Luke Cartwright's career journey from showbiz to social media manager at Miral Destinations

Whether as a stormtrooper in the critically-acclaimed “Season of the Force" Stars Wars experience at Disneyland Paris or as social media manager at Abu Dhabi’s Miral Destinations, Luke Cartwright’s career journey is a testament to his resolve to be curious and to never give up.

We chatted with Luke about his path from London to Abu Dhabi, favorite moments from his career, his proudest achievements — and why Italy is next on his travel list.

Tell us about yourself.

I’m from the U.K. and am currently living in Abu Dhabi. I’ve been in this part of the world for close to four years now, and I love calling this place home. Being from the U.K., I’m used to month-long rainy days, and honestly, you can’t have the same complaint over here. A cool 25 degrees Celsius in the winter is a nice perk.

I love to travel and just got back from two weeks in Phuket, Thailand. All I can say is . . . wow. Chilling on a tiny island by the beach was the perfect place to disconnect and celebrate my birthday.

Tell us about your path to your current role as social media manager for Miral Destinations. 

My road was far from the norm, and honestly, I could write a book on the whole experience, but here’s the condensed version.

When I left high school, I dreamt of being a professional actor and pursued drama school. Like so many others who pursue acting, I kept getting turned down for jobs. I was left on the chopping block with my dreams seemingly shattered. Determined to somehow make it in showbiz, I persisted and landed my first professional job as a performer at Disneyland Paris. Shortly after Paris, I hopped on a plane to the United Arab Emirates to be part of the opening cast of the indoor theme park Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi. When I tell you that the theme of the park is next level, I mean it. If you’re a fan of DC, Looney Tunes or Hanna-Barbera, you need to pay us a visit.

After spending three years on the entertainment team, my career took a hard left when I joined the destination management team for Yas Island as social media community assistant manager. I’ve always had a passion for social media, and I used my countless hours in pandemic lockdown to study it further, gaining qualifications from Coursera. After a year in the role, I was fortunate enough to ditch the “assistant,” part of my title — and now we’re all caught up! (deep breath)

Looking after community management for Miral Destinations is a mammoth task and one I couldn’t do alone. I inherited a team of four incredible community managers, and within the first nine months, the team doubled in size.

What do you love most about working at Miral Destinations?

The best thing about working for Miral Destinations has to be the nature of the industry that we’re in. Being an integral part of bringing joy to millions of visitors each year is a magical job. One of my favorite programs we run is our WOW Moment Program. If a visitor contacts our customer engagement team through any channel (including social media), and they are celebrating a special occasion, we do our best to make their experience as memorable as possible. Whether it’s a surprise birthday greeting from their favorite DC superhero or a wedding proposal on the iconic Ferrari World Abu Dhabi Red Roof, surprising and delighting guests through effortless experiences is at the heart of all we do. Check out this couple’s proposal on our Instagram page.

What’s one career accomplishment that you are most proud of?

One of the very first initiatives I piloted at Miral Destinations was creating the VOICE team, which stands for "Voice of Internal Communications and Engagement." This team was conceptualized as a forum for the wider customer engagement team to both have their say in the direction of the future of the department as well as in organizing colleague events that boost morale and demonstrate our appreciation to our incredible team. As part of the Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2022, the VOICE team developed a complete colleague engagement plan, including fun games, food days, interactive events and more. As one of the busiest events in our annual calendar, maintaining colleague engagement was our top priority, and the team executed it perfectly, resulting in our most successful event to date.

I'll be greedy here and throw another one just for fun. When the Yas Island brand launched its TikTok channel, it was our first foray into the platform, and the uncharted waters provided an exciting opportunity. Taking inspiration from the likes of Duolingo and Wendy’s, I worked with my team to develop a community management strategy for the account that was young, quirky and a little bit cheeky. Ensuring that content was light, fun and interactive and calling people “besties" and “GOATs” in the comment sections proved successful with our followers. We had increased engagement from our community and praise from the company CEO.

How do you and your team use the Sprinklr platform?

My team and I find ourselves in the unique position of looking after over 100 assets, including world-class theme parks, such as Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, Yas Waterworld and Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi, as well as incredible attractions, such as the record-breaking CLYMB Abu Dhabi. We primarily engage with the service functions within Sprinklr and use the platform's incredible capabilities to integrate with other systems across the business to deliver seamless omnichannel experiences. Microsoft Dynamics is used company-wide for Knowledge and Case Management. With the Sprinklr team's support, we integrated both functions of Microsoft Dynamics to increase efficiency in the agent workflow by reducing clicks in switching between multiple tabs and applications.

Our marketing and brand performance teams use Sprinklr for content posting, researching and paid media buying. Using the data created through our online community strategy, the marketing team can identify which posts are creating the most chatter online and tailor their content based on the findings to deliver the best possible ROI.

Tell us about your journey with Sprinklr.

I was introduced to Sprinklr when I started at Miral Destinations. I inherited an immensely powerful system, but one that required some customization to meet our business requirements. With the help of our incredible success manager, Aimee Allen, and a host of product specialists, we ensured the platform was being utilized to its full potential. Now, I can’t imagine life without Sprinklr. As primarily a Sprinklr Service user, I love the flexibility to customize on-the-fly. From developing custom reports to unique engagement dashboards, new requests come through regularly, and with a little bit of knowledge, these can be acted upon efficiently and quickly. Sprinklr is so simple, even my boss can use it! (Sorry Martin)

Thanks to our synergistic partnership with Sprinklr and its commitment to continuous digital innovation, Miral Destinations is often a testing ground for new features within the platform. We have been part of many beta tests and implemented many of the presented enhancements. This close relationship ensures that we can deliver world-class customer service through our various touchpoints. We were recognized for Best Omni-Channel Experience as part of the International Customer Experience Awards (ICXA) of 2022. 

What’s the most interesting thing you’ve done with Sprinklr’s platform?

This year, we identified the need for our public relations team to use the platform to optimize the escalation procedure when an agent may need to handle a touchy case and requires additional support. To get this project started, I first drafted a proposed workflow. I shared the workflow with our product specialist, Yash, and he began to work on it immediately. We’re still in the early days of the implementation, so the results may not be fully realized just yet, but the signs are promising. I promise to keep y’all updated.

What’s your Sprinklr pro-tip?

Two words: be curious. The reason that Sprinklr works so well for our team is due to asking questions. If you can think of it, ask. Chances are there's probably a product or feature that can be tailored to do exactly what you need.  

What’s next on your personal bucket list?

Next up on my bucket list is definitely more travel. I love getting out and seeing more places. Italy has been high on my list for a very long time; I think there’s something about the potential to consume an infinite amount of carbs and not feel guilty about it that draws me there. That and the vineyards.

I'd also love to connect with more Sprinklr enthusiasts, so please connect with me on LinkedIn.