As we saw in the first episode of North Coast D/OOH Experts Talk, just when you thought Sahel campaigns had resigned themselves to aesthetic déjà vu, a few brands decided to zag. A Yellow Disruption: Shamasi Breaks the Mold Then came Shamasi, one of the very few campaigns this year to actually break away from the Sahel visual script. No dreamy beaches, no models in linen, no poetic tagline in a refined serif font. Simply bold, uncompromising yellow; a colour long associated with attention, sunlight, and visibility in OOH. It's a loud, attention-demanding presence on the road. The idea is almost brutally simple: a single word, Shamasi (Arabic for umbrellas), stretching across the billboard in huge letters. The word itself is a mood-inducer; summer, sea, and shade are summoned immediately without having to represent them. This is not a lifestyle ad in disguise — it is branding, pure and simple, and it works. The yellow not only contradicts the usual pastel tranquility of North Coast campaigns, but panders to every high-impact out-of-home instinct: visibility, recall, and emotion. It's a refreshing point of clarity in a market that's been fixated on softness. Credibility Over Cinematics Contrast that with El Amar's new North Coast campaign, which took the more subdued route. Visually, it does not compete on flash or flair, but its strategy lies in storytelling, credibility, and numbers-driven. 11,000 units delivered is not exactly the most gripping or attention-pulling, perhaps, but it is reassuring. While the billboard design can be a little underwhelming, the message is tapping into something consumers are starving for: tried-and-tested reliability. In a market that is too often render-driven and dreamy, El Amar is making its pitch on actual delivery, a different kind of appeal. Sokhna Joins the Conversation And just when you thought competition was strictly a Sahel game, Porto Sokhna throws itself into the mix with a bold red-and-blue campaign for its Polotano phase. Debuting at the height of the North Coast season, it's a strategic power play; a reminder that Sokhna isn't going anywhere, and might just offer a witty alternative to the Sahel status quo. Not revolutionary in the visual sense, but in the timing sense, it speaks volumes: summer fun is no longer the purview of one coast. The Soft Blue Fatigue (Pretty, Polished, Predictable) It's not like the work of other brands is bad. On the contrary, the art direction is solid, the storytelling is polished, and the execution is consistent. But that consistency is where the flatness happens. What was novel now risks becoming background noise. When every campaign tries to evoke a dreamy, salt-air sense of belongingness with soft filters and the same five buzzwords, it's hard for one voice to rise above the chatter. There's a formula emerging, and June and July 2025 made it especially evident: Place it by the sea. Shoot it like a luxury hospitality or tourism ad. Cut the copy to a poetic sentence. Aim for refinement instead of punch. Once more, this is not a blunder or a setback for these brands; it's just a point of saturation. The North Coast has matured as a real estate and lifestyle market, and with that has come a new visual vocabulary: quieter, more subtle, emotionally encoded. But the danger of a common language is echo, and right now everyone's echoing everyone else. In a world where sameness is slowly dulling the edge of effect, the few who've chosen clarity over mood, confidence over cliché, are standing out by default. Shamasi, El Amar, and Porto Sokhna all broke the rhythm in their own way: one in assertive color, one in quiet facts, and one with timely disruption. And that's the idea; in outdoor advertising, sometimes you don't have to reinvent. Sometimes, you simply want to opt not to whisper when everyone else is whispering. The ocean will never disappear. The peace of mind won't either. But the brands willing to shatter the serenity might just be the ones we remember.
