Abdul Latif Jameel Motors' 'Iftar is always better together' Ramadan film by Serviceplan Arabia uses comedic rivalry at Al Khobar's Corniche to champion
ARCHIVEAbdul Latif Jameel Motors Bets on Communal Iftar to Sell Toyota in Saudi Arabia
Abdul Latif Jameel Motors' 'Iftar is always better together' is a 2024 Ramadan integrated film created by Serviceplan Arabia for the brand's Toyota sector, set at Al Khobar's Corniche in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, in which two rival groups compete to invite a solitary stranger to break the fast before resolving to celebrate Iftar as one.
Published on March 19, 2024, the campaign marks a deliberate departure from the family-centric domestic scenarios that dominate automotive Ramadan advertising across the Saudi market. Instead, Serviceplan Arabia repositioned the Toyota brand around communal public life, staging the entire narrative outdoors on the grassy waterfront of Al Khobar's Corniche as sunset approaches. Two groups — one young and spirited, the other older and seasoned — notice a man sitting alone by the sea, lost in quiet contemplation. A friendly rivalry erupts as each group attempts to claim the honour of hosting him for Iftar. The moment tips into gentle comedy before the eldest member of one group intervenes, delivering the campaign's emotional core: that Ramadan's true essence is generosity without boundaries.
The decision to film in Al Khobar grounds the work in recognisable Saudi geography and everyday social ritual rather than aspirational abstraction. In Saudi Arabia, the Corniche serves as a genuine gathering point during Ramadan evenings, and the production draws on that cultural truth directly. The integrated campaign ran as a single video asset, with the comedic spot serving as its anchor creative. Serviceplan Arabia directed by Abdullah Khamees out of production house DeJaVu shaped a film that, according to Campaign Middle East in a June 2024 feature on evolving Saudi advertising narratives, exemplifies how local brands are shifting toward more culturally authentic storytelling. The Clapboard Score for this campaign is 64 out of 100.
ARCHIVEToyota leads the Saudi Arabian passenger vehicle market. According to bestsellingcarsblog.com, Toyota sold approximately 233,455 units in Saudi Arabia in 2024, capturing a 28.15 percent market share — the largest of any brand in the kingdom. That dominance creates a specific creative challenge: a market leader cannot simply compete on product specification during Ramadan, a period when emotional resonance and cultural alignment carry disproportionate weight.
Serviceplan Arabia's strategic answer was to move the narrative axis from the private family table to the public square. While competitors in the Saudi automotive category — including Hyundai, which according to bestsellingcarsblog.com held approximately 17.48 percent market share with around 144,970 units sold in 2024 — tend to anchor Ramadan work in domestic warmth and family reunification, Abdul Latif Jameel Motors chose the corniche, the street, the city at dusk. That setting reframes Toyota ownership not as a vehicle that gets a family home, but as part of a broader social fabric. The stranger by the sea becomes a proxy for the viewer: someone who might be reached by community rather than left alone.
The intergenerational dynamic embedded in the script reinforces this positioning. The presence of both a youthful group and an older cohort — and the wisdom arriving from the eldest voice — reflects a Saudi cultural value system that prizes respect across generations. According to Arabwheels Sa, Ramadan advertising in the Saudi market carries particular commercial weight because consumer spending and brand affinity decisions intensify during the holy month. By anchoring its 2024 Ramadan campaign in public generosity rather than private comfort, Abdul Latif Jameel Motors built a brand story that works independently of any single model line, protecting its market leadership through cultural relevance rather than product promotion alone.
Abdullah Khamees directed the film. Working out of production house DeJaVu, Khamees brings a comedic register to a setting — the Al Khobar Corniche at Iftar time — that Saudi audiences recognise immediately as lived experience rather than constructed set design.
The creative team assembled by Serviceplan Arabia includes Managing Partner Rami Hmadeh, Executive Creative Director Saleh El Ghatit, Creative Director Sameer Suri, Art Director Radhi Raut, and Arabic Copywriter Fatima Sanba. Director of Photography Ahmed Hamdi shot the film on location in Dammam, where the natural light of a Saudi coastal sunset becomes an active creative element rather than mere backdrop. The warm, fading light of the golden hour at Al Khobar's Corniche carries symbolic weight during Ramadan — it is precisely the light of the Maghrib call to prayer, the signal that the fast has ended — and Hamdi's cinematography treats that light as a narrative device, not decoration.
