What makes this work relevant for PR is the way it generated a conversation across different platforms and entities. The campaign's creative approach and strong message attracted media attention, resulting in the campaign film trending at the #1 spot on Twitter in Saudi Arabia for several hours. This increased visibility and engagement helped to amplify the campaign's impact and spark conversations about the importance of physical activity in combating obesity.

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.

As the leading sports newspaper of Saudi Arabia we decided to take action, for the first time in 30 years we stopped using our printers for the news and instead used them to print giant courts.

We designed reglementary-sized fields and used them as the cover of a unique special edition of our newspaper, this time we removed our edition from the racks and took it to the streets for people to enjoy them.

On world health day, Saudis from all walks of life discovered 10 new courts in different parts of the city, the activation encouraged people to join the moving celebration and start playing football, basketball, and more sports.

To impact communities across Riyadh we selected different locations that covered diverse lifestyles and demographic groups, we also invited people from different origins to join the cause of fighting obesity by playing sports, individuals that tried the courts were also encouraged to share the experience and invite friends and relative to do the same.

Our team focused on delivering an inclusive sports experience, also, on the racks where our newspaper is usually found we put maps showing the court's locations so our readers could visit the nearest one.

Newspaper courts were placed in 10 locations across the Saudi capital, driving hundreds of people to turn up to enjoy a basketball or football game, and ultimately experience the healthy benefits of exercise. The courts, launched on April 7th, remain on the streets of Riyadh today encouraging people to remain active, not just on Health Day, but every day.

The campaign film, released on April 8th instantly trended on Twitter taking the number 1 spot in Saudi Arabia for several hours, opening a conversation on the importance of battling obesity and the risk it poses to Saudi society.

The campaign was also seeded to local and international media, but after the hashtag trended on Twitter, the conversation was automatically picked up they the region's biggest tv channels and traditional media outlets.

This action caught the country's attention and spread a conversation about the importance of exercise and healthy habits, people from all over the country saw the campaign and talked about the necessity of implementing more spaces like this in different areas, we even received a message from the government asking us to join in a crusade for bringing courts to more people in Saudi Arabia.

#1 trending topic on Twitter for +9hrs

129.1MM organic impressions (*Source TalkWalker)

+1MM organic views

+USD1.5 earned media

+120k calories burnt in the first hours.

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.