In a first of its kind initiative, SeaWorld Yas Island Abu Dhabi wanted to put children’s marine life knowledge to the test in its ‘Draw Me the Sea’ initiative.
The biggest influence on booking an attraction visit is children, so that’s where we started. We put together a set of questions such as What does a child think when they hear the word ‘sea’?
Curious to know more, we asked team members and friends to have their children draw a picture of the sea. Most of the drawings depicted only the surface, failing to showcase the biodiversity beneath.
This insight left us asking, how could we prove that a visit to SeaWorld Abu Dhabi will change children’s perspectives of the sea?
The goal of this campaign was to explore how a visit to SeaWorld Abu Dhabi could transform children’s perspective of the ocean, both before and after experiencing the World’s Largest Indoor Marine Life Theme Park.
To document and deliver the idea to the public, we produced a compelling video that represented the journey of five children participating in the project from start to finish. The process began with each child being given a blank sheet of paper and asked to illustrate what comes to mind when they hear the word “ocean.” As they drew, they eagerly shared what they know is beneath the ocean surface, the likes of rocks, treasure, and sunken ships were all mentioned.
The next step in the journey was a special tour of SeaWorld Abu Dhabi, where the children explored the marine life theme park’s eight immersive realms and encountered a vast array of marine animals, many of which they had never seen in person before. This unique experience transformed their understanding of the ocean.
Following their visit, they went back to draw their after drawings, and the contrast was remarkable. The illustrations showcased dolphins leaping, sharks gliding through the water, and vibrant marine life, including corals, starfish, and sea turtles, bringing the ocean to life in vivid color.
The video was a simplified but accurate representation of the actual experiment that SeaWorld Abu Dhabi conducted in real life, in collaboration with Aldar Education, hundreds of students aged 7 to 12 took part and drew their depictions of the sea before and after visiting SeaWorld Abu Dhabi. We also collaborated with Dr. Rama Kanj, a licensed Educational Psychologist to accompany one group of kids during the experiment and observe their mental health to measure the positive impacts of the visit not just from a learning perspective.
We also collaborated with Louvre Abu Dhabi where children went to explore marine life-themed artworks accompanied by SeaWorld Abu Dhabi Educators who offered deeper insights into marine ecosystems and Louvre Abu Dhabi educators who provided insights about the artwork.
To further strengthen relationships with key media, we invited select journalists and their children to participate in the social experiment, encouraging them to share their kids’ before-and-after drawings. We then extended invitations to these media contacts, along with a broader press group, to attend the exhibition launch.
For this campaign, we adopted a tailored media outreach strategy for each phase, ensuring our storytelling aligned with the interests of different outlets. Through our collaboration with Dr. Rama Kanj, we successfully secured interviews with Dubai TV, Afternoons with Helen Farmer, and Exit 99—platforms that typically require paid opportunities.
The video premiered on SeaWorld Abu Dhabi’s 360° screen at the One Ocean realm during the art exhibition’s launch event. Our collaboration partner, Dr. Rama Kanj provided her observations, findings and substantiated the results depicted by the initiative. Shortly afterward, the video was shared across all SeaWorld Abu Dhabi social media platforms, quickly amassing over 79 million views. Receiving 100% positive sentiment, with viewers expressing their love for the campaign’s concept.
Supporting the video and campaign launch, we secured a total of 50 media clippings across print, online, broadcast and social media, including tier-1 media outlets with a total audience reach of over 50 million and an advertising value of over 450k USD.
The campaign’s remarkable influence saw a record website traffic, as it Achieved a 20% year-on-year increase in website visits during the campaign period (September–October) with 236k landing page visits.
