It's game on for builders

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With many projects in the UAE vying for attention, some developments have turned to sports stars to boost their profile. Hugo Berger takes a long, hard look at this phenomenon.

It is estimated that 3% of all of the world's trade is related to sport.

The image of super-fit people, battling it out for immense prizes while being cheered on by adoring fans is one that the marketing world has wholeheartedly embraced.

These days it is hard to open a magazine or turn on the television without seeing a perfume, car, clothing range or soft drink not backed by the face of a sports star.

As the construction boom in the Middle East continues to heat up, the need for developers to draw attention to their new schemes is becoming more intense.

And so it was only a matter of time before developers looked to sports players to give their projects that extra sparkle.

Already, many new sporting developments have had a sports celebrity willing to lend his or her name to it.

Colin Montgomery has a golf course in Dubai named after him, soccer legend Pelé is backing a football academy in Abu Dhabi and tennis champion Maria Sharapova is endorsing tennis facilities at Dubai Lifestyle City.

Yet the trend for celebrity sports star endorsements moved a step further when German developer ACI announced the Trilogy Project.

Anyone driving down the Sheikh Zayed Road will have seen the huge billboards with the faces of tennis ace Boris Becker and motor racing greats Michael Schumacher and Niki Lauda on them.

The advertisements are there to promote the three new business tower projects in Dubai's Business Bay named after the Teutonic sporting heroes.

For a golf course or a football academy, it is an obvious choice to have a legend of that sporting discipline add to the prestige of the development. Yet what is the link between a sports star and a business tower?

Robin Lohmann, managing director, ACI, insists there is no anomaly in choosing a sportsman to endorse a purely commercial scheme. Instead, he claims, it is a novel way of making ACI's project stand out in Dubai's intensely cut-throat property market.

Lohmann says: "All of the associations have been successful in communicating our promise with our target audience and breaking the clutter in a competitive marketing environment that exists in the Dubai property market.

"While they may come from specific parts of Europe, importantly, our brand ambassadors are international icons - recognised globally as having achieved milestones in their respective fields."

And Lohmann insists the marketing scheme was not just an excuse for the sportsmen to take a huge cheque to add to their already healthy bank balances.

"ACI's Trilogy project alongside such greats as Schumacher and Niki Lauda is both staggering and humbling," he says.

"The key reason for this success has been due to the hands-on involvement of these legends in the design and planning of respective towers and today they each sit on the board of directors for their respective buildings.

"This is a clear departure from traditional celebrity product endorsement."

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