Experience Abu Dhabi by Ykone
Most destination marketing treats the agency as an external vendor. Experience Abu Dhabi did the opposite. In this Influencer Strategists session, host Gordon Glenister talks with Olivier Billon, CEO of Ykone, about a five-year partnership with the emirate's tourism authority that the agency runs as a company within the company. The conversation covers how the program is structured, why strategy starts with market relevance rather than creator selection, the idea of hosting over briefing, using brands themselves as influencers, and how a government client measures the work independently. The highlights below capture the model.
Key highlights
Ykone built a dedicated entity, Ykone Abu Dhabi, and placed its HQ inside the tourism office building so it operates as an embedded partner rather than a supplier, launching the Experience Abu Dhabi partnership in November 2019.
The pitch grew out of Ykone's 2017 to 2019 run as one of Visit Dubai's agencies of record, reframed for Abu Dhabi as a long-term program aligned to the emirate's vision to 2030, including museums, theme parks, Formula One, and an NBA partnership.
Over five years the team has worked with more than 3,000 influencers, scaling from around 100 a year at the start to between 1,500 and 2,000 a year now.
Strategy starts with market relevance, not creator selection: across 27 markets shaped largely by direct flight routes, the team first decides which market an offering suits, so a new natural history museum may matter more in India, China, or the GCC than in Europe, where such museums already exist.
There is no dogma on creator size: celebrities from Korea, Japan, Africa, and the US are brought in for marquee moments like the Formula One Paddock Club, while regional micro and nano creators within driving distance are used for art-week events.
The approach is hosting, not briefing: the roughly 15-person Abu Dhabi core team is hired mostly from five-star hotels as former concierges and VIP guest managers, turning the city into a play field rather than a checklist of contractual deliverables.
Ykone also activates brands as influencers, treating partners like Assouline, whose creative team visited to publish a city book, and Red Bull, which sent a skydiver to land on the emirate's artificial surf wave, as alternatives to activating individual creators.
Because the client is a government entity, measurement is independent: a top-tier external consultant evaluates impact, and airport surveys of around 10,000 arrivals on how they heard about Abu Dhabi show online creators have a strong positive influence on intent to visit.
On the future, Billon urges the industry to think in decades, not weeks, working to a ten-year roadmap focused on shifting perception over time rather than chasing short-term virality.