Challenge

As cities compete for global attention, success today depends on how clearly they welcome and connect with visitors. Abu Dhabi was ready to move beyond its label as the quieter counterpart to Dubai and step forward as a fully realized destination brand with a distinctive offer of its own.

Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism (DCT) saw an opportunity to redefine how the emirate is experienced by the world. This was not simply about increasing visitor numbers.

It was about encouraging deeper engagement, supporting economic diversification, strengthening tourism’s contribution to GDP and presenting Abu Dhabi as open, progressive and welcoming.

To achieve this, DCT engaged Prophet to define a world-class destination brand. Our mission was to deliver Abu Dhabi’s first global campaign, designed to inspire, excite and showcase all Abu Dhabi has to offer as it openly receives visitors from around the world. 

Solution

Prophet took a detailed approach to understanding and shaping Abu Dhabi’s destination brand. Through visitor research, segmentation and journey mapping, we identified what travelers seek at different moments – from inspiration and discovery to arrival and reflection. This clarified the role the destination masterbrand should play at each stage.

This work guided a clear brand positioning rooted in the shared purpose of enriching people’s lives through sharing Abu Dhabi. The destination promise – thoughtful experiences that inspire, for you to discover at your own pace – captures both the diversity of the emirate and the freedom it offers visitors to shape their own personal experience.

We brought the concept to life through a new destination brand identity, brand expression, tone of voice and experience framework centered around human passions. Editorial-style photography, immersive storytelling and a refined visual system express Abu Dhabi’s living culture, connecting heritage sites, cultural institutions, natural landscapes and world-class attractions into one seamless destination story. A clear tagline, Experience Abu Dhabi. Find Your Pace, anchors the brand in a visitor-led idea.  

Impact

The strategy culminated in Abu Dhabi’s first global destination campaign, rolled out across priority international markets including the UAE, and designed to flex across six distinct traveler segments, from Culture Enthusiasts to Low‑Effort Fun‑Seekers, while remaining unified under one masterbrand.

Prophet’s work spanned brand strategy and architecture, customer experience, content and communications, employee engagement, visual and verbal identity, campaign planning, rollout, activation and measurement. To enable consistent execution moving forward, we equipped the team with comprehensive brand guidelines, assets, and templates.

The Experience Abu Dhabi brand and campaign launched across 10 global markets including UAE, Oman, Saudi, Bahrain, UK, Germany, France, China, India and U.S. The program generates strong media and brand performance, including over 2 billion impressions, 236 million video views and 117 million clicks, significantly outperforming global destination marketing benchmarks.

The destination brand now provides a clear, scalable framework for how Abu Dhabi attracts, engages and welcomes visitors. It positions the emirate as a place of thoughtful, inspiring experiences, discovered at a pace that feels personal, meaningful and uniquely its own.