Riyadh Season's Day of Reckoning campaign by BigTime Creative Shop used a post-apocalyptic boxing trailer to position Riyadh as a world-class entertainment
ARCHIVERiyadh Season Bets on Boxing to Redefine Global Entertainment Tourism
Riyadh Season's "Day of Reckoning" is a 2023 film campaign created by BigTime Creative Shop that promoted a December 23 DAZN pay-per-view boxing card featuring Anthony Joshua, Otto Wallin, Deontay Wilder, and Joseph Parker as a centrepiece event of Saudi Arabia's premier entertainment season, according to X.
Published on December 14, 2023, the campaign arrived nine days before the fight and functioned as a cinematic trailer designed to dramatise eight major bouts simultaneously, according to Saudipedia. The creative device was unmistakably bold: a post-apocalyptic, zombie-themed film placing sixteen boxers across a series of scenes spanning a deserted neighbourhood, a boxing gym, and a full arena. The tone was one of mythic confrontation, leaning into the phrase "day of reckoning" as both a sporting ultimatum and a cultural declaration. The campaign was developed under the fourth edition of Riyadh Season, which launched on October 28, 2023 under a "Big Time" identity, according to reporting by Arabian Business. That identity shaped the creative brief: everything surrounding the season had to feel landmark in scale.
The campaign operated across the travel and leisure category, targeting international boxing fans and sports tourists while reinforcing Riyadh's ambition to compete with established global entertainment destinations. The General Entertainment Authority, chaired by His Excellency Turki Alalshikh, served as the client alongside Riyadh Season, with BigTime Creative Shop — a Riyadh-based agency founded in 2023 specifically as a creative arm for the General Entertainment Authority, according to DesignRush — producing work that had to match the scale of the events it was advertising, according to En Wikipedia. Clapboard rates this campaign 63 out of 100.
ARCHIVERiyadh Season identified combat sports as the fastest credible route to international sports tourism audiences. The strategic rationale was precise: elite boxing generates global pay-per-view viewership, and those viewers represent a self-selecting cohort of fans already willing to pay premium prices for access to live spectacle. By anchoring the campaign to DAZN pay-per-view distribution and a card featuring four fighters with substantial international name recognition — Joshua, Wallin, Wilder, and Parker — Riyadh Season could speak directly to audiences in markets well beyond Saudi Arabia.
The market conditions supported the ambition. Saudi Arabia recorded approximately 27.4 million inbound tourists in 2023, up approximately 65% year-over-year, according to Casci. International tourism contributed approximately SAR 444.3 billion (US$118.4 billion) to the Saudi economy in 2023, with the sector expanding by approximately 32% that year, according to Dubai DET. That growth trajectory gave Riyadh Season credible standing to compete for the attention of international leisure and sports travellers who might otherwise route through Abu Dhabi — where Etihad Arena has hosted comparable boxing events — or Dubai, where established entertainment infrastructure from competitors such as Live Nation and Flash Entertainment has long served international audiences.
The campaign's objective extended beyond ticket and pay-per-view sales. It was designed to dramatise eight fights at once while communicating that Riyadh Season as a whole was a destination worthy of international itinerary planning. The post-apocalyptic creative register signalled that Riyadh Season was not positioning itself as a culturally conservative entertainment offer but as a high-production, globally fluent platform — a deliberate repositioning move in a competitive travel and leisure landscape.
Director Romain Chassaing led the creative execution of "Day of Reckoning," working across production companies Academy Films in London and Truffle Film in Riyadh. The collaboration between a London-based production house and a Riyadh-based partner reflects both the international ambition of the campaign and the logistical scale required to film sixteen professional boxers across multiple distinct set environments.
Director of photography Nico Poulsson brought a cinematic visual grammar to the project, framing fighters within the post-apocalyptic world construction designed by production designer David Bersanetti. The scenes — a deserted neighbourhood, a boxing gym, and an arena — functioned as escalating stages of a single narrative arc, building from eerie isolation to the roar of mass spectacle. That progression mirrored the emotional build of a genuine fight-week promotional campaign while simultaneously operating as a standalone piece of branded entertainment.
