Dubai Internet City Bets on Animation to Define the Middle East Tech Hub
Dubai Internet City's "Where Minds Click" campaign is a 2021 animated film created by Serviceplan Middle East that positions the free-zone technology district in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, as the region's definitive meeting point for innovation, digital collaboration, and intellectual synergy among technology professionals and businesses.
The campaign launched in September 2021, with Branding in Asia reporting the official publication date as September 21, 2021. Its central proposition is deceptively simple: Dubai Internet City is not merely a physical address but the place where diverse minds, disciplines, and ambitions converge and catalyse one another. The tagline "Where Minds Click" carries a deliberate double meaning, evoking both the human moment of connection and the digital act of engagement, a pairing that suits the technology industry context precisely.
In the United Arab Emirates, where technology free-zones compete actively for global talent and corporate headquarters, the campaign's objectives were to differentiate Dubai Internet City on emotional and cultural grounds rather than purely transactional ones. Serviceplan Middle East extended the animated film with supporting posters, billboards, and branded social assets, as reported by Ads of the World, giving the campaign a physical presence across Dubai that reinforced the screen-based storytelling. The single animated film constitutes the campaign's anchor media asset, and it was this format choice that defined the creative identity of the entire effort. Clapboard rates the campaign 55 out of 100, reflecting a coherent strategic premise executed with craft but limited by modest measurable reach.
Dubai Internet City housed more than 1,600 companies and employed approximately 25,000 people in 2021, according to Chambers Practice Guides, making it one of the most densely populated technology ecosystems in the Gulf region. That scale creates a specific strategic challenge: communicating community and human connection inside an environment that, to outsiders, can read as a corporate real-estate proposition. Serviceplan Middle East's insight was that the technology professionals and business decision-makers Dubai Internet City needed to attract respond to creative ambition, not conventional free-zone advertising.
In the United Arab Emirates, technology free-zones operate in direct competition with one another for international tenants, talent, and investment. Dubai Silicon Oasis and Abu Dhabi's Hub71 both offer structured incentive packages and ecosystem support, positioning themselves as rational choices for companies entering the Gulf market. Against those competitors, Dubai Internet City required a campaign that staked out cultural and emotional differentiation. "Where Minds Click" pursued that differentiation by foregrounding the idea of intellectual synergy, the proposition that proximity within Dubai Internet City produces outcomes that isolation cannot.
Creative Director André Couto of Serviceplan Middle East articulated the strategic grounding directly, stating, as reported by Branding in Asia, that "Dubai Internet City has always been a reference in the region for bringing together different people, businesses, skills and stories; nurturing and helping ideas on their way to becoming innovations." That framing moves the brand from infrastructure provider to innovation enabler, a meaningful repositioning for a technology audience that values ecosystem quality over square footage. The animated film format amplified this strategic intent by signalling creative forward-thinking at the point of first impression, before a single word of copy was read.
Magali García directed "Where Minds Click" for Dubai Internet City, leading both the direction and a multi-disciplinary production team assembled by Serviceplan Middle East. The choice of animation over live-action was itself a creative argument: a fluid, illustration-driven visual style communicates the intangible quality of intellectual connection in ways that conventional corporate footage cannot.
The animation team, as documented by Ads of the World and confirmed on García's own production portfolio at magali.tv, comprised García alongside Joëlle Carreño, Nacho Velasco, Iván Pais, and Cristina Gutiérrez. The illustration team included García, Pedro Pablo Pérez, Jorge Artola, and Serge García. Music and sound design were handled by Aimar Molero and Rudy, whose audio work reinforced the film's tone of energetic optimism without tipping into generic corporate uplift. This breadth of credited contributors is notable for a campaign of this scale, reflecting a genuine investment in craft across every discipline of the production pipeline.
Creative leadership at the campaign level was provided by Jason Romeyko as Worldwide Executive Creative Director, Akhilesh Bagri as Executive Creative Director and writer, and André Couto as Creative Director, according to Marketer Ua. Strategic direction was anchored by Frances Valerie Bonifacio as Head of Planning. The visual language García and the team developed deliberately avoided the photorealistic corporate aesthetic common in technology marketing across the United Arab Emirates, opting instead for a stylised, character-driven world that felt accessible and imaginative. That distinction from competitor campaigns relying on polished office environments and smiling professionals was a deliberate act of creative positioning, one that aligned the campaign's form with its content: creativity produces connection.
