The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2024
Riyadh Season's Kings Slam trailer gives each legend a VFX world of his own
A Riyadh Season tennis trailer casts six legends as fantasy heroes, each dropped into a bespoke VFX world that mirrors his signature strength.
Riyadh Season · Electric Theatre Collective
What it had to solve
Riyadh Season's Kings Slam brought six tennis legends - Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Holger Rune and Jannik Sinner - together for a one-off event and needed a trailer that matched the scale of the line-up.
How it works
Riyadh Season's Kings Slam brought six tennis legends - Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Holger Rune and Jannik Sinner - together for a one-off event and needed a trailer that matched the scale of the line-up. The answer was 'Call of the Kings'.
The creative move was to give each player his own world. Electric Theatre Collective integrated the six legends into eight bespoke VFX environments that mirror their unique skill sets: Djokovic, synonymous with mental strength, uses his power to stop a hurtling ball, while king-of-clay Nadal shatters a gigantic clay effigy to take his shot.
Around them the film fuses sport with fantasy - a viking explosion on seriously choppy waters, a near-invisible robot in a sandstorm and an armour-clad roaring bear. D&AD kept the film in its Animation archive, crediting Electric Theatre Collective as entrant and BigTime Creative Shop as agency for client Riyadh Season.
Why it lands
- A trailer that mirrors each player's signature strength gives every star a moment that feels personally made for him, so each fan base gets its own reason to share it.
- Fantasy worlds - viking seas, sandstorm robots, roaring bears - give tennis spectacle it cannot produce on court, making the event feel like a blockbuster.
- Eight VFX environments in one film show craft on a scale that matches the 'legends' billing, and the variety keeps a long trailer from repeating itself.
- Pairing each hero with a different environment turns a single ensemble film into six parallel origin stories, which is exactly what an all-star event needs.
What it did
The trailer turned a tennis event into mythology, giving each of the six stars his own spectacular, shareable scene while selling one occasion. D&AD kept the film in its Animation archive, crediting Electric Theatre Collective for client Riyadh Season.
What you can take
Give each star his own myth: matching a bespoke VFX world to every player's signature strength turns one event trailer into six personalised epics fans will each share.
Since then
The Kings Slam trailer was made to promote Riyadh Season's one-off tennis event headlining Djokovic, Nadal, Alcaraz, Medvedev, Rune and Sinner. D&AD preserves it under Animation, with Electric Theatre Collective named entrant, BigTime Creative Shop the advertising agency, and Gray Skull and Truffle Film the production companies; the archive page records no view or attendance figures.
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