Responses by Aliza Siddiqi, associate creative director, Publicis Middle East.
Background: As Abu Dhabi is a country that’s overflowing with attractions, the purpose of this campaign for Louvre Abu Dhabi was to make it feel more present. Despite its global significance of the Louvre, the museum is often overlooked because it feels out of the way. Our target audience was tourists who were already moving between landmarks and making spontaneous decisions about where to go next. Since most visitors don’t realize the museum is actually closer than they think, we wanted to meet them while they were already on the move.
Design thinking: We started by questioning the role of advertising for a museum like Louvre Abu Dhabi. It already owns some of the most valuable things: the Louvre name and, of course, world-class art. That should’ve been enough. However, museum visits bring to mind full-day commitments. Our solution was to make the path to Louvre Abu Dhabi seem closer, like an easy detour. Using its art as wayfinding to do this was the cherry on top.
Challenging: Stopping ourselves from selling the museum. When you work on a brand like Louvre Abu Dhabi, the instinct is to talk about the masterpieces, the names and the prestige—basically to convince people why they should go. But we realized that if we were doing that, we were already missing the point. These artworks don’t need an introduction.
What made it challenging was committing to that simplicity. Outdoor ads in the United Arab Emirates are loud and competitive. The biggest logos and the flashiest call to actions usually take all the attention. Doing something subtle felt uncomfortable at first. It meant trusting that a glance or gesture was enough. Once we let go of overexplaining, the idea became stronger, and seeing people actually follow the art proved that simplicity can work just as hard.
Favorite details: We’re most proud of how intentionally the artworks were selected. Each piece wasn’t chosen for fame alone, but for how naturally its composition could guide someone. Nothing was forced into becoming an arrow unless it already was one. That’s what made the wayfinding system feel effortless.
New lessons: The campaign reminded us not to underestimate the audience. We sometimes assume people need things explained or spelled out, especially in OOH ads. But here, people responded really positively to something that was just art, slightly out of context, doing a simple job. They noticed it, followed it and enjoyed it.
Visual influences: This is our favorite part about the idea. We looked less at advertising references and more at the United Arab Emirates’s road infrastructure, signage, everyday urban cues and maps. Lots of maps.
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