant messaging and YouTube to drive traffic to the Barbican Turbo website; SMS, outdoor advertising on mupis; activity on Radio 1, Al Rabia’a, Al Khaleejiah and Arabiya and others; magazine and newspaper advertising; competitions in print; E-newsletters to targeted databases over 1.3 million, television advertising and competitions on a mix of channels and programmes to maximise reach; and an event roadshow visiting high traffic and relevant areas in Abu Dhabi and Dubai including universities and gaming events.
The event is also covered extensively by the media over the last 2 years including in The National, Al Khaleej, What’s On, Wheels, Time Out, Car Middle East, IQ, 4Men, Arab Motors TV, Auto Salon (Australia) and many more and we expect it to be the same this time around.
5. What is the extent of Barbican’s sponsorship in terms of marketing and event schedules?
We are fully involved and committed to the sponsorship of the event. This includes working closely with United Business Media through the year to develop activities for the event, to work on schedules and to contribute to the marketing of the event as already mentioned. We have a fantastic working relationship with the team from United Business Media and this certainly helps us get the most from our event association and branding.
6. What other events does Barbican have in the future?
We will continue to work with United Business Media and Barbican Turbo as our goals for the event are the same – to develop it over the longer term, that is for several years and to continue to make it the number one custom car show including custom cars, modified cars, car tuning, bikes and motorsports, and Barbican of course. The event is a way for us to share experiences with our customers and to create enthusiasm for Barbican. UBM also has plans to take the event abroad, maybe to Saudi Arabia, so watch this space, when they go Barbican will be there, and that’s for sure.
