One of Saudi Arabia’s best-known creative agencies, Habbar, is getting into cinema.
The Riyadh-based company has launched a new initiative bannered Habbar Film Marketing, aimed at connecting both local and international movies with Saudi audiences.
Mohammed Al-Ansari, who is leading the new arm, says the company aims to tap into its knowledge of the Saudi population gleaned over a decade of creating advertising and marketing campaigns for the territory.
The company took a the booth at Red Sea Film Festival’s Souk this year, where Al-Ansari and his colleagues were talking up the initiative.
He says the new department fills a gap in the market in Saudi Arabia.
“There are no marketing film departments that specialize in marketing films to local audiences here,” he told Deadline on the fringes of the market.
“We have great audience here but as in any country, you have to speak their language and understand how to connect.. it’s also very diverse. You need flexible marketing and a flexible mindset. We are always doing this. If we put something up and it’s not working, we’re very fast to change it.”
Al-Ansari emphasized that the company wanted to offer their services to all distributors and studios releasing films in Saudi Arabia, however small or big.
For lower budget films, the company is also offering its services in return for equity in the film.
The arm can support films at all stages of marketing, and across all aspects of the campaign from artwork to digital activations.
Al-Ansari explained that Habbar means squid in Arabic.
“In the same way, squids travel deep into the sea, we like to go deep into the culture and are meticulous in our insights”.
Founded in 2014 by CEO Hassan Al-Ansari, Habbar is one of Saudi Arabia’s top creative agencies, with clients including Amazon, STC, Careem, Ministry of Sport KSA, Nike, and Floward.
As part of its move into film marketing, the company gotbehind the awards meted out to the films in development, production and post-production participating in the Red Sea Souk’s project market, the recipients of which were unveiled on Wednesday evening.
Habbar’s inaugural prize, consisting of a cash award of $10,000 and marketing services worth $40,000, has gone to Saudi director Khaled Zidan’s Green Corpse.
The film follows a teenager sprinter, whose championship hopes are threatened by his father’s khat smuggling activities and a multi-generational family curse.
One of Saudi Arabia’s buzziest emerging directors, Zidan previously made waves with his 2022 short Othman.
“Connecting with a film while it is at the development or production stage is interesting for us because we want to start from an early stage,” said Al-Ansari.