Claire Hagen | This is Odyssey & Armada Club
Jan 27, 2026
Claire Hagen is the founder of This is Odyssey, a London-based creative studio working across superyachts, hospitality, and luxury brands. She specialises in content strategy and digital storytelling, helping businesses communicate with clarity and consistency as platforms and audiences shift.
With 17 years of experience across publishing, hotels, music, and technology, Claire brings a blend of creative direction and technical understanding. Her work spans design, video, and social, with a focus on building long-term brand value rather than short-term noise.
She is also the founder of Armada Club, a private network connecting founders, creatives, and industry leaders across luxury, yachting, and culture.
“Be human. Be immersive. Move between industries, arts, and cultures. That’s where the edge lives.”
That’s the contrarian philosophy Claire brought from fifteen years of award-winning design and marketing, reshaping how superyachts connect with their audiences.
From an early education in design and IT, through studies spanning fashion, film, and digital media, Claire developed a deep respect for craft in all its forms. A self-confessed nerd, she was experimenting with computing and hacking the school system, she once even engineered letters to parents giving students the day off. She was excluded, but later allowed to return, as she had no significant prior disciplinary issues as she was a nerd.
Her early artwork was later exhibited with support from Urban Outfitters, after a store manager took a shine to her paintings and offered in-store exhibition space. Alongside that, she designed posters, ran events, and built creative projects simply to learn by doing. She also earned a retail role alongside her studies, helping with shop windows; experience that later helped her move to London and pick up weekend work at Topshop’s flagship store. She was among the youngest on the floor supporting the visual merchandising team, learning firsthand how windows, story and detail stop people in their tracks.
Early in her career
Before brands and boardrooms, there was activism done creatively. Claire ran a one-off comedy night called Stand Up or Die in support of Greenpeace and became involved in Long Live Southbank, the campaign to save the Southbank Undercroft skate park, one of London’s most important grassroots creative spaces. She helped shape the campaign’s visual language, treating it more like an infographic-led brochure than a protest, translating complex planning issues into bold, accessible design.
Campaign statistics became clear infographics. Messaging was built to feel familiar and shareable. She created London Underground style tube-card graphics, including an illustration of Boris Johnson on a skateboard.
Claire’s first formal step into advertising came as a junior designer at a London agency, learning how ideas survive pressure, clients, and scale. Early concepts ranged from Sony, Microsoft to Benefit Cosmetics, followed by bespoke creative projects for Angry Birds and small businesses.
Alongside agency life, she worked weekends in retail at Apple, and previously at Tesco, where she was named Customer Service Adviser of the Year. This funded her while she was in education and found freelance work until she had enough clients to transition fully into hotels and publishing under her own social media and digital consultancy.
From real estate to hotel openings
Hospitality became a defining chapter. Working with PPHE Hotel Group, Claire launched and scaled digital and social campaigns for hotel and restaurant openings across the UK and Europe. She worked on the opening of Holmes Hotel, creating bespoke Sherlock Holmes themed digital storytelling, followed by the successful launch of the restaurant TOZI Victoria and then the Amsterdam opening.
At The Dixon Hotel, she helped launch the restored Old Courtroom and Provisioners Bar, both instant hits. Her work leaned into playful, cinematic, food-led ideas, including Wes Anderson–inspired pop-pink burgers that travelled widely on social. She led everything from concept and photography to press pitching.
Creating moments in the restaurant that people would genuinely want to share on Instagram was key.
With her tech background, she travelled to San Francisco for Facebook’s annual F8 conference and became part of the women-in-tech community. She later spoke as a keynote at Social Media Week and joined panels at luxury travel market conferences, sharing her work in the hotel industry.
Awards
Best Creative Strategist UK — Ucreate Awards 2014
Second place for Best Creative Strategist awarded by the European Commission
Best Use of Social Media with London Revealed — UK Hotel Marketing Awards 2018
Viral Social Media and Press Campaigns
She also gained attention for campaigns like the Monkey Cookie, positioned as the world’s most expensive cookie; a cultural moment with unilad picking it up, that later fed into a founder sale story. Other projects included Christmas grotto room concepts and Pop That Jazz nights, blending live jam bands with unexpected formats.
Music was never a side project. After years working closely with artists, Claire founded and ran an independent music day built around a simple idea. What if, just for one day, the industry showed real love in the press and on radio to unsigned artists. The concept grew fast, with sold-out shows and over 60 gigs across the UK, supported by Radio 2 and hundreds of artists. The scale came at a cost. With burnout close and arts funding increasingly fragile, she ran a smaller second year before stepping back. She later created Sunday Club in Finsbury Park, running it for nearly three years as a rotating programme of live music, community nights and retro arcade events.
