TRACCS wins IPRA Golden World Award for Dubai Summer Surprises

Trans-Arabian Creative Communications (TRACCS) has won the prestigious IPRA Golden World Award 2008 in the travel and tourism category for its campaign for Dubai Summer Surprises, the region’s leading summer entertainment event.

The regional agency, which operates in every market in the Middle East and North Africa and celebrated its first decade in business this year, is the only public relations practice from the Middle East and North Africa to win the coveted international award in any category in 2008.

The campaign created by TRACCS for the Dubai Shopping Festival Office, organizers of Dubai Summer Surprises, introduced two innovative programs that aimed to effectively raise awareness of the signature summer event in external markets across the region with a humanitarian and educational focus.

The first program devised by the agency was the launch of the Modhesh Goodwill Tour across 6 markets in the region, where the lovable mascot visited severely handicapped and terminally ill children in hospitals and care centres. The program, which immediately preceded the grand opening of DSS, generated sympathetic front page coverage across the region and made DSS a talking point in Gulf societies.

The second program created and introduced by TRACCS was the Dubai Summer Surprises Apprenticeship Program, which brought university marketing students from 7 countries across the MENA region to Dubai for an intensive professional exposure to the largest and most successful summer entertainment event. Again, the program generated major media interest and has established an institution within DSS which in 2008 is set to go global!

‘The Golden World Award is a wonderful affirmation, not only of the work our agency has been able to do but also of the Dubai Shopping Festival Management Team,’ said Majdi Al Ayed, Deputy Managing Director of TRACCS in Dubai. ‘Without their confidence and support a program as complex as this would have been impossible to pull off. We could also not have achieved the level of success we have had across the region without the wholehearted support and excellent coverage we received from the media in every country involved.’

Al Ayed added that the real reward has been to see the delight on children’s faces when Modhesh came to visit them and to witness how much the apprentices gained from their experience working in DSS. ‘We are an agency that has been dedicated from day one to introducing social responsibility into the practice of public relations and we’re gratified that this particular program has been recognised by IPRA for excellence. We believe that the DSS campaigns are an expression of public relations with heart.’

TRACCS management is due to receive the award in a gala ceremony in London which will draw global PR agency leaders and practitioners.