The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 2024–2025
Careem turned beach umbrellas into delivery addresses and won a Grand Prix
With vendors banned on Dubai's public beaches, Careem put GPS in rental umbrellas so riders can find you in the sand — 10,000 downloads in week one.
Careem
The solution
Dubai's municipal rules keep food vendors off public beaches, so beachgoers either brought supplies or abandoned their spot to find food. Delivery apps couldn't help: a rider searching for one person on a crowded stretch of sand usually got lost in the heat, and orders failed or spoiled.
Careem launched Careem Beach at GITEX 2024: lockers at beach entrances rent out umbrellas with GPS inside. The user unlocks one via the Careem app, plants it at their spot, and the app gives the rider an exact pin to deliver ice cream, groceries or medicine.
The product did its own marketing. In the first week alone the beach areas generated over 10,000 app downloads and more than 4,000 orders, and customers who used the service were 1.7x more likely to return. The campaign produced over 70 million impressions and lifted awareness of Careem as an everything app by 14%.
Dubai Lynx 2025 gave Careem Beach the Grand Prix in Outdoor and a Gold in Social Behaviour & Cultural Insight. The idea worked because it solved a real, repeatable frustration and made the brand part of a good beach day.
Why it worked
- The umbrella is a natural beach object, so the 'address' felt invisible and useful, not like tech gimmickry.
- It turned a regulation constraint — no vendors on the sand — into a delivery moat that rivals with home-only logistics couldn't easily cross.
- Each rented umbrella became a roaming billboard, generating awareness while being used.
- Precision coordinates fixed the failure mode of beach delivery — lost riders and cancelled orders — which built return usage.
What can be applied
When a location has no addresses, invent a physical anchor and make it the address. Solving one logistics pain with a real product created demand and a stream rivals couldn't copy.
Aftermath
After the pilot, Dubai's Beach & Water Canals Authority committed to a citywide rollout in 2025, and Careem extended the concept across UAE beaches. The campaign became one of the most awarded MENA ideas of the year, taking the Dubai Lynx Outdoor Grand Prix.
Sources
- Winners Spotlight (Careem Beach)
- Careem solves beach pain points with GPS umbrellas
- These new GPS beach umbrellas are further proof Dubai is the most convenient city in the world
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