Emirates Business 24/7 reports that Citiscape 2008, the international real estate show held in Dubai this week, is expected to boost the ad spend for the fourth quarter of 2008. Apparently, industry professionals are voicing their concern about the shortage of space in print media for non-real estate advertisers.

During Cityscape, starting today 6th of October and ending on the 9th, real estate is taking up more than 70 per cent of advertising space. With newspapers already overwhelmed with limited spaces and increased demand, the trend shifts to special operations with more belly-wraps, full wraps and false pages.

The international financial crisis has not affected the local real estate nor ad spend. Cityscape is even expected to establish a larger success during its seventh edition this year, to prove to investors that the local and regional market will continue to see large demands and profitable projects.

Cityscape Dubai features more than 400 real estate and home financing institutions.

Here's something you don't see everyday!

Group Plus, an outdoor media owner and operator across the region, has unveiled this fantastic Hummer outdoor promotion in the UAE. The campaign is entitled "Hummer Special Operation".

According to Group Plus, "The outdoor aims at delivering the message 'Taking you to what lies beyond the borders of your imagination' through lifting a Hummer and placing it right smack in the middle of a gigantic wall sign in Dubai."

Impressive, without a doubt.

If you live in the UAE, there's no escaping the massive du campaign now running through multiple media outlets. For the most part, it has been well received, but you may be wondering what it's all about; and what's the idea of that water effect rippling throughout?

Apparently, the campaign focuses on water as an analogy to express the telecom’s brand attributes.

A spokesperson for du’s brand campaign says that, “Water brings people together, it comes from inside us, it allows us to travel far, and it expresses itself with power or as a whisper. And of course, it is all around us in our daily life. This is how we see communication and we want to take it further.”

What do you think?