MAM
DTCM unveils marketing campaign ‘Dubai Heart’
MUMBAI:The Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) has launched a huge marketing campaign titled ‘Dubai Heart’. The campaign essentially targets international tourists and residents of Dubai. Running through the upcoming Arabian Travel Market 2005 (ATM), DTCM will participate with a 623 square metre stand. ATM, scheduled from May 3 to 6 at the Dubai World Trade Centre, is the leading travel trade event for the Middle East and and Pan Arab region and is expected to attract significant numbers of international travel and hospitality trade professionals. The department has also planned several on-site promotions at ATM to coincide with the new campaign, to promote Dubai in international markets.
“The heart means different things to different people and is symbolic of the courage and dynamism shown by our leaders in creating a trade and tourism destination unlike any other,” says DTCM head Bin Hareb.
Considering Dubai attracts visitors from around the world and is currently home to people from over 150 different nationalities who live and work in the emirate, the campaign hopes to embody the vibrancy of Dubai connect with people at large from all walks of life.
Justifying the rationale for using real people, Hareb adds, “Our experience in promoting Dubai over the years has helped us devise this campaign and incorporate pragmatic elements into the brand communications to connect with the target audience.”
“Increasing media fragmentation, ease of changing channels, shortened attention span of consumers and the sheer volume of marketing messages means a lot of noise but very little opportunity for a message to reach its target audience. Consumers too have become more sophisticated so we have moved beyond traditional branding to enable the consumer to be immersed in the brand and have made use of real people living in Dubai as models to develop a stronger association,” stresses Bin Hareb.
Hareb points out that the campaign provides essential attributes of consumer engagement that will enable them to stand out in a crowded market-place.
The heart in the campaign is meant to reflect Dubai’s character – strong, healthy and vibrant and full of life.
The campaign features a Dubai logo, with an open D signifying an open-minded culture; the font denoting motion reflecting Dubai’s fast-paced growth and development, and a bold typeface, reflecting the clear and bold impact that Dubai is making across the world.
The campaign is set to break on 1 May across newspapers, on radio, television, on the DTCM website,on taxicabs, at the airport, at visitor information bureaus throughout the city as well as leading hotels in the emirate simultaneously.
The department has also organized radio promotions to give-away ‘Dubai Heart’ merchandise including caps, T-shirts, pins and mugs.
The print advertisements will feature local residents and expatriates talking about why they love Dubai. “The campaign has a strong emotional appeal to allow people to easily identify what makes Dubai tick,” says DTCM manager media and advertising Ahmed Al Tunaiji.
The campaign has been timed to coincide with the staging of ATM to target large groups of delegates and visitors from key international markets. The DTCM stand will display ‘Dubai Heart’ branding prominently. The stand will also feature a wind tower dispensing Dubai Heart embossed stress balls to ATM visitors. DTCM information kiosks in Dubai and across the city as well as the dedicated arrivals counter for ATM delegates at Dubai International Airport will have Dubai Heart branding.
DTCM oversees the licensing of hotels, hotel apartments, tour operators, and tour guides. It promotes and markets Dubai across the world through a network of 14 Overseas Representation (OR) offices. The department manages heritage sites and the region’s first and only dedicated cruise terminal.
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
