Experience Abu Dhabi has launched a digital campaign to mark the opening of the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi (NHM Abu Dhabi), introducing an AI-powered social media activation built around one of the museum’s most prominent exhibits.

The campaign centers on “STAN”, a 67-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton displayed at the museum, which has been reimagined as a virtual character under the campaign titled The AI-ncient Influencer. The activation was developed in collaboration with Ogilvy Paris’ AI.Lab and Memac Ogilvy UAE under the WPP network.

Using Google’s Veo 3.1 technology, the dinosaur has been transformed into a digital persona designed to communicate on social media platforms. The character features a scripted voice and personality and is intended to present scientific and natural history content in a short-form, accessible format.

According to Experience Abu Dhabi, the initiative draws on social listening and platform trends, particularly on TikTok, to align with existing online interest in dinosaurs. The character’s tone and content were informed by how audiences engage with related themes, including humor, popular culture references and brief educational content.

The first phase of the campaign launched with a series of short videos on NHM Abu Dhabi’s social media channels, supported by promotional content on Visit Abu Dhabi platforms. The initial episodes were released around the museum’s opening, with additional content scheduled for release in subsequent phases.

Experience Abu Dhabi said the activation has recorded strong early engagement. Campaign content has generated a combined 50 million video views and more than 83,000 engagements, with sentiment analysis indicating largely positive or neutral audience responses.

Ghadeer El Khub, Creative, Social and Digital Department Director at the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, said the campaign was designed to build on existing online interest in dinosaurs while making scientific content more accessible and encouraging museum visits.

David Raichman, Global AI Creative Lead at Ogilvy, said the project focused on accurately recreating both the dinosaur and the museum environment using AI tools, aiming to deliver a high level of visual detail and consistency.