The "Where Minds Click" campaign generated 2,002 views and 9 likes on its primary platform submission, as recorded by Clapboard. No verified awards recognition for the campaign has been identified across Cannes Lions, the Effies, The One Show, D&AD, the Clios, the Webby Awards, or WARC Awards, per Clapboard's records. No verified business effectiveness data, including sales lift, tenant acquisition figures, or brand-tracking results, is publicly available for this campaign.
Those figures invite structural analysis rather than performance celebration. The platform engagement numbers reflect a campaign asset submitted to a creative industry archive rather than a consumer media buy, and they do not represent the campaign's full reach across Dubai's outdoor and social environments. The billboard and poster extensions, as reported by Ads of the World, gave "Where Minds Click" a physical presence in the United Arab Emirates that digital submission metrics cannot capture.
Structurally, the campaign demonstrates clear strengths: a distinctive creative format, a coherent strategic proposition, and a tagline with genuine resonance for the technology sector. Its limitations lie in measurability and amplification. A single animated film, however well-crafted, requires sustained distribution and media weight to shift brand perception at the scale Dubai Internet City's ambitions demand. The campaign's successor, "Make Your Move" by Imaginex Design Studio in June 2024, as reported by Ads of the World, adopted a more action-oriented positioning, suggesting that the ecosystem narrative established by "Where Minds Click" was later evolved toward direct conversion intent. Clapboard's score of 55 out of 100 reflects a campaign that achieves creative coherence and strategic clarity but falls short of the measurable impact its ambitions implied.
"Where Minds Click" is a 2021 animated film campaign created by Serviceplan Middle East for Dubai Internet City in the United Arab Emirates. It positions the technology free-zone as a collaborative innovation ecosystem where diverse professionals connect. The campaign launched in September 2021 and was supported by posters, billboards, and social assets across Dubai.
Magali García directed the "Where Minds Click" animated film for Dubai Internet City. García also led the illustration team alongside Pedro Pablo Pérez, Jorge Artola, and Serge García. Creative direction was handled by André Couto, with Jason Romeyko serving as Worldwide Executive Creative Director at Serviceplan Middle East, according to marketer.ua.
Serviceplan Middle East chose animation to visually communicate intellectual connection and innovation in ways live-action corporate footage cannot. The format differentiated Dubai Internet City from competitors such as Dubai Silicon Oasis and Hub71, which rely on conventional corporate aesthetics, and aligned the campaign's creative form directly with its proposition about creative synergy.
Dubai Internet City housed more than 1,600 companies and employed approximately 25,000 people in 2021, according to Chambers Practice Guides. The free-zone also planned roughly 15,000 additional jobs over the four years following 2021. Its in5 startup platform supported about 500 startups, which received more than AED 1.4 billion in investment, per Khaleej Times.
No verified awards recognition for "Where Minds Click" has been identified. Per Clapboard's records, the campaign did not place at Cannes Lions, the Effies, The One Show, D&AD, the Clios, the Webby Awards, or WARC Awards. Clapboard rates the campaign 55 out of 100, reflecting creative coherence without documented industry recognition or verified business results.
"Where Minds Click" by Serviceplan Middle East established Dubai Internet City as a collaborative ecosystem in September 2021. Its successor, "Make Your Move" by Imaginex Design Studio, launched in June 2024 with a more action-oriented positioning encouraging companies to establish themselves in the free-zone, as reported by Ads of the World, reflecting an evolution toward direct conversion intent.
.webp)
Creative Collaboration Platform: The Backbone of Modern Creative WorkWhat is a creative collaboration platform?Clapboard defines a creative collaboration platform as the operational core for today’s distributed creative teams. This is not a collection of digital collaboration tools stitched together; Clapboard’s system
Understanding the Creative Production MarketplaceWhat is a Creative Production Marketplace?Clapboard defines a creative production marketplace as a structured ecosystem where brands, agencies, and production talent converge to execute video, advertising, and branded content at scale. Unlike the legacy agency or freelanREAD FULL ARTICLE
The Urgent Need for a Creative Production Operating SystemWhy Traditional Creative Production Models Break DownClapboard sees the creative production landscape shifting under pressure. Content velocity is no longer a buzzword—it’s a mandate. Modern advertising demands relentless output across dozens of channels, each wREAD FULL ARTICLE
