Ad Agency Employees Go MIA in Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Campaign

After months of work with their advertising partner Impact BBDO Dubai, the Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority were ready to shoot their new summer campaign, at various locations throughout the city. But when the stills production was scheduled to start, the only people who arrived were the RAKTDA marketing team. It would later come to light that the agency creatives were enjoying hiking, kayaking, relaxing spa days and soaking up the sun at the beaches and luxury hotel pools in Ras Al Khaimah, when they should’ve been doing their jobs. So, instead of cancelling the shoots and risking not meeting the media deadline, the tourism team decided to step up and take the shots themselves.

Using personal cameras, finance executive Marjorie Benito, R&D member Zoe Zuo, HR manager Sara Alzaabi, procurement manager Ian, IT expert Hari, and licensing executive Saeed went to various locations including the beach, a luxury hotel pool and the mountainside of Jebel Jais, and captured all the fun of RAK during summer. The results are the blurry, over-exposed and questionably-framed images of an unintentionally hilarious campaign aptly renamed 'RAK Summer. Unscripted.' And you can appreciate the amateur glory of all six images, on RAKTDA’s social media, as OOH placed throughout the Dubai Mall and on numerous roadside billboards.

Things got even more interesting when it came to the making of their three, short-format films. Faced with absent directors and producers, and a looming deadline, RAKTDA had no other option but to reach out to visiting tourists and ask them to capture the various locations on camera. The wannabe cameramen and women obliged, using their phones to record each of the sites they visited. However, staying true to the spirit of the campaign, things did not go as planned. Look out for the series of dodgy launch films online and at a cinema near you. Just remember – there were average joes behind the camera, so laughing is discouraged.

RAKTDA CEO Raki (yes, his real name and only a coincidence) Phillips even moonlit as a voice talent in the radio spot, which is simply a voice note of him complaining about the copywriter not turning up at the studio recording. When asked about the tumultuous production, he had this to say “We know that Ras Al Khaima is packed with amazing places and fun activities that our visitors love to take the time to explore, but we had no idea that these so called “professionals” would enjoy them so much, that they wouldn’t turn up for work? The agency has a lot of explaining to do.”

​Ali Rez, Impact BBDO Dubai’s chief creative officer, said, “I am currently out of the office, relaxing on some of the gorgeous beaches that Ras Al Khaimah has. A reply will therefore be delayed.”

This journalist tried to get responses from the creatives in question, but none could be gotten a hold of. Be sure to watch this space for any more developments in this unusual story.