Karim Yusuf, Senior Creative Manager – Marketing VOD, ShahidThree years ago, I did something that would make most agency creatives flinch: I went in-house. Not freelance. Not a side hustle. Full-time; a full commitment.
If you’ve worked in an agency, you already know the reputation: in-house sounds like the graveyard of ambition. One brand, toned-down ideas and the same campaign in a different shade of safe.
That was the myth; I believed it too. But I also believed “fy tareeka tanya” or there’s another way.
At Shahid, a leading streaming platform in the region, we’ve built an in-house creative function that thinks strategically, creates boldly and delivers work that moves fast and makes an impact.
And while the rest of the world is leaning into this model, in the MENA region, it’s still the exception.
“The first year stretched everything I knew about creativity.”
No one puts creativity in the corner
You quickly realise this isn’t about sitting in a corner crafting nice looking decks. Your role expands – fast.
You’re not just coming up with ideas – you’re shaping them from the start, aligning with different teams, seeing them through to execution, and making sure they actually deliver. All of it, with less time and fewer resources than you’d think.
You learn on the job. New platforms. New metrics. New business models. New acronyms. You’re in strategy, design, production, performance, and measurement.
The creative muscle doesn’t shrink – it stretches into new forms. And if you’re not ready to be uncomfortable, you’ll feel it quickly.
Agency versus in-house: Not a power shift; it’s a perspective shift.
Within agencies, you’re trusted to bring the thinking, the craft and the spark. You get the brief, dig deep, shape a powerful idea and deliver something that moves the needle. At your best, you leave a lasting mark on the brand.
In-house, you stay with it. You’re part of the long game. You see the wins, the setbacks, the pivots. You’re not just influencing a campaign – you’re part of shaping the brand’s creative evolution, day in, day out.
You’re not above or below the line. You are the line.
The variety will surprise you
One of the biggest misconceptions about going in-house is that you’ll be doing the same thing over and over. The same tone, the same formats and the same process.
That might be true in some cases, but not in entertainment.
In streaming, every brief is a new story with its own audience, tone and purpose. The work has to break through the noise, build anticipation, and make people care. Some stories need scale. Others need subtlety. Some hit hard and fast. Others build over time.
At Shahid, it could be an Original that’s reshaping the Arab entertainment industry, a blockbuster movie launch, or the Saudi Pro League – the fastest-growing football league in the world. Each demands a different creative approach.
It’s not about pushing content out; it’s about pulling people in – and making them feel something.
Learn how to create with purpose, not just polish
Sometimes the simplest creative – raw, fast and perfectly timed – outperforms the polished hero piece. It’s not about guessing. It’s about knowing what resonates, reading the moment, and moving at the speed of your audience.
You stop creating for what looks beautiful in a boardroom, and start creating for what lands in the real world. For what sparks emotion, drives discovery, or shifts perception.
Beautiful still matters. But beautiful today means something else – it’s about relevance, resonance, and real connection.
Performance and brand can and should coexist
We’ve moved past the false choice of short-term vs long-term, brand vs performance. Now, we build both.
Some campaigns are engineered to drive acquisition. Others build equity, emotion, and loyalty. Both have their own KPIs. Both serve the business in different ways. And the best ones? They blur the line completely.
When creativity is aligned with business thinking, it doesn’t become less creative – it becomes more valuable.
Tools can speed us up. But people still drive everything.
AI helps speed things up. But it’s still people – with the right mindset, taste, and ambition – who steer the ship.
Strategy isn’t automated. Taste isn’t automated. Impact isn’t automated.
Creativity still starts with people. In-house or anywhere else.
We are the client and the creative agency
That’s one thing we do differently. We come up with the ideas. We build the campaigns. And we’re on set as both the creative and the client – a rare, and surprisingly powerful, dynamic.
We partner with top production teams – the kind who can push our ideas further, elevate the craft, and bring a layer of technical brilliance and scale.
But the creative direction? That stays with us. Always.
It keeps the vision sharp. The process faster. And the results speak for themselves.
In-house creative is evolving. MENA’s moment is coming
Globally, in-house creative teams have become the norm – across tech, fashion, entertainment, and every industry that moves fast and takes storytelling seriously.
In MENA, most brands still default to outsourcing. Agencies own the creative. In-house teams coordinate, adapt, approve.
But the landscape is shifting. Some brands are starting to experiment – testing hybrid models, building tighter creative loops, bringing storytelling closer to the business. It’s early, but the signs are there.
The closer creative sits to the brand, the quicker the thinking; the closer it is to the audience, the sharper the relevance; and the closer it is to the impact, the more meaningful the work becomes.
So, was the shift to in-house worth it?
Absolutely. It’s intense. The expectations are sky-high. But when you launch something that lands – something that truly hits culture, moves people, or gets talked about – you’re reminded why we do this.
At Shahid, we’re not just marketing shows.We’re helping shape what Arab entertainment looks and feels like.
That’s not a step away from creativity. That’s the very heart of it.
By Karim Yusuf, Senior Creative Manager – Marketing VOD, Shahid
