Yas Island is attracting local families to its theme parks with high profile ad campaigns.

MSM

Filling a theme park in the middle of a war is far from child’s play. However, over the past two months one operator in the Middle East has done that repeatedly with one of its outposts reaching capacity by the early afternoon. Remarkably, that isn't even its greatest feat.

When war broke out in the Middle East at the end of February it was widely expected that the region’s tourism sector would grind to a halt. Joint attacks on Iran by the United States and Israel led to retaliation against peaceful nations, such as Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is home to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, two of the world's most popular tourist destinations.

Despite not starting the war, and insisting that its bases and airspace should not be used in the conflict, the UAEUAE has been attacked by Iran more than any other country. More than 2,000 drones and 450 missiles have been fired at the UAE by Iran as it claimed that American companies based there support the strikes and that airbases in the country are being used as launch points or support hubs.

Although the UAE’s impeccable defences successfully neutralized the vast majority of the threats, the aerial attacks caused many major airlines to suspend flights to the country including Air Canada, Air France-KLM, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Lufthansa. It cast a dark spell on international tourism but opened up a whole new world for residents.

Abu Dhabi is home to the Middle East’s most-visited theme parks which are clustered on its man-made Yas Island. I have reported extensively on the high caliber of the parks, which are run by government-backed operator Miral and are themed to Warner Bros., SeaWorld and Ferrari. However, the quality of the attractions is only part of the magic formula which has tempted locals to visit them despite the conflict in the region.

Soon after the fighting began, Miral put annual passes back on sale after months of being unavailable. UAE residents are able to visit the parks more often than tourists so annual passes are particularly appealing to them. Unlike tourists, the vast majority of residents remained in the UAE and in order to give them further incentive to visit the parks, Miral also introduced a deal which offered four annual passes for the price of three. The on-site hotels followed suit with similarly enticing deals.

One night in the five star Hilton Abu Dhabi Yas Island, including breakfast, dinner and one day of theme park tickets cost only $252.88 (AED928.72) for two adults and two children on most days last week. Staggeringly, at the same time, a one-day ticket for one person to Disney's Magic Kingdom park in Orlando, Florida, cost $211.94 which is almost the same price as the entire package for two adults and two children in Abu Dhabi.

It had a magic touch and at the height of the conflict, the parks on Yas Island remained packed with crowds of parents and children wearing annual pass lanyards. Indeed, they were so busy that when the water park on Yas Island opened a new slide tower earlier this month, it reached capacity by early afternoon.

In the evenings, huge groups of Brits and Americans filled the hotels which is far less common to find now in nearby Dubai. On talking to guests it became clear that many of them were also residents showing the success of Miral's strategy. It took more than the wave of a wand to spread the word.

Marketing, not magic, was Miral's secret weapon and it began with a campaign promoting Yas Island's biggest strength. In addition to the theme parks, its attractions also include a marina, an arena, a mega mall with 370 shops, deluxe hotels, beaches, a race circuit, the world's largest indoor skydiving wind tunnel, the world's tallest indoor climbing wall and a golf course which hosts a round of the PGA European Tour. They are all within walking distance, comfortably making Yas Island the world's most well-connected resort.

The hotel packages enable guests to experience the island with ease and this was the driving force behind the ad campaign. Leading industry title Campaign Middle East explained that the starting point for it was the question which is on the minds of many travelers in the region at the moment: what is the simplest, most seamless, all-inclusive, family-oriented local holiday destination? That naturally led to the name of the campaign – The Answer is Yas.

The stars aligned for Yas as the shortage of international flights has fueled the popularity of staycations in the UAE while the stress of the war means that many travelers don’t want to face the hassle of booking multiple elements for one vacation. Testimony to this, according to data from Yas Island, 87% of UAE travelers now consider all-inclusive options when planning a vacation with 60% saying that they are more likely to choose them today than five years ago. Reducing planning stress was the top reason for picking all-inclusive options followed by ease of booking and the perception of luxury.

The data shows that Yas Island was on trend and it made the most of it. As Campaign Middle East's experienced editor Anup Oommen put it, “the objective of the campaign was to own the 'effortless holiday' space by solving the growing complexity of trip planning and position Yas Island as a one-stop, all-inclusive destination where everything is integrated within minutes.”

At the heart of the campaign was a video which played on Yas Island’s official website, social media channels and digital platforms. It started with chaotic family scenes as a young boy’s parents are aghast when he drops mints into a fizzy drink. It illustrates the challenges parents face when children are bored and the video cuts to the solution by showing the same family enjoying themselves together at Yas Island’s theme parks, along with the slogan that 'The Answer is Yas'.

Miral built on this with a subsequent campaign highlighting that children aged 11 and under can stay, play and dine across Yas Island for free as long as they’re booked on the same plan as their parents. Miral also proved its nimbleness by creating an online campaign inspired by last month’s viral news report that 12 tons of KitKat bars had been stolen from a truck traveling from Italy to Poland.

Yas Island posted an image on Instagram of cartoon versions of the chocolate bars wearing sunglasses sitting in the wave pool at the water park on Yas Island. It was captioned 'they’ve been spotted having a break' in a nod to KitKat's famous slogan. It was a win-win for KitKat and Yas Island as it coincided with the opening of the new slide tower. Acclaimed advertising analysis account Adversestories described it as "a masterclass in playful marketing" and it doesn't stop there.

