2022 Winners & Shortlists

Why is this work relevant for Entertainment?

When it came to staycations in the UAE, Yas Island Abu Dhabi was not top of mind. Yas Island needed to challenge the category and take on staycation giants like Dubai by doing what we do best - being entertaining. So we created - “Stayin’ on Yas” inspired by the Bee Gees we created the staycation anthem of the summer. What started as a music video ended up connecting with audiences and inspiring 16 million views (in 4 days), countless memes, Tik Tok challenges and Spotify playlists. Stayin' on Yas was the hit the UAE didn't know it needed.

Background

The Situation - Impact of the pandemic As the pandemic brought global tourism to a halt, Yas Island Abu Dhabi, a business built to attract international visitation, suddenly had to pivot and focus solely on their resident market – which only represented 25% of their pre-pandemic attendance. This sudden shrinking of our audience and revenue stream put immense pressure on us to pivot and attract domestic staycation audiences from within the UAE. Brief - Position Yas Island as an attractive staycation destination This sudden restriction in travel led to an increase in people exploring domestic staycation possibilities. For residents in the UAE, this meant choosing to stay closer to home. Objective - Challenge the audience’s perception of the standard staycation and increase consideration of a more exciting and fun-filled staycation.

Describe the creative idea

We knew music was a powerful medium to get people to listen up, open up and ultimately show up to Yas Island. We needed to clearly associate ‘staying’ with Yas. So our song had to make that link while being recognizable, relatable and fun. The Bee Gees’ Staying Alive ticked those boxes. By re-imagining the song and building on the legendary spirit of the original, we created Stayin on Yas – a quirky, stylish music video that showed audiences what a staycation on Yas looks like. Our story followed three insanely cool and charismatic staycationers experiencing everything Yas has to offer... in style. The lyrics were crafted to retain the original flow while focusing on the fun adventures awaiting you when you're stayin on Yas. Musically, we attempted to stay true to the original while slightly altering the tempo to allow the visuals to breathe and the chorus to 'stick'

Describe the strategy

Everyone in the UAE loves a staycation. With the pandemic making outbound travel harder, demand for domestic staycations increased dramatically. This was great news for hotels and resorts across the country, it wasn’t great news for Yas Island. Staycations in the UAE have traditionally been about low-energy lazy days spent by a pool or at the beach. Yas Island’s offering of record-breaking theme parks thrilling and exciting water parks didn’t quite fit the standard UAE staycation narrative. However, we know from markets around the world that following the same holiday pattern would eventually lead to holiday makers experiencing "resort fatigue". So we anticipated this trend and used this opportunity to challenge the staycation status quo in the UAE, and responded by showing our audience that on Yas Island a staycation doesn’t have to be low-energy, lazy day instead it can be filled with limitless thrill and excitement.

Describe the execution

The staycation space in the UAE is cluttered with offers from established destinations. Furthermore, audiences make decisions quickly for domestic summer vacations – so we had one shot to cut through and get people to see us as the ideal staycation destination. We knew music was a powerful medium to get people to listen up, open up and ultimately show up to Yas Island. We needed to clearly associate ‘staying’ with Yas. So our song had to make that link while being recognizable, relatable and fun. The Bee Gees’ Staying Alive ticked those boxes. By re-imagining the song and building on the legendary spirit of the original, we created Stayin on Yas – a quirky, stylish music video that showed audiences what a staycation on Yas looks like. The piece was released on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. Spotify, Tik Tok and targeted digital content helped create mass awareness for Yas.

Describe the outcome

Despite border restrictions, the campaign broke into local pop culture and positioned Yas as ‘the place to staycation’ during summer. It generated media coverage across popular outlets like LovinDubai, Dubai Problems, DubaiLad, The National, Gulf News, etc. Beyond positive comments and shares, the campaign inspired user generated content in the form of homegrown memes, copycat videos and lots of dancing via our Tik Tok Challenge. In terms of metrics: 1. YouGov brand health scores show that Yas achieved the highest growth (42%) in buzz & ad awareness 2. Campaign reached 16 million views and 7% engagement rate, making it one of the UAE’s most successful campaigns 3. Online bookings increased by 185.21%, average order value increased by 20.9%, demonstrating increased length of stay – that’s a 224.85% total increase in revenue 4. e-Commerce conversion rate spiked up 224.07% to reach all-time highs, reflecting high-intent website traffic