Chief Creative Officer Rayyan Aoun oversaw the creative direction at BigTime Creative Shop, with Art Director Gustavo Bilesimo shaping the visual identity of the work. Agency producers Inas Nagy and Fadi Abdeen managed production across two countries and multiple fighter schedules — a logistical undertaking that the finished film's coherence reflects. The zombie-themed conceit gave the campaign a genre foothold that travelled across cultural and linguistic barriers without requiring translation: the visual language of post-apocalyptic cinema is globally legible. That universality was a deliberate creative choice for a campaign promoting an event distributed on DAZN to international subscribers. The campaign was shortlisted at the British Arrows 2024, according to Clapboard, and subsequently won a Bronze at the 2024 Cresta Awards, as reported by Cresta Awards, validating the craft judgement at the centre of the work.
The "Day of Reckoning" trailer accumulated 197,828 views, 3,762 likes, and 402 comments on the platform tracked by Clapboard. Those figures represent meaningful organic engagement for a campaign trailer operating in a competitive pre-fight media environment where rights holders, broadcasters, and fighters' own channels all produce promotional content simultaneously.
Award recognition provides a more formally verified measure of the campaign's standing. The work won a Bronze at the 2024 Cresta Awards, as reported by Cresta Awards, a result that places "Day of Reckoning" among recognised work in international advertising for that year. It was also shortlisted at the British Arrows 2024, according to Clapboard, a programme that evaluates film craft specifically. Together, these two recognitions confirm that the campaign performed credibly on both commercial and craft dimensions.
No verified box office or pay-per-view subscription data for the December 23 event has been made publicly available in connection with this campaign. Structurally, however, the campaign was well positioned to convert viewership into ticket and subscription intent: the DAZN pay-per-view call to action was embedded directly within the trailer's context, and the concentration of four globally recognised fighters on a single card reduced the persuasion burden on any individual piece of promotional content. The campaign earned a Clapboard Score of 63 out of 100, reflecting a competent and craft-conscious execution that demonstrates the growing capability of Riyadh-based creative production in the international travel and leisure category.
"Day of Reckoning" is a 2023 film campaign by BigTime Creative Shop for Riyadh Season. It promoted a December 23 DAZN pay-per-view boxing card featuring Anthony Joshua, Otto Wallin, Deontay Wilder, and Joseph Parker. The post-apocalyptic trailer was published on December 14, 2023, and accumulated nearly 200,000 views.
BigTime Creative Shop created "Day of Reckoning" for Riyadh Season. The Riyadh-based agency was founded in 2023 as a creative arm for Saudi Arabia's General Entertainment Authority, according to DesignRush. Chief Creative Officer Rayyan Aoun led the creative, with production handled by Academy Films in London and Truffle Film in Riyadh.
Romain Chassaing directed "Day of Reckoning" for Riyadh Season. Chassaing worked with director of photography Nico Poulsson and production designer David Bersanetti across two production companies: Academy Films in London and Truffle Film in Riyadh, capturing sixteen professional boxers across multiple post-apocalyptic set environments.
"Day of Reckoning" won a Bronze at the 2024 Cresta Awards, as reported by Cresta Awards, and was shortlisted at the British Arrows 2024, according to Clapboard. These two recognitions reflect the campaign's performance on both international advertising and film craft criteria during the 2024 awards cycle.
The "Day of Reckoning" trailer featured Anthony Joshua, Otto Wallin, Deontay Wilder, and Joseph Parker as headlining fighters, alongside additional boxers across a card of eight bouts scheduled for December 23, 2023. The event was distributed via DAZN pay-per-view as part of the fourth edition of Riyadh Season.
"Day of Reckoning" positioned Riyadh Season as a world-class sports tourism destination by anchoring a cinematic campaign to a globally distributed boxing event. Saudi Arabia recorded approximately 27.4 million inbound tourists in 2023, up approximately 65% year-over-year, according to Casci, giving the campaign a strong growth market as its backdrop.
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