At the other end of the spectrum, in recent years Miral has appointed celebrities, including Kevin Hart, Jason Momoa and Ryan Reynolds, as 'chief island officers’ to promote Yas Island internationally. The latest addition to this line up is Stranger Things actress Millie Bobby Brown while Chris Hemsworth and his wife Elsa Pataky promote Abu Dhabi itself.

In May last year, after Disney’s then-chief executive Bob Iger announced that he had chosen Yas Island as the location of its seventh theme park resort, Miral promoted the news on the jumbotrons in New York City's Times Square and London's Piccadilly Circus. This followed Miral's first U.K. outdoor advertising campaign in 2024 which saw huge banners hung in London's metro stations and its Canary Wharf business district. It worked.

"We saw 40% growth from the U.K.," said Mohamed Al Zaabi, Miral’s supremely-skilled chief executive, in an interview with British business newspaper City A.M. "We saw 44% growth from India and 80% growth from China. So that helps us with geopolitical macroeconomic changes." He added that more of Miral's guests come from the U.K. than any other European country though the Middle East is still its biggest market overall. Outside the region, “India is at the top, then China, and I would say the U.K., Germany and Russia. We have also noticed that France is rising on the list.”

There is good reason why India is at the top of the list. More UAE residents are from India than anywhere else with 38% of the population coming from the country. Miral used every trick in its spellbook to attract them.

For the past 15 years Bollywood has been abuzz with talk about the possibility of a sequel to Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara one of the most beloved road trip movies of all time. Its title translates to 'You Only Live Once’ and this refers to the theme of the film which follows three school friends who go on a three-week trip in Spain for a bachelor party.

In order to capitalize on the clamor for a sequel, Miral reunited the key cast members – Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar and Abhay Deol – for an episodic ad campaign set on Yas Island. "There was an old movie, similar to Hangover," Al Zaabi told me. “Indian people were eagerly waiting for the celebrities to announce 2.0 of the same movie. They said 'we're not'. So my team said 'we will bring you here, bring some of those stories in a new version, use Yas Island and promote Yas Island.'”

The campaign launched in January last year with a teaser video that the stars shared on their Instagram channels. The caption subtly hinted that something exciting was in the works, fueling frenzied speculation that it could be a sequel. About a month and a half later, the trio posted another teaser on Instagram, confirming that they were indeed reuniting for another adventure, without disclosing any further details. Finally, on March 3, they revealed that the project was promotion for Yas and the first episode in the series (which can be found here) dropped online.

Although it wasn’t a full-blown sequel, it was the closest that fans had come to a follow up as each episode showcased a new challenge for the trio on Yas Island. It captured the movie's spirit of adventure, friendship and living life to the fullest. The episodic format ensured that momentum was maintained until it came to a conclusion two weeks later.

To maximize the impact of the campaign in the Indian market, Miral also booked 60-second spots in movie theaters, print adverts and billboards as well as more than 100 lamppost banners and digital screens across Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad. It became a cultural phenomenon.

"Guess what? 1.5 billion views in one month," says Al Zaabi. "It could be one of the top three or four campaigns ever done in the Middle East." It is no exaggeration.

In comparison, Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked teaser racked up more than 102 million views in 2021 though this was just for one video whereas Yas Island’s tally of 1.5 billion was aggregated across multiple platforms. Nevertheless, this still made it one of the most-watched ads of any kind in history. It hit the mark as data from Google shows that the highest volume of search inquiries for 'Yas Island' in India over the past five years was in March last year during the campaign. That's not all.

A few months later Yas Island did it again with its 'Bastans’ campaign which was aimed at the local market, known as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). This ad featured a refreshed rendition of the hit song Bastans from Kuwaiti group, Miami Band which was big in the GCC in the 1990s.

"There is a local band called Miami," explains Al Zaabi. "That was my generation when I was young in 1994, 1995. So we brought them back. We used the same songs that are 30, 40 years old. We tweaked the words and we made a Yas Island campaign. That was the most successful campaign we did for the GCC and now, as a result, because they are Kuwaiti, Kuwait became the top source market." It was a team effort.

The mastermind behind the campaigns is Badr Bourji, Miral’s senior vice president of marketing. Bourji is a marketing maestro with a 15-year career which began at Nestlé and was followed by stints at industry titans Ogilvy & Mather and Momentum Worldwide where he was business director until April 2020 when he started at Miral. Bourji quickly rose through the ranks of its marketing department thanks to his smart strategy.

In an in-depth interview with Campaign Middle East, he explained the importance of caring about what people want, building a strategy that brings to life what people want, being consistent with the delivery of that strategy, taking calculated risks along the way to disrupt the game, focusing on the long-term brand instead of short-term wins and picking the right partners.

Bourji’s marketing masterclass was supported by a world-class team of partners. The creative agency behind the adverts was Momentum McCann while Dubai-based Dejavu handled production and Initiative MENA was responsible for the media planning and buying. Crucially, the region's leading public relations firm, Weber Shandwick, spread the word for Yas Island thanks to its supremely talented team.

The fruits of their work are more important now than ever as Indian carriers are amongst the few international airlines which are still flying to the UAE. So even in the midst of a war, Yas Island still has everything to play for.

Additional reporting by Chris Sylt