How Copywriter Ali Alshehri Sharpens His Creative Capacities

A small-town boy from Tanomah, Saudi Arabia, Ali Alshehri was taught to relish the artistry of language from a young age. He grew up in a close-knit community that deeply valued Arabic literature, and was constantly surrounded by people who appreciated good writing and rich expression. Looking back, Ali believes it endowed him with his ability to express ideas clearly and creatively – something which plays a large part in his role as junior copywriter at Serviceplan Arabia today.

Ali continued honing his powers of expression and got his first taste of creative problem solving at school. Work, and especially writing tasks, were interpreted as challenges to be answered in the most interesting way possible in order to stand out in the classroom. He also began to pursue an interest in visual design, once again using his competitive streak to fuel his own improvement by challenging his cousin to see who could produce the best designs. He admits his cousin usually won; but it developed his aesthetic eye in an important way.

Above: Ali in his home town

“After high school, despite having high grades and my family advising me to study things like engineering or medicine, I was looking for something different,” the copywriter recalls. Then along came a podcast by Dr Saleh Al-Shebl, which presented Ali with the first clear explanation of marketing he’d ever heard. Drawn to the creative freedom the job offered, he elected to study marketing and ecommerce at King Khalid University, where he picked up foundational knowledge and crucial research and thinking skills. “More importantly, it helped me develop a great way to learn things that I use to learn new things fast, both in my work and outside,” Ali adds.

It didn’t take long for Ali to put his newly acquired skill set into practice: he graduated last May, and by June, he’d joined Serviceplan Arabia. 

“When I first started, I was excited and wanted to start working on the biggest projects right away,” Ali recalls. “However, my director, Ms. Sara Eid, kept telling me, ‘Observe’. This simple advice taught me the most important lesson: taking the time to really understand how things work, the situation, and what the goal is is the most important first step before you even begin the actual work.” 

Once Ali did get to dive into professional projects, his first was a Saudi National Day advertisement for the Jameel Motorsport account. Among his strongest memories of the experience is “the great feeling the first time I saw a whole ad, based on what I wrote, come to life and be shared.”

More recently, he had the opportunity to attend the Athar Festival NextGen Academy, after being encouraged to apply by his colleague and previous participant, Lujain Al-Amri. Asked whether it lived up to expectations, Ali is affirmative: “I had heard great things about Athar, but I was surprised by the high quality and commitment of the trainers and mentors. What was much better than I expected was the focus they put on the learning sessions before the main pitch challenge. The trainers, who were carefully chosen and had different backgrounds and work styles, added a lot of extra value that I hadn't expected.”

The experience gave Ali a deeper insight into both the agency and client side of marketing, with sessions from the experts like the head of marketing at AI company, Humain; Serviceplan Arabia’s general manager, Ramy Abdelrahim, and Ali’s own director, Sara Eid; and the founder of Climaty AI. Then came the challenge: answering a creative brief with a full marketing campaign pitch in just 24 hours. 

“The most challenging part was working right away with a group of people I had just met,” Ali says. Five strangers each with different skills, learning to work well together quickly was tough, but they overcame it by defining roles and delegating responsibilities early.

“We also faced a big problem when our presentation file on Canva was accidentally deleted just three hours before the submission deadline!” Ali reveals. “We fixed that tough situation by staying calm, prioritising the core idea, and focusing on explaining the main parts of the project during the talk instead of worrying about small details.”

Seeing the results of the collaboration was the most rewarding part. “After we finished our presentation and received good comments from the judges, it was worth all the hard work and fixing problems. The feeling of getting past the unexpected problems together and being proud of the final, good result was truly great.” 

Above: Group photo at Athar

So what has Ali got his sights set on next? “My biggest dream is to become a creative director,” he responds. “However, achieving that needs a lot of hard work, focus, and dedication. Right now, I am only focused on my small goals: completely learning and understanding every part of the advertising and creative sector.”

A creative to the core, Ali continues to sharpen his skills and his mind outside of work through multiple hobbies, whether listening to, studying, and playing music, 35mm film photography, or even vlogging. If that wasn’t enough, he’s also planning a short film side project, with the goal to join the Red Sea Project’s 48-hour challenge. He’s currently on the search for collaborators…

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