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SIX IDEAS, ONE SHOWSTOPPER: RADIO FOR ANANTARA THE PALM DUBAI RESORT
Dubai radio has a sameness problem: the same library music, the same voiceover, the same offer. Anantara The Palm Dubai Resort wanted none of it. No discounts, no seasonal push, just a piece of brand audio so distinctive that listeners would associate it with the resort all year round. And the raw material was a gift: Dubai’s only overwater villas, rooms opening straight onto three swimming lagoons, Thai-inspired luxury and seven dining experiences, minutes from the city it helps you escape.
THE CHALLENGE
Create English radio for Dubai 92 that listeners would actually remember, and cut through the daily drivetime wallpaper without leaning on offers or seasonality. With a brief that open and a brand that rich, WithFeeling made a deliberate choice: don’t bring the client one idea. Bring a genuine creative spread and let the work compete.
THE APPROACH
Act one spanned three radio disciplines: a piece of conceptual anti-advertising offering listeners a break from the ad break itself, a scripted two-hander that makes silence on air the punchline, and the wildcard, a funny, premium mini-musical built around the sung hook ‘So Near, So Far Away’. The client chose the musical world, so act two went wider: three entirely new song characters, an 80s rock star begging ‘Habibi, don’t leave!’, a glamorous theatre singer and a grand opera diva, each written and produced as a finished demo rather than a script.
Script 1. The Break From Ads
Background sound: very subtle calming frequencies.
MVO: During this ad break, here's a break… from ads.
So… don't hurry while stocks last.
Stop fretting about interest rates.
Stop looking in the mirror to find out what's wrong with you.
And please don't worry about things you never knew you should worry about.
In fact, just stop, and don't do anything you don't need to do.
This break was brought to you by Anantara The Palm Resort.
Dubai's first overwater resort.
You're welcome.
Script 2. Something Missing
A conversation between husband and wife.
FVO: Darling, what's wrong?
MVO: I dunno, I can't really put my finger on it. There's just something missing.
FVO: Something missing? Darling, this is Anantara… on the Palm. What on earth could be missing?
MVO: I don't know, I don't know… just… something.
FVO: We're with the kids.
We're lounging in this amazing overwater suite.
We're going to have a beautiful dinner tonight.
And we're all going to sleep better than we have in a long time.
And you think there's something missing?
MVO: (snaps his fingers) Got it. I know what's missing.
SFX: Pause for complete silence.
MVO: Noise.
Anantara chose the Theatre Singer, and two fast refinement rounds landed the resort name twice in the spot and gave the lagoons their own moment in the lyric.
“When the city feels relentless,
Everything is rushing by,
Anantara, The Palm is calling,
Beneath the palms and sky.
Glide across the shimmering lagoons,
Every view a dream come true.
Thai-inspired luxury,
Open right onto the blue.
Anantara The Palm Dubai Resort!”
The final spot, on air now on Dubai 92
IN THEIR WORDS
“Radio is the most underrated canvas in this region. Everyone treats it as an afterthought, which is exactly why a genuinely crafted piece of audio cuts through so hard. The real story here is the range. We gave Anantara conceptual copywriting, scripted comedy and original songs, all answering the same brief in completely different ways. When a client can hear the options instead of imagining them, the conversation changes completely. They didn’t have to take our word for anything, they just chose the one that felt most like them.”
Chris Atkins, Co-Founder and Managing Director, WithFeeling
“The brief was the kind writers dream about: be memorable, be different, make people feel something on their commute. We deliberately attacked it from every angle, an anti-ad, a comedy sketch built on silence, and full-blown musical theatre. The resort gave us such rich material, overwater villas, lagoons you can swim into straight from your room, that the hardest part was choosing which voice should sing it. The Theatre Singer makes the city melt away in thirty seconds flat.”
John Smeddle, Head of Creative, WithFeeling
THE RESULT
A 31.5-second musical theatre spot, mixed and mastered to the exact airtime available on Dubai 92 and approved for broadcast within days. Built without offers or seasonality, it can run all year and return season after season, a small piece of sonic branding rather than a disposable ad, and the journey left Anantara with a bench of tested creative territory for future campaigns. Six concepts, four original songs, two scripted spots and a finished broadcast mix, all inside a few weeks.
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