The content was part of global integrated campaign specifically created for the purpose of promoting the fight between the two Undisputed Heavyweight Champions, Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk. This was the fight of the century. With a boxing event of this magnitude, Riyadh Season 2024 needed to hook fans in every corner of the globe and cut across generations. Boosting Pay Per View subscriptions and increasing ticket sales, while establishing Saudi Arabia as a premier destination for hosting world-class boxing events.

Riyadh Season is the entertainment initiative of the General Entertainment Authority to promote tourism in Saudi. It is a 6 month-long entertainment event (October to March) that aims to promote the city of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia to the world. From gastronomic experiences, to concerts, plays, art, sporting events and world-class shopping, there’s something for everyone at Riyadh Season.

However, for many years, Riyadh Season has been popular among the local population and the surrounding Middle East region. And didn’t attract many international travellers.

To change this perception and make Riyadh even more attractive to international audiences, they decided to promote their crowning event – Boxing.

With a number of huge fights already under their belt, Riyadh has become the Mecca of boxing in the world, bar none.

Each fight is unique in its matchup and has a story to tell. Hence no two campaigns are the same. Each is backed by insights of the fighters, or their history. "Ring of Fire” will see the biggest fight in boxing - WBC and Lineal Champion Tyson Fury vs WBO/IBF/WBA unified champion Oleksandr Usyk in a history-making showdown. The winner will become boxing’s first Undisputed Heavyweight Champion since Lennox Lewis claimed that honour 24years ago, in 1999, but this time four belts are on the line for the first time in history.

February 17 2024, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, will go down as a historic day in the world of Boxing.

Because not since the late 90s has there been a matchup of this magnitude. Where two undefeated Champions battle to become the Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World with a historic 4 title belts on the line. It’s a fight the world has been eager to see happen since forever. And now it’s finally happening, not in Las Vegas or the O2 Arena, but at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh.

Riyadh Season needed an epic promo video befitting the scale of the event to drive Pay Per View subscriptions, boost ticket sales, and put Saudi on the map for hosting world-class boxing events.

Our strategy was to make boxing synonymous with Riyadh Season. In addition, we also had to position Saudi Arabia as the top global destination for boxing where big fights between champions happen.

To get people interested in this epic fight, we needed to create something as epic as the fight itself. That’s when we realized the power of cinema and the spell it can cast on people. Cinema is a universal language that speaks to all ages. So, we set out to create a cinematic tale with something every generation could relate to. And with that, the hopes of bringing together people for this historic boxing event that the world hasn’t seen in 24 years.

A Tale as Old as Time. Because the fight for all four of these belts took so long to set up, a great deal of time had passed. In our minds, it was an exaggeration of this time that we wanted to show. And the different battles that could have taken place. But in the most cinematic way possible.

So, we took our audiences (both young and old) on an action adventure of different standoff battles that featured prominently throughout history, and importantly, that featured in many famous blockbuster movies throughout our time. From old Western classics, to Pirates of the Caribbean, Dragon Ball Z and the like. The uniting magic of cinema was going to be the glue we needed to get the generations excited about boxing again, and put Saudi on the map.

Narrated by Paul Anderson from Peaky Blinders, the film is a metaphorical and fantastical journey of time, where we experience iconic standoff battles from different eras between the two fighters. As they make their way to the ring, we brought to life the psychological warfare they employ, in the most visually stunning manner, and something befitting the scale of the fight.

The production design and art direction teams set out to recreate an authentic Wild West township. Through extensive research and incredible attention to detail they were able to convincingly transport audiences to that time period.

VFX also played a crucial role creating breathtaking landscapes from the 19th century cowboy era, to a hyper-realistic battle rhino running amuck inside a rapturous and bustling Roman Colosseum. Pirate ships soaring over the Wild West landscape. Giant Dragonball-Z(esk) anime avatars. With even Michael Buffer making an appearing out of a lighting strike.

In less than 48 hours of the cinematic trailer going live, we had a staggering 46 million reach, with 39 million views across all platforms. 100 million impressions with 720K unique engagements. In addition, all tickets to the event are 100% sold out, with Pay Per View targets crossing a million subscriptions for the fight.

Besides tangible results, A Tale as Old as Time campaign has also earned world-wide praise for a boxing promo, it’s cinematic quality and storytelling with numerous publications expressing their appreciation for the film.