Publishing followed. At Penguin Books, Claire managed paid and organic social campaigns for global authors including Tom Hanks, Richard Branson, Caitlin Moran, Rick Stein, Ruby Wax, Nick Clegg and NASA alongside initiatives such as the expanding events program of Penguin Pride. The work demanded precision, global audiences, intense scrutiny and no margin for error.
Superyacht Industry Work
Yachting arrived almost by accident. Just before the pandemic, she was nudged into it by a boyfriend at the time who loved boats. In February 2020, Claire joined BOAT International Media as Social Media and Digital Marketing Manager and, within eighteen months, was promoted to Head of Social Media. What followed shifted expectations across the sector. Social alone drove a 697% increase in website engagement. Facebook impressions rose 589%, LinkedIn 470%, and Instagram 77%. She launched BOAT International’s TikTok from zero to 52,000 organic followers, with one video reaching 1.7 million views, and also delivered a Facebook video that went on to hit 47 million views, becoming one of the most watched boating clips in the space.
Alongside the numbers, she helped push forward new formats. Claire supported the launch of the BOAT podcast, helped drive the BOAT Virtual Boat Show with the digital editor, and introduced designed Instagram Stories at a time when much of the industry still was not using the format to tell stories or move news. In other sectors, it was already standard practice.
From there, she moved to Fraser Yachts, applying the same methodology to one of the industry’s most established brokerage brands. Along the way, she built strong relationships with senior sales brokers, many of whom she still works with today.
Launching her consultancy, This is Odyssey, Claire’s creative work increasingly leaned into visual storytelling that yachting still rarely embraces. One early standout project with Edmiston was a red hot air balloon concept brought to life entirely in CGI. The inspiration was not nautical, but high fashion, drawing cues from brands like Jacquemus and their surreal simplicity, using scale and colour to create desire without physical constraints.
That thinking later extended into early experiments with AI artwork and video effects, skills she had first developed nearly a decade earlier as a junior motion designer. Those projects evolved into long-term relationships, including Lürssen Yachts and Triton Submarines, as well as yacht owners and senior sales brokers who continued working with her independently after she left Fraser. She went on to deliver bespoke CGI and digital campaigns for clients ranging from Heesen Yachts to The Dubai Tourism Board, alongside seasonal creative and Christmas concepts.
Through her consultancy, This is Odyssey, Claire built a model that combines genuine yachting understanding with deep digital and cultural fluency. Her work sits comfortably between discretion and visibility, respecting privacy while still connecting with modern ultra-high-net-worth audiences.
As she put it on stage at Superyacht Investor London 2025, speaking alongside Burgess, Feadship, and Cecil Wright Partners, “We should be personalising every single touchpoint a client has with our brands. AI will fast-track that, but we have to be careful.”
Claire sums it up more personally. “I love my job. I feel blessed every day. I am still a nerd, still outspoken, and I push myself to do the best I can daily. I would rather die trying than become the person who just checks in every day. It is not a healthy way to be and I do not recommend it, but I would not want it any other way. Do not get me wrong. It is hard.”
Today, she splits her time between Armada Club and This is Odyssey.
Armada Club is building a private members network that reimagines superyachts as members-only spaces for dinners, business gatherings, and wellness, designed for people who want privacy without the noise of public venues.
Launching in 2026, it offers a new way to experience yachting.
Armada Club: https://www.armadayachtclub.com
Claire Hagen's linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-hagen-a7a93b9a/
Frequently asked questions
What is This is Odyssey?
A London-based creative studio founded by Claire Hagen, focused on storytelling, digital strategy, CGI, and emerging AI-led marketing for yachting and luxury.
What is Armada Club?
A private members concept launching in 2026 that reimagines superyachts as members-only spaces for dinners, business gatherings, and wellness.
What kind of work does Claire do in yachting?
Brand storytelling and campaign creative across brokerages, shipyards and yacht-adjacent luxury, including CGI-led activations and digital formats.
What makes her work different?
Cross-industry references, fashion and culture cues, and concepts designed to be memorable without relying on clichés.
Has she worked with major brands outside yachting?
Yes, with hospitality groups and global publishing, including work supporting campaigns for major authors and brands.
Does she speak at industry events?
Yes, including Superyacht Investor London 2025, where she discussed personalisation and AI with a cautionary lens. Other speaking appearances include Palma International Boat Show, the Gulf Summit with Superyacht Times, and Superyacht Türkiye. She is also scheduled to speak for Art Advisory Programme and at the Miami Global Superyacht Summit in April.
