The Marketer Flying Etihad’s Ambition Beyond Borders

Travel is about more than movement. At its most compelling, it is the ambition to cross into something new. Etihad Airways’ Beyond Borders campaign is built around that instinct, and few people embody it more personally than the marketer behind it.

Ruaraidh Smeaton, director of brand, creative, and social media at Etihad, sees the airline as a brand built at the intersection of communications, positioning, and experience, with design shaping every touchpoint. His own path reflects that blend.

Raised in a creative household, with a carpenter-designer father and an architect sister, Smeaton instead chose a business degree and began his career in procurement, seemingly far from the world he grew up around.

“After a few years, I realised I was missing creativity in my life… so I started plotting a move,” he says.

Working for Disney came first, followed by a move to Hong Kong and Cathay Pacific, where a rebrand project drew him into the world of brand when a vacancy emerged on the marketing team. “Every day feels like a new brief.”

Seven years later, and nearly two years into his time at Etihad, Smeaton sees something of his own journey in the idea of going beyond borders. “It’s exactly the kind of ambition we’re trying to celebrate through the platform,” he says.

Beyond Borders in action

Etihad’s Beyond Borders campaign combines human storytelling with global scale, centring on five people whose journeys explore ambition in different forms.

Selected from 450 stories during a two-and-a-half-month search, they are wildlife photographer Suaad Al Suwaidi, Michelin-starred chef Arivu Ravikkumar, Emmy-nominated filmmaker Nosarieme Garrick, world-champion freediver Florian Dagoury and Paris Opera Ballet dancer Chun Wing Lam.

Their stories were filmed across Abu Dhabi, Nairobi, New York, Phuket, and Paris, giving the production a footprint to match the campaign’s international premise.

For Smeaton, the starting point is “the moment Etihad is in”. The underlying brand strategy is intended to carry the airline into its next chapter. “We’re a relatively young full-service carrier at just 23 years old… and this chapter is defined by extraordinary growth,” he says.

Now flying to more than 120 destinations, Etihad’s expansion sits alongside Abu Dhabi’s own ambitions as an increasingly connected global hub.

The challenge for a full-service carrier is to make that proposition stretch across a broad passenger base, from economy to first class. Beyond Borders attempts to find common ground not in a particular kind of traveller, but in the motivation to go somewhere in the first place. Hence the decision to build the campaign around five real people and their journeys.

Smeaton says: “The strength of the [Beyond Borders] platform is that it works on two levels: the literal act of flying across geographies, and the emotional, more philosophical idea of ambition — stepping beyond what’s familiar to pursue something meaningful.”

The idea is that ambition need not mean a dramatic act of reinvention. It can encompass a major life change or business trip, but also something as everyday as a family holiday. That thinking extends into Etihad’s sponsorships, including partnerships with Chennai Super Kings, Manchester City and McLaren.

“It gives us a way to tell so many different stories to the audiences we serve. And beyond the storytelling, it’s a powerful lens for how we grow as a business — how we design, develop and serve our guests. From a creative and design point of view, it’s incredibly rich territory. It’s a platform with depth, humanity and longevity, which makes it exciting to build on,” Smeaton continues.

Developed entirely in-house, Beyond Borders is intended to bring together Etihad’s identity, guest experience and relationship with Abu Dhabi in one creative platform.

“I believe we’ve done that beautifully — reflecting who we are, where we’re going, and the ambition that defines both the airline and the place we call home.”

The world of marketing according to Ruaraidh Smeaton:

How do you conduct a campaign right now considering the geopolitical issues and uncertainties faced in the region? That must be incredibly challenging.

From an activation point of view, we’re continuing to grow — and we’ve committed to that trajectory. The airline has navigated periods of uncertainty this year extremely well and remains firmly on plan.

From a campaign and Beyond Borders perspective, the message we’re telling — stories of people moving around the world — couldn’t be more timely. It reflects what we stand for as an airline, and what the UAE stands for too. If you look behind the curtain, not just at the team behind the campaign but at Etihad itself, we’re made up of more than 150 nationalities. There’s no better moment to share a message that celebrates that universal spirit.

The feeling of the campaign — the way it’s shot, its tone, its calmness — is intentional. We wanted to capture not just what it feels like to fly with Etihad, but what it feels like to arrive in Abu Dhabi today: welcoming, serene, grounded. If you landed in the city right now and had a great day, that’s exactly the atmosphere you’d experience. As the national airline, we have a responsibility to reflect that authentically.

What are you excited about for the future in marketing?

For me, what’s exciting isn’t the latest shiny toy or whatever the industry is talking about. It’s the rigour and fundamentals of brand building — the long‑term, sustained effort of holding a course. Our Beyond Borders strategy aligns closely with the business strategy, and in a category like aviation, where product development cycles are long and complex, you simply can’t chop and change. It takes time to bring things to market, both onboard and on the ground.

So my excitement isn’t about a single new innovation, even though there are areas of the experience we’re investing in that genuinely energise me. It’s about bringing the strategy to life not just in comms, but across the entire experience, and then tracking brand health with discipline. What I’m really excited about is seeing the uplift we’ve set out to achieve — the kind that only comes from sustained effort over years, not months.

Of course, the shiny new toys have their place in the marketing mix, and we’re constantly improving there too. And yes, AI is part of that — a tool that helps us work smarter and faster. But the talent, craft and curiosity required to use those tools well hasn’t changed. You still need ambition, judgement and the drive to make better work. None of that is replaced.

What frustrates you about marketing?

It’s funny, I was saying to someone the other day that when you leave university, you step into the world bright‑eyed, full of expectations about what work and your career will be like. Then you arrive in the real complexity of work, decision‑making and everything that comes with it.

For brand managers, that complexity isn’t a frustration so much as the heart of the job: how you continually bring a brand to life over time, across countless touchpoints. Yes, big campaigns play a huge role in expressing what you stand for and reaching your audience. But between those moments, there are endless day‑to‑day decisions that shape the brand. When you put them all together, they determine whether you’re building the brand you set out to create.

It’s a challenge, but it’s also what makes brand management so rewarding.

Is there a campaign made elsewhere that you wish you had?

For me, the best campaigns are always built on a human insight that feels obvious once you see it — even though getting to that insight is anything but easy. There are countless examples, but this is the eternal search.

Take Snickers’ You’re Not Yourself When You’re Hungry. It’s a universal truth that works in any market. You can localise it in ways that feel culturally specific, yet the core idea endures. They’ve run that platform for more than a decade in a fiercely competitive category.

That’s phenomenal work because it all stems from a single, sharp human insight: what’s genuinely relevant to the consumer? From there, you can position the brand, build the product story, and shape the marketing around it. Work that does this — that starts with a truth and builds outwards — is the kind of work worth striving to stand alongside.

What makes the ideal agency partner?

I’m a planner at heart, so within the creative process I naturally gravitate towards the strategic end rather than pure execution. What I’m looking for is someone who brings strong insight, a deep understanding of the client, and a clear grasp of the context we’re operating in. You only get that by building real relationships and staying close to your partners.

From there, it’s about unlocking ideas that surprise and delight with work driven by curiosity. But that creative magic is hard to reach without the right starting point, and that’s why the strength of the insight matters so much.