Emirates is at its again by strapping a ‘flight attendant’ to the very top of the world’s tallest building as part of a crazy marketing stunt to advertise Dubai and the delayed Expo 2020 event taking place in the city through to the end of March.
Stunt woman Nicole Smith-Ludvik first made headlines around the world last August when, dressed in the iconic Emirates flight attendant uniform, she appeared aloft the 829.8 metre tall Burj Khalifa skyscraper in downtown Dubai.
Held to the tower with just a single safety wire, Smith-Ludvik carried out the stunt without any green screen or CGI wizardry. Instead, a helicopter circled around as the ‘flight attendant’ held up a series of cards after days of meticulous rehearsals on the ground.
The video stunt was carried out to celebrate the reopening of quarantine-free travel between Dubai and the United Kingdom but the campaign has since been adapted to advertise Emirates and Dubai in other markets around the world.
This time around, though, Emirates put Smith-Ludvik back atop the Burj Khalifa to coincide with a low-level flypast of the airline’s Expo 2020 themed Airbus A380 superjumbo (which features a massive picture of Smith-Ludvik on its side).
The low-level flypasts took place last October as part of a secretive project and the end result has only now been released.
The A380’s bright blue special livery took 4,379 man-hours over 16-days to complete. The aircraft has been flying throughout Emirates’ route network which features the A30 in order to plug the Expo.
In the first three months of the Expo, organisers say more than 8 million visitors have so far made it to the park on the outskirts of Duabi. Visitors to the UAE can get free tickets to Dubai if they book with Emirates.
Now that is cool! This is excellent marketing.
If only….have tickets can’t fly because I’m from South Africa!!!!!