11 June 2017

It is not all about becoming the “fastest” or the “tallest” in the Guinness World Records anymore, as the world’s leading database of outstanding achievements is now increasingly been used as a marketing tool for nations and businesses looking to lure investors or customers, a top company official said.

“We are officially amazing,” Talal Omar, Guinness World Records regional manager for the Middle East told Zawya in an interview in April at the company’s Middle East headquarters, which opened in Dubai in 2013. The sentence is also the brand’s slogan, which started as a publishing house in the United Kingdom in 1954.

“Usually people will come to us with the most bizarre or ambitious proposals and we have to appreciate what they want to do and sometimes for them, it is more of a dream they want to pursue than just a record they want to set or break,” Omar said.

“Recently we have seen companies and countries coming to us to make a record as they see such things useful to market their brand and attract more businesses,” he added.

Despite the economic slowdown and political turmoil that has hit most of the Middle East’s Arab states in the past few years, several Arab states have maintained their positions in the records. Omar said applications to make or break records from the Middle East have “ballooned over the past two decades”.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) continued to top the list of records made in the Middle East, holding around 188 titles, followed by Saudi Arabia with 57 records then Egypt, which is battling an economic and political upheaval, came third with 53 records.

“We have seen this region (the Middle East) pushing for innovation and creativity, pushing to be in the lead and be competing with the rest of the world. If I am to summarise this region in one word I would say ‘ambition’. This region is ambitious. It wants to be somewhere in the world,” Omar said.

“And when you as a country or a company make or break a Guinness record, you are telling the world, ‘I am officially amazing, I am the best’ and what can a brand do better to market itself than that?”

Guinness World Records has five international branches, with a global headquarters in the U.K. Its database includes around 40,000 records - ranging from the world’s tallest moustache to the longest building. It produces several TV and internet shows, along with its annual trademark record book, which Omar says is the third biggest bestseller in the world after the Quran and the Bible holy books.

Omar said all records have to be measurable, breakable and applicable to any country in order to be accepted by Guinness World Records.

The tallest tower and longest gold chain

It might not be surprising to those who live in the UAE that Dubai had the lion’s share of records in the Middle East. Such achievements, Omar said, reflects the strength of the determination of a country which has developed from a small tribal community to a commercial and business hub in only five decades.

Omar said executives from Emaar - the prominent Dubai-based developer behind the iconic Burj Khalifa tower - had come to Guinness World Records during the construction phase to make sure the building would achieve its goal of being crowned the tallest tower in the world.

“Burj Khalifa has seven records inside itself, including the tallest building, tallest man-made structure, fastest elevator, highest restaurant, along with others,” Omar said. At 200 storeys and 828 metres tall, the tower opened in Dubai in January 2010.

Omar said record buildings, such as Burj Khalifa, are important marketing tools to attract more business and tourism to a country. “They (the records) say how amazing a something or someone is. It says this is the best of the best and we all aspire to be that; companies and countries included,” Omar said.

Omar also said Dubai Tourism Authority had also teamed up with Guinness Records to create the longest handmade gold chain, which was over five kilometres long. The world’s longest necklace was displayed in Dubai’s popular Deira gold market in 2015. It took over 100 craftsmen a period of over 45 days to produce it.

“It was a message from the country to tell everyone: ‘we are the centre of shopping and entertaining’… Now when you come to Dubai, you land in the largest airport, which is a record, you can take the metro which is the longest driverless metro, to see also the largest shopping mall in the world, next to the tallest hotel in the world… they have really inspired us with so many records,” Omar said.

Inspiring Stories

Aside from the business and marketing element, Omar said Guinness World Records is also a gateway for charities and people to promote their message, achieve a life dream or beat a challenge.

“We saw many moving stories and many were from the Middle East too,” Omar said.

“I want to tell you a story from the region that I will never forget. It was a person called Ahmed Gabr. He is from Egypt and he contacted me two years ago and said he wanted to break a record that was not broken for eight years, and when you see someone seeking to break a record that has not been broken for eight years, you know that it could be really challenging,” Omar said.

Gabr, a 41-year-old professional diver, was able in 2014 to break a record of diving 325 metres - about a third of Burj Khalifa – under water. Omar said it took Gabr six years of training, a special diet, eight oxygen tanks and 19 hours to return from his dive to a new record of 332 metres beneath sea surface, the lowest point under water any man has ever reached.

Omar said Gabr’s record made headlines news in Egypt.

“He wanted to impress everyone. His message was if you have a dream, then you should pursue it,” he added.

Omar said another similarly inspiring story happened in the UAE few years ago when a young autistic Emirati boy, Johann Mendes, beat the world record to name the most number of capital cities in one minute. With 52 capitals in 60 second, the UAE grasped a new world record.

“All he wanted was to show the world that he is no different than anyone else in the world and that autistic people too can be talented.”

For over 60 years, Guinness World Records has acted as the benchmark for outstanding achievements in all fields across the globe. Despite 50,000 dashing records made in the past six decades, the door is still open for more “officially amazing” records to be made.

© Zawya 2017