Riyadh Season, part of Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Entertainment (GEA), rolled out its latest big fight promotional campaign in early March called ‘Knockout Chaos’ which features former World Heavyweight Champion Anthony Joshua and former MMA Heavyweight Champion Francis Ngannou and promotes the cross-code brawl between the two scheduled for 8 March at the Kingdom Arena.
The digital first campaign is spearheaded by an online trailer and video and still image social content which adopts cinematic production and an arcade game influenced creative approach and sees the two huge fighters face-off against each other in a video game style setup.
The campaign, created by BigTime Creative Shop and produced by Academy Films (with Director Romain Chassaing) and post-production undertaken by The Mill), sees Joshua and Ngannou face off in an early 90s New York – the period during which this arcade-style became popular) – as they opponents bump heads, clash fists and send one another flying across continents and countries.
“Ngannou is one of a handful of fighters who has made the transition from MMA to professional boxing. So, to us and fans alike, it felt like an arcade game where you have the best from both disciplines coming together to fight. Just like selecting two power punchers and setting them up in a ‘Street Fighter’ inspired world. ‘Player 1 v Player 2’ was our creative idea and how we intended on bringing the promo for the fight to life. After that, it was a matter of collaborating with the right people, including some of the world’s best pixel artists and letting them work their magic.”
BigTime Chief Creative Officer Rayyan Aoun
BigTime CEO Mohammed Sehly claimed that ‘the film is every boxing and MMA fans dream of seeing two big heavyweights throwing it down in the ring’. He describes thed upcoming fight as ‘two absolute beasts capable of total chaos – both of whom have impressive knockout records’ and that this idea is what inspired the campaign’s ‘Knockout Chaos’ title.
This campaign was created for and briefed in by a Riyadh Sea client team working under Saudi Minister and current Chair of the country’s General Authority for Entertainment (GEA) H.E. Turki Alalshikh by a team at BigTime Creative Shop which included CEO Mohammed Sehly, CCO Rayyan Aoun, CIO Anis Zantout, Business Director Ziad Chehab, Head of Social Media Nael Girgis, Agency Producer Inas Nagy and Art Director Gustavo Bilesimo.
The production company was Academy Films with Director Roman Chassaing, Executive Producer Simon Cooper, Producer Tom Cartwright, PM Rosie Pike, DOP Nico Poulsson, Production Designer David Bersanetti, 1st AD Robert Thorpe and Costume Head Claudia Martins.
Post production was run through a group at The Mill which included Executive Producer Fabien Leclerc, VFX Producer Stephanie Mollet, Post Producer Antoine Ville, VFX Supervisor Alexis Baillia, CG Supervisors Marouan El Bekri and Valentin Lesueur, Editor Manuel Coutant and Grader Arthur Paux.
Sound production was by BMM Network with Music Supervisers Joseph Petitpain, Julien Cornuel and Théo Darcel with Ugly Duckling’s ‘Smack’ track and 8-bit Remix by ‘The Everlasters’. The SFX and sound mix was handled by Studio Cardinal’s Emmanuel Desmadryl and Jean-Jacques Hubert, plus Voice Over Artist Gary Lyons.
This is a detailed, finely crafted and visually eye-catching spot which brings a fresh approach to Big Fight promotions.
This latest Riyadh Season promotion follows in the footsteps of previous big fight campaigns such as the zombie horror style ‘Day of Reckoning’ and Western influenced ‘Ring of Fire’.
It is just one of several companies marketing the cross-code fight. Other outfits marketing around the event include media outfits such as DAZN and individual fighter brand partners such as Lucozade and Under Armour.