Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority has granted Garmin 10-year naming rights to a Dubai Metro station, the latest deal in a naming-rights programme that turns transit infrastructure into a long-term media asset rather than a one-off ad buy.
RTA announced the deal on 7 September 2026, through Dubai Media Office. The Red Line station previously called ONPASSIVE Metro Station becomes Garmin Metro Station.
The agreement runs through AMIT Retail, Garmin's sole distributor in the UAE, rather than with Garmin directly. AMIT Retail and Hypermedia signed the contract in the presence of Mada Media, which holds a concession from RTA to organise and oversee naming-rights deals across Dubai's out-of-home advertising sector. Hypermedia manages the day-to-day naming rights initiative under Mada Media's supervision. It is a four-party structure — regulator, concession holder, operator and local distributor — and the brand whose name goes on the station is not one of the signatories.
The financial terms were not disclosed in RTA's announcement.
What a naming-rights holder gets, according to RTA, is its name on station maps and signage, in onboard audio announcements, and across RTA's smart apps and navigation systems. RTA says the changeover — new signage, app listings and announcements — will run from September to the end of November 2026.
Mansoor Al Sabahi, chief executive of Mada Media, said in the announcement that Garmin "will be the first global brand to secure this distinguished investment opportunity." The announcement does not define what counts as a global brand or list previous naming-rights holders, and RAW Arabia has not verified the claim.
RTA describes the wider Naming Rights Initiative, which it says it launched in 2009, as "the first of its kind globally" — a claim made by RTA about its own programme, not independently verified here.
The line likely to interest media buyers came from Habib Wehbi, chairman and group chief executive of Hypermedia, who said in the announcement: "The most valuable media is no longer something people simply see. It is something they experience as part of their everyday lives."
Garmin's own comment, from chief executive Clifton Pemble, was framed around product mission rather than the media buy: the company wants to "help people move through the world with greater confidence, connection and purpose."
Neither RTA, Mada Media, Hypermedia, AMIT Retail nor Garmin has been approached by RAW Arabia for comment beyond the published announcement.
