The Dubai-it diagnosis

By Astrid French, Head of Middle East, Aspectus Group 

Dubai-it.  

“to achieve something extraordinary with excellence in record time.  

“It’s about turning big ideas into reality, just like Dubai’s incredible transformation from desert to global city in a short span.” 

If you live in the Emirate, by now you’ll have seen it emblazoned across billboards, seen brands talk about what Dubai-it means to them and maybe even heard the shrieks of excited children shouting ‘Dubai-it!’.  

For those not familiar, it’s a new strategy (and verb) launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to pass the city’s work ethic to future generations. 

What Dubai-it means for brand marketing

It encapsulates perfectly what it means to live here. To build here. To do business here. To grow up here. To thrive here. And, the best part about it? I’ve not heard a single person that lives here disagree with it. Or even be surprised by it. That’s probably the truest mark that ‘brand Dubai’ is working. People are aligned, it’s proof pointed, and people are proud to say it.  

When a brand becomes a verb

So where am I going with this? Honestly, not where I thought. I knew I wanted to write a piece on this and how it relates to brand marketing the moment I saw it. Initially, my mind was whirring around the ‘my brand has become a verb’ moment. “Deliveroo it”, when you really just mean order some food with loads of choice quickly. “Careem it”, when you really just mean I need to get or send something quickly and reliably. We all know the ones.  

Any marketer will tell you that’s usually the dream; when your brand is so powerful and its mark on industry so strong that it ingrains into people’s everyday vocabulary. And while that’s an interesting area, I think there’s something different that ‘Dubai-it’ can really tell us about marketing.  

When a brand becomes a verb

It’s not by accident that it’s been met with such a positive reception. It’s by design. It encapsulates decades of the relentless ‘nothing is impossible’ drive, highly ambitious leadership, and the millions of talented people from all corners of the world that have made Dubai home and built the city that now rises from the desert.  

So let’s apply this principle to a business brand and marketing setting, where typically this type of pride and consensus (providing its both positive and accurate!) around your brand, product, culture is the ideal. So if Dubai-it (or what to [X]-it means for your company), is the goal, it’s worth a sense check of where you currently stand against that.  

In a world of 2 week workshops, 50 slide decks, and 100 AI audience test models, this strips things back to probably one of the simplest, fastest, yet most effective brand and marketing litmus tests. Whether it highlights a difference in perception, or shows a gap between where you want to be and where you are, it’s a rapid diagnosis that sets you off on the right track.  

Examples:  

• ‘[Insert your company here]-it’: What’s your one sentence quote? Do your team agree? If not, you’ve probably got either a culture or internal comms issue to solve. 
• ‘[Insert your product here]-it’: What’s your one sentence quote? Do your customers agree? Do they even know? If not, you’ve got a perception or awareness problem to solve (providing the price and performance of the product is doing what you need it to). 
• ‘[Insert the name of your quarterly marketing strategy meeting]-it’: Is that met with sighs and eye-rolls? If so, it might be time to shake things up.  

This exercise is a wonderful reminder that sometimes, what can feel the trickiest of challenges, can be answered or perhaps more accurately, diagnosed, with the simplest of questions. 

So if you take one thing from this read, if you’ve stayed with me this far, just try it. At your next board meeting, on your next team call. See what you find out.  

And if you want some help asking those questions, or figuring out how to tackle what they surface, drop us a line.  

Key takeaways 

What does Dubai-it teach us about brand marketing?

It shows that the strongest brand ideas are simple, memorable and rooted in genuine behavior. Dubai-it works because it reflects a lived reality, not just a campaign message.

How can businesses use the Dubai-it idea?

Businesses can turn their company, product or culture into a simple “[brand]-it” exercise. If employees or customers cannot define it clearly, there may be a gap in perception, awareness or alignment.

Why is this a useful brand marketing litmus test?

It quickly reveals whether a brand’s intended meaning matches how people actually experience it. That makes it a fast, practical way to diagnose issues before investing in bigger strategy work.

What should teams do with the answers?

Use them to identify where action is needed, whether that is internal communications, culture, positioning, customer awareness, product performance or marketing strategy.

About the author

Astrid French, based in our Dubai office, leads Aspectus Middle East, and is responsible for overseeing its direction, fostering its growth, and cultivating strong client relationships. Her experience spearheading global, integrated communications programs is layered with a deep understanding of strategic nuances in the region. Astrid has worked with a range of clients, from energy supermajors and early-stage tech investors, to prestigious private banks.