Campaigns & BTL.

A campaign is above-the-line and below-the-line activity working to the same idea. Above-the-line (ATL) is paid media aimed at a broad, untargeted audience: television, radio, print, cinema and outdoor. Below-the-line (BTL) is direct, targeted activity aimed at a defined group in a defined place: sampling, in-store activation, roadshows, events and point-of-sale. We plan and produce both.

We have run ATL and BTL activity for Ferrero Rocher, Clorox, Sadia, Kitco, Silal Fresh, Acqua Panna, Bulduk, Leibniz Fruits, Yango and Coca-Cola, among many others, across the UAE and Pakistan.

At a glance

What we produce

• ATL creative. TVC, radio, print, cinema and outdoor, all cut from one campaign idea
• BTL activation. Sampling, in-store and mall activation, roadshows and experiential stands
• Point of sale. Displays, standees and shelf systems designed for the retail environment they sit in
• Event and conference branding. The physical build and every graphic on it
• Campaign photography and film. The asset library every other channel then draws from
• Digital and social adaptation. The same idea resized and recut for the feed, not an afterthought

ATL and BTL are not competing budgets

They answer different questions. ATL asks how many people know the brand exists; BTL asks how many of them will pick it up. Splitting the two across separate agencies is what produces a TVC and a sampling stand that look like they belong to different companies, and it is the most common reason campaign spend underperforms in this region.

Retail is the hardest room to design for

An activation stand competes with everything else in a supermarket aisle at the same moment: other brands, other promoters, and a shopper who did not come in to talk to anyone. That constrains the design: one readable message at walking distance, a reason to stop that takes under two seconds to understand, and a build that survives being assembled and struck by different crews on consecutive days.

Where activation meets the rest of the work

Campaign work rarely stays in one discipline. The stand needs print and out-of-home production, the shelf needs packaging that holds up next to it, the asset library comes from photography and film, and the whole idea has to survive being cut down for social. Running those from one studio is the point of the structure.

On the ground in the UAE: Arsh Marketing

Arsh Marketing is our sister company, a brand activation and promotions agency in Dubai. The arrangement runs both ways: they staff and build the on-ground half of a campaign, and we produce the digital, film, photography and web side of theirs. A brand can brief either company and get both.

What they run on the floor: in-store and mall activations with sampling and brand talk, road shows and corporate and mall events, exhibition stands designed, fabricated, printed and installed, kiosks and mascots, and trained promoters briefed on product knowledge before doors open. They also apply for the UAE government permits each activation needs.

They have activated for Clorox, Ferrero, Kinder, Pringles, P&G, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Lipton, Capri-Sun, Britannia, Careem, Acqua Panna and S.Pellegrino, Camelicious, Saudia, Daawat and St Dalfour, among others, and have built stands for shows including Gulfood and Cityscape Abu Dhabi. Their activation work is here.

What a sampling day actually looks like

Most of BTL is the run sheet. A typical in-store sampling day on an Arsh activation runs like this, with the timings moving to suit the store:

The 13:00 line is the part most brands underuse. A supervisor already standing in the aisle can log shelf price, stock availability and what the competitor is running that week, which is the same data Arsh sells as price mapping and sell-out reporting, and as mystery shopping. An activation that reports nothing but samples handed out leaves the cheapest market research in the business on the table.

Digital activation, not just a stand

A stand reaches the shopper in front of it. A campaign microsite reaches the one buying from the shelf next door. Arsh runs spin-the-wheel, scan-and-win, receipt-upload promotions and prize draws as microsites sitting behind an in-store mechanic. The recent Clorox Spin & Win ran in participating Carrefour UAE stores: shoppers bought, uploaded the receipt and spun for appliance prizes. We build that side of it.