Emirates, one of the world’s fastest growing airlines, Wednesday unveiled a new phase of its global ‘Share a Smile’ campaign in partnership with Arsenal Football Club.
With the help of Emirates’ multilingual cabin crew, Arsenal players Mikel Arteta, Lukas Podolski, Wojciech Szczęsny and Theo Walcott share some well-loved football phrases in their own languages whilst showing off their footballing skills in a series of light-hearted videos.
Emirates Share a Smile was launched in February 2013. The first phase of the campaign featured 29 videos in 14 languages showcasing members of its cabin crew expressing quirky and unusual expressions and greetings from around the world.
The campaign was created by Emirates to help “globalistas” connect with each other through sharing the humourous, videos with their friends and family.
“Emirates and Arsenal have been working together since 2004 and constantly look for new and innovative ways in which to extend our partnership”, said Boutros Boutros, Divisional Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications, Emirates. “This is the first time we have worked with the team in this way and we hope the videos bring some smiles to football fans around the world, as well as perhaps helping them to learn some new footballing phrases.”
“Football is a global sport, and with its multilingual international outlook Emirates’ Share a Smile campaign is the perfect match for engaging with football fans around the world”, added Vinai Venkatesham, Arsenal’s Head of Global Partnerships. “The videos were filmed on a snowy English day and despite the weather the players had great fun showing off their tricks alongside the Emirates team and we hope our fans around the world enjoy watching them.”
Emirates and Arsenal have a long standing partnership and in December 2012 the airline extended its shirt partnership with the English Premier League club until the end of the 2018/2019 season. As part of the deal Arsenal’s home will continue to be known as Emirates Stadium up to 2028. The companies’ relationship also extends across a number of other areas including a grassroots football project. Opened in October 2009, ArsenalSoccerSchool based in Dubai at The Sevens, Emirates’ purpose-built sports facility, the school aims to develop football talents in the UAE and surrounding Gulf region through top-class training methods.
“Share a Smile” is the latest extension of Emirates’ global brand platform ‘Hello Tomorrow’. Launched in April 2012, the platform aims to inspire people across the world to explore and connect with each other across cultures and borders. To date, the videos have been viewed by nearly one million people worldwide.
