Dubai departments merge to form Wasl

A new entity called Wasl, incorporating the Real Estate Department and the Dubai Development Board was launched recently with an elaborate branding exercise involving media exposure in every possible medium. Wasl will be an asset management group under Dubai Real Estate Corporation (Drec).

Alya Al Mutawa, head of Marketing and Corporate Communications at Drec talking about the advertising and branding campaign, said: "The challenge was in maintaining the relevance and significance of the two entities and yet convey the new objectives of the new entity that was born out of the union. Wasl means connections in Arabic."

The bonding between the two establishments formed one of the core requirements for the branding campaign that had to be simple yet effective, complex but not complicated with the ability to send lasting impressions, as long lasting as the emirate of Dubai itself, said Alya.

"To reach the core of this campaign and the message, we went to the roots of the emirate, when it was fondly called Wasl. Dubai was strategically placed at the heart of all the trade routes and was referred to as Wasl, meaning connections," Alya said. "We have more than 14,000 customers and we maintain a constant link with them. We use some of the most basic means, like posters and flyers, and modern ones, such as SMS and e-mail," Alya said.

All this points to the obvious choice of the new identity that took months of discussions and elaborate thought processes among the people involved from the establishment and the design house O2 that came up with the brand identity for Wasl.

The Dubai Real Estate Corporation, along with the Dubai Development Board, has played a vital role in the development of the emirate and has grown into a company that has gone beyond providing affordable housing.

The establishment today manages housing projects of its own and for other individuals and establishments.

Their commercial activities have grown into managing five-star properties such as Dusit Dubai and investments beyond the boundaries of the emirate.

"The name of the corporation itself was a constrain on the identity. By defining 'Dubai real estate' we were limiting ourselves geographically and in our commercial activities," explained Alya, elaborating on the need to have something universal in appeal for choosing the new name for the asset management entity. One of the options was to abbreviate the whole name and maintain the mandate and connectivity between the new entity and the old," said Alya, but that was not convincing in the wake of so many abbreviated identities already floating in the emirate.

Eventually, the name Wasl was picked and approved by the authorities and then came the process of conveying the message and its brand value. O2, the media house that was assigned that responsibility, started working on the options and after months of trial and error, came the eventual "flow of connectivity conveyed in hues and lines that are self explanatory", Alya revealed.

The same message was later converted into various mediums, including the audio signature that's in use in all the audio and video campaigns in most of the local and regional channels and radio stations.

In support of the brand identity, Alya said with conviction: "Wasl is used by many other entities including a hospital, sports club even mobile service of etisalat. However, we went a step further and conveyed the meaning and purpose of this title and the business of the entity in its deign.

"The same unison of connectivity conveyed by the term Wasl is translated in visuals, audio branding and of course in the print media."

To launch and popularise the new brand, the establishment has embarked on a very costly media campaign, with outdoor exposure in almost every part of Dubai and regular AV advertisements on every possible station and channel of the region. The result is Wasl establishing a lasting connectivity with all its consumers and clients.

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