Athar Festival TVC reveals why the region’s creatives are out of office

Athar – Saudi Festival of Creativity, presented by Motivate Media Group and TRACCS, has launched its first television commercial (TVC), inviting the region’s advertising and creative industry to attend the festival in Saudi Arabia’s Jax District in Riyadh on the 21st and 22nd of October 2025.

The TVC, created in partnership with Media Turtles and Whizz Film, has been rolled out on MBC1 and Al Arabiya, part of MBC Media Solutions. The campaign, is also being amplified through a 360-degree marketing campaign, which includes billboards, radio, social media and influencer collaborations.

Commenting on the roll-out, Hatem Al Khatib, Partnerships Director, Athar Festival, says, “The plan is to run a 360-degree campaign based on this TVC. Athar Festival will air the TVC in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, along with key international markets such as the US, UK, France and India. A large portion of Athar’s audience comes from these regions every year.”

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The advertising spot begins with a montage of empty meeting rooms, vacant editing desks and podcast studios, and deserted production sets. Then, the narrator chimes in asking, “wondering where all the creatives are?” before going on to reveal that the region’s creative industry has gathered at Athar Festival.

The inspiration behind the TVC

The campaign is inspired by the idea that Athar Festival is where creatives ‘belong’.

“The most recurring keyword from our studies on Athar’s consumer perception is ‘belonging’,” says Fardeen Veljee, Senior Marketing Manager, Athar Festival.

To acknowledge this, the campaign pays tribute to the places which creatives and marketers spend most of their time each day – their desks and indoor studios as well as their outdoor production sets.

“But for one week or so in the year, Athar is where the creative marketing industry belongs,” Veljee adds. “The objective was to tease, cause intrigue, attract the right audience and invite them to explore the Festival website, which is key.”

Creative development

Translating the insight and idea of ‘belonging’ to life, Malek Al Hamami, Chief Creative Officer, Media Turtles Network tells Campaign Middle East, “Athar wanted to go beyond informative campaigns and create more hype and intrigue while also performing against objective metrics.”

Al Hamami further explains that the advertisement also taps into audience’s fear of missing out.

“Athar Festival is open to a wide variety of audiences and whichever creative hat you wear, you will be able to find yourself there,” Al Hamami says. “The scenes were specifically chosen based on that thought.”

The team also put Saudi Arabia in central focus, with localised storytelling and motifs.

“One can easily spot the frames within the TVC that include Riyadh’s skyline and the authentic terrains of Qiddiya. These add to creating a sense of belonging and pride in the audience,” Al Hamami adds.

Echoing this sentiment, Aya Ahmad Maher, Head of Research and Innovation, Whizz Film says that the spot includes references that Saudi audiences will understand.

“You find a film set inspired by Qiddiya’s terrain totally empty without any crew, which hits geographical and professional demographics,” she says.

Success metrics and results of the Athar TVC

Since the campaign’s launch, the Athar Festival team has wintessed high success rates.

“Within the initial days of the TVC launch, we have witnessed a spike of more than 200 per cent compared with our average baseline across channels,” says Veljee.

He also commented on the ease of creative collaboration with Media Turtles and Whizz Film.

“The team at Media Turtles understood the brief immediately. We were completely aligned at every stage: from the initial ideation to storyboard and production. Interestingly, Aya Ahmad Maher from Whizz Film was a participant in the Maheerah Programme previously at Athar. As a major advocate of the programme and the Festival, we were able to build on our relationship, which led to this very successful partnership between Athar and Media Turtles.”

Athar Saudi Festival of Creativity celebrates the largest gathering of the creative marketing industry in Saudi Arabia. It will conclude with the largest and most spectacular edition of Athar Awards to date.

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Credits:

Client: Athar Festival

Athar Festival:
Hatem Al Khatib – Partnerships Director
Fardeen Veljee – Senior Marketing Manager
Zaina Obeidat – Marketing Executive

Creative & Media Network: Media Turtles Network
Mouaz Al HamamI, CEO
Malek Al Hamami, CCO

Production House: Whizz Film
Director: Abdelrahman Elsingergy
Creative Concept: Eyad Alshehri
Creative Producer: Aya Ahmad Maher
Creative Team: Malek Al Hamami – Abdelrahman Elsingergy – Eyad Alshehri – Aya Ahmad Maher – Raneem Aldomiaty – Reem Almodian – Aisha IbrahimBasha – Lama Alkhodeiri

Post Production: GeekPeek Studio