The script's comedy operates through escalation and deflation. Each group's competitive hospitality becomes progressively more insistent, building comic tension before the eldest figure's quiet interjection collapses the rivalry into warmth. The pacing reflects an understanding of how Saudi male social dynamics actually function: competitive generosity is a real cultural phenomenon, and the script mines that truth without mockery. Fatima Sanba's Arabic copy grounds the dialogue in idiomatic language that would register as authentic to a Saudi audience, while Sameer Suri's creative direction ensures the humour never tips into caricature. The result is a film that, as noted by shots.net in its coverage of the campaign, sits at the intersection of cultural specificity and broad emotional accessibility — a balance that is structurally difficult to achieve in a sixty-second format.
Verified performance data for the 'Iftar is always better together' campaign is limited in public disclosures. At the time of archival capture documented by Clapboard, the film recorded approximately 5,330 views, 30 likes, and one comment — figures that reflect early archival metrics rather than total campaign delivery across paid and owned channels.
Campaign Middle East gave the work editorial recognition, featuring it in a June 7, 2024 article titled 'Saudi Work: Evolving narratives of advertising and marketing,' as reported by campaignme.com. That editorial placement signals peer recognition within the regional advertising industry and positions the campaign as part of a documented creative shift in how Saudi brands approach storytelling — a finding consistent with Clapboard's own editorial observation that the spot prioritises cultural authenticity over product exposition.
Structurally, the campaign is built for effectiveness. The single-asset integrated format concentrates creative impact rather than dispersing it across multiple executions. The comedic narrative arc follows a proven emotional structure — tension, escalation, resolution — that is documented in advertising effectiveness research as reliably driving brand recall. The Al Khobar Corniche location provides a visual anchor that Saudi audiences can place precisely, increasing the probability of personal identification with the scenario. According to autocango.com, Saudi Arabia's new-light-vehicle market reached approximately 827,857 units in 2024, reflecting a market of significant scale in which brand salience during high-attention periods like Ramadan carries tangible commercial consequence. For Abdul Latif Jameel Motors, already holding market leadership in Saudi Arabia according to bestsellingcarsblog.com, the campaign's primary function appears to be brand equity reinforcement rather than direct conversion — a goal for which comedic, culturally resonant storytelling is a structurally appropriate tool.
'Iftar is always better together' is a 2024 Ramadan film for Abdul Latif Jameel Motors' Toyota sector, created by Serviceplan Arabia. Filmed at Al Khobar's Corniche in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, it follows two groups of men who compete to invite a lone stranger to Iftar before deciding to celebrate together, championing generosity as Ramadan's defining value.
Abdullah Khamees directed the film. Khamees worked through production house DeJaVu, shooting on location at Al Khobar's Corniche in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Director of Photography Ahmed Hamdi captured the coastal sunset setting, which provides both visual authenticity and symbolic resonance given the Maghrib light signals the end of the Ramadan fast.
Al Khobar's Corniche is a genuine public gathering point during Ramadan evenings in Saudi Arabia. Filming there grounds the campaign in recognisable lived experience rather than constructed domesticity. The location choice reflects Serviceplan Arabia's strategic decision to shift Abdul Latif Jameel Motors' Ramadan storytelling from private family settings to public communal spaces.
The 2024 campaign departs from family-centric domestic narratives. Earlier Abdul Latif Jameel Motors Ramadan work, including the 2022 campaign 'All the Ramadan Feels' by Serviceplan Experience, centred on family gatherings. The 2024 film shifts to intergenerational, public community interaction, staging the story outdoors at Al Khobar's Corniche among strangers rather than relatives.
Toyota leads the Saudi Arabian automotive market. According to bestsellingcarsblog.com, Toyota held approximately 28.15 percent market share in Saudi Arabia in 2024 with around 233,455 units sold. For a brand in that dominant position, the Ramadan campaign's purpose is brand equity reinforcement rather than conquest — explaining the emphasis on cultural resonance over product messaging.
Serviceplan Arabia assembled a team including Managing Partner Rami Hmadeh, Executive Creative Director Saleh El Ghatit, Creative Director Sameer Suri, Art Director Radhi Raut, and Arabic Copywriter Fatima Sanba. Director Abdullah Khamees and Director of Photography Ahmed Hamdi led production through DeJaVu, filming on location at Al Khobar's Corniche in Saudi Arabia.
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