INSITE OOH Media Platform

Skims makes its official debut on the streets of Dubai. This is of course a continuation of a moment that the brand has been building for weeks. Only after launching the very first physical store in the Middle East at Mall of the Emirates do the brand pages explode on social media with a digital ad that visually communicates exactly what it needs to: it introduces Kim Kardashian to the forefront of the picture for recognition and ties the physical launch of the brand to the rest of the city.

From Al Tayer Group, the creative leans all the way into what Skims knows better than most fashion brands: it just isn’t a product image, it’s cultural relevance. Kim Kardashian's face dominates the screen, styled in typical Skims simplicity, her posture confident, direct, and immediately recognizable. For a brand founded on molding bodies, conversations, and timelines, this level of exposure does not seem like the hallmark of laziness. This billboard does not have to introduce Kim, or Skims, or advertise a particular product. It just puts the brand exactly where it should be in this stage of its development, speaking in the visual language of fashion capitals.

There is also something deliberate about the way this marketing effort implants itself in the Dubai market in particular. Dubai has become one of the most engaged fashion markets, where celebrity-backed brands earn notice as a believable brand. By following the store opening with the massive OOH installment from Skims, the company creates the entire ordeal out of the retail expansion. It is not just about the foot traffic in the Mall of the Emirates; it is about embedded branding.

What’s effective in this execution is the reliance on the confidence in restraint, lest this becomes a talking point. The design is simple: Kim’s face, the Skims logo, and the necessary information that the store is now open for business. In the larger scheme, this OOH campaign is clearly a natural next step for Skims’ worldwide strategy.

From Los Angeles, through London, and now through Dubai, the brand’s M.O. remains a continued success: center everything in Kim’s image, with the product relegated to the background, and visibility doing all the hard work. Three weeks into its initial foray into the region with a physical store in the Middle East, Skims is not introducing itself to the region; it’s settling in. And these digital screens make that clear in the most direct way possible.

The campaign landed on Dubai’s digital screens in the first week of January.