Come on Kerala — Birth of Hopes & Hopey
Come on Kerala — Birth of Hopes & Hopey
The largest circulated Indian newspaper in the Middle East and the creators of milestone events in the region — Gulf Madhyamam developed an idea to initiate the biggest Indian International Expo in UAE. They named it Come on Kerala! Yes, as the name indicates the Expo focuses on promoting Kerala. Come on Kerala aims in nurturing and strengthening the cultural and business relationship of UAE and Kerala.
Unlike the conventional Expos happening in the city, this event can simultaneously entertain the visitors with various cultural programs and engage business personalities with seminars, expert talks and panel discussions.
The Initial requirement from the Client-side was to develop a mascot to represent this great event. After continuous research and brainstorming within the team, our creative head Mr. Nausheer sketched a logo with a parrot as the mascot. The parrot was a good choice being a very common bird seen in Kerala. The logo came out well with vibrant colors giving a celebration mood and a positive vibe which really suits the event theme.
The logo was unanimously welcomed by the client.
The newspaper teaser campaign was a brilliant idea and it succeeded in generating curiosity among its readers. The first was a Hopey’s flight from a coconut palm and second is parrot flying to a date palm without showing parrot in both the Ads, but only the path and direction of its flight. This beautifully conveys the journey of a bird from Kerala to Arabia. The third teaser was landing of parrot over Burj Khalifa, directly representing the launch of the event at UAE.
To make the event more interesting, we suggested giving an opportunity to the public to name the Mascot. And finally, the name ’Hopey’ was chosen.
Since then, it was a fascinating journey of developing a colorful atmosphere for Hopey to explore. The developments A-Z collateral and digital designs of a massive event started rolling out.
Our major challenge was to highlight a celebration mood throughout the deigns and collateral by maintaining a tone of B2B sessions and commercial scope of the event. Over 80 newspaper adverts released all over the editions in GCC and India boosted the event publicity. We developed the website, implemented digital marketing strategies through social media pages with designs bringing a carnival feel. The collaterals designed by NRay became the highlight of the event and was well appreciated by the audience.
The event was a huge success with a participation of over 163,000 visitors in 2018 and over 200,000 in 2019. The Sharjah Expo center recognized Come on Kerala as the biggest Indian event happened in the history of UAE.
We’re glad that Come on Kerala is now established as the grand event of Indians in UAE. Thank you Gulf Madhyamam for this great opportunity to undertake the branding of such a wonderful event.
