Miral Destinations, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates: Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, Chief Island Officer Campaign

The CIO (Chief Island Officer) campaign is designed to showcase the wide array of leisure and entertainment options that Yas Island has to offer, catering to diverse audiences and fans from various backgrounds. Yas Island enjoys a substantial following from key source markets such as the GCC countries, India, the UK, the US, China, and Germany. The ultimate objective is to continually expand our reach by tapping into a broader range of psychographics, and this is the primary goal of the new CIO campaign.

With a various array of entertainment choices available, our challenge was to not only keep our audiences engaged but also to persuade them to consider Yas Island as their premier destination for leisure and entertainment. The initial campaign, featuring Kevin Hart as the Chief Island Officer of Yas Island, garnered high engagement. However, sustaining audience interest for another CIO campaign presented its own set of challenges. We needed to carefully select the right candidate with the appropriate persona and enhance the storyline to resonate with a wider segment of the audience, one that could fully embrace the island lifestyle. Consequently, our content revolved around highlighting Jason Momoa's adventurous spirit, while also showcasing his playful and energetic personality to inspire our audience to make the most of their Yas Island experience.

It is a well-known fact that people are more likely to engage in experiences or purchase products endorsed by a celebrity. Research from Harvard Business School indicates that a celebrity endorsement can increase a company's sales by an average of 4% and its stock value by 0.25 percent.

Nevertheless, the question remained: How could we engage people in another CIO sequel while raising the bar even higher? Our strategy relied on the concept of "familiarity" to connect with the audience while staying true to the brand's fun and energetic image. Celebrities, while not personally familiar to fans, can create a sense of "familiarity" through their unique association with a brand. Jason Momoa, being no stranger to island life and an adventure enthusiast himself, was a natural and ideal choice for the campaign.

The story picks up where Kevin left off, passing the torch to Jason Momoa, who in the storyline “found his true calling that led to this ridiculously awesome job”, where he was determined to show fans how to make the most out of their experience on Yas Island, in his own way. To that end, he was tasked with an incredible role to elevate the experience further, demonstrating how to #LiveitUplikeMomoa and turn Yas Island into this awesome playground where fun truly never ends. The campaign's first trailer depicted Momoa paddling towards the island, underscoring his readiness to embrace Yas Island's adventures. This teaser is meant to bring to light the diverse range of award-winning leisure and entertainment attractions on the island.

Campaign results:

• 394M impressions, generating a 74% increase since the Kevin Hart campaign
• 357M online views, 3.4M likes, comments and shares, amassing a 240% increase
• Covered in the US, MENAT, GCC and Europe, in leading news, lifestyle, trade and industry titles such as Ads of the World, Pubity, Mashable, Blooloop, Arab Ad, GQ Middle East, Esquire ME, Campaign ME, Communicate ME, The National, Arab News,Arabian Business, Dubai Eye, Al Ittihad, Al Watan, etc.
• The campaign generated a total of 1.1B in reach and 1.2K local and international media clippings