According to the Global Obesity Observatory, Saudi Arabia has one of the highest obesity rates in the world with 25% of its population suffering from this condition.

Ariyadiyah, the country's leading sports newspaper noticed that more people prefer to sit down to read about sports rather than play them, in a country where around 20.000 people die yearly due to obesity-related diseases, sports is more than a hobby, it’s a requirement to increase life expectancy and quality of Saudi Citizens.

On the other hand, Riyadh, a city with more than 7 million habitants, lacks public spaces designed to practice sports, so to address this situation we used this year's World Health Day to launch an initiative that turned our traditional newspaper into a place for sports and healthy habits around Saudi Arabia.

The campaign quickly became one of the fastest spreading and most talked about initiative of the year, capturing media attention and spreading a conversation about the need to tackle the deadly affects of obesity and diabetes. Citizens from all over the country shared their requests to implement more spaces like this in different areas. This is now becoming a reality where the Youth Sports Programme having commissioned us to create permanent courts across the country.

#1 trending topic on Twitter for +9hrs

129.1MM organic impressions

+1MM organic views

+USD1.5 earned media

+120k calories burnt in the first hours.

“In a city with a lack of public spaces, we found a way to turn every alley, warehouse, and park into a sports court. We reinterpreted our traditional newspaper and used its frontpage to create a giant edition that celebrates World Health Day, these frontpages were redesigned to portray elements of basketball and football courts, each of them was placed in strategic locations al arround Riyadh to give people a place to exercise, play and interact with other players.

We went from a newspaper to a live experience that engaged with people from all walks of life, the action impacted the city’s environment in an unexpected way by turning the grey corridors and corners into sports fields full of life.”

In the last 30 years Saudi Arabia has experienced an incredibly fast economic growth, changing the lifestyle of its habitants, this growth has produced the entrance of different fast food franchises while the habits of Saudis turned into a sedentary tendency.

These factors have resulted in the obesity epidemic hitting the country really hard, and its people suffering the consequences of diabetes and other obesity-related diseases. Now, developing initiatives that encourage sports is more important than ever.