Dad has never won first place

Netanel Abbou (dida) was playing a card game at home with his 7-year-old son, the boy lost and got a little upset. Netanel stopped him and explained that he isn't measured by one single result, but by the total score across several games.

And then he said this:

"Look at your dad. I have never won first place on AdArena. But in the end, thanks to the wins I did get, dad is in first place."

Both halves of that sentence are true, and that is exactly the point. Netanel Abbou, 37, married and a father of three, has landed eight of his AdArena entries on the winners list. The highest he ever placed is second. Three times.

And on the creator leaderboard he is first. In wins, in prize money and in points.

I never really focused on one single thing

Born in Haifa. Since fourth grade he has played music by ear. He played for Maccabi Haifa from the age of six through the youth teams, started surfing and fell in love with it. And he always loved the stage, which led him to become an entertainment crew manager at the Fattal hotel chain.

After almost 3 years in Eilat on the entertainment crews there he met his wife and moved to Tel Aviv, built himself a mini studio at home in his early twenties, and started writing, composing and sending tracks to singers. In 2020 he met Yonatan, his partner; together they built a professional studio in Tel Aviv and worked with a range of artists, among them Eyal Golan and Maya Buskila. They produced albums across many genres, and over time moved into theatre, composing and arranging music for shows including Yuval Hamevulbal, David Chaim, the Isrotel chain, the Fattal chain, Simba King of the Savannah, Charlie and a Half and more…

"Music was the first time I really went all the way, and I felt myself developing from year to year. And today with video I feel it happening again — now I just have to keep going and stay focused."

The moment everything stopped

Then came October 7th. Then war. No shows, no culture, no work.

"We live in a wartime routine," he says. "You don't work, there are no shows, there is no culture. But everything else just carries on as usual."

"I can't live like this. I needed another skill. Something where I can take a computer and do work for people from home."

"Just get it out of your head already"

For years he had ideas. It didn't matter who was sitting in his studio, from the biggest artists to the smallest, the second someone mentioned a music video Netanel was the one saying "I have an idea". The problem was always the same problem: every idea of his added up to production budgets that nobody had.

And Yonatan said something to him that he still remembers.

"One day there will be someone with a lot of money who will be willing to put money behind your ideas. Because you simply have to get it out of your head already."— Yonatan, his studio partner

The competition he never submitted to

He signed up for a course with Ran Nuriani, one of Israel's leading AI video instructors. First week. A Baladi competition happened to be running right then, and he decided it would be his training ground: a real brief, a real deadline, real pressure.

He worked on it. And when the moment came, he didn't submit.

"I made something I felt I couldn't submit. I didn't finish it a hundred percent. I said forget it, let it go."

Then AdArena opened, and that was no longer an option.

The decision

"On AdArena, there is no chance I don't submit."

He said it to himself, and then he said it to his wife too: it doesn't matter what the idea is. Even the least creative one. Even the worst one in his own eyes. He submits.

The platform's first competition was about AdArena itself. 59 entries. Netanel sent a video with a character named Itzik, and took 24th place.

Today he looks at it and says "wow, how far I've come". But back then, in March, he said something else:

"However you flip it, however you look at it, I'm in the top half."

Four things before touching any tool

After his second entry Netanel built himself a document he fills in for every brief. Today, he says, it flows without the document. But the method stayed.

"People don't put emphasis on sound and music. For me it's 50% of any ad or video."

In the VeAhavta club competition that became a visible advantage. The idea was simple — you don't need a genie to shop cheap — and to make it stick in your head he wrote it a jingle. No one else in the competitions did that, and for the VeAhavta brand it was a perfect fit. Second place.

The third place that changed his year

In the Baba Casino competition he took third place. He calls it something else.

"The most first third place I've ever had."

A friend who works in gaming came across the video and loved it, connected him with people from the industry and opened a new door to a world that really appeals to him. Today, among other things, he creates video content for games and feels that this world in particular speaks to him.

"One ad that won third place brought me the best thing. You understand? And it wasn't first place."

And this is the point he most wants creators to hear: the leaderboard is not the whole story. "Even 20th place can suddenly get work off the back of one ad," he says. "In the end you made something good, you made something that landed — that brings work."

Why he helps the people competing against him

Netanel helps a lot of creators in the AdArena groups. Including people competing with him for the same prize, in the same competition. I asked whether he isn't worried that helping someone might cost him a place.

"My stomach clenches when you say that," he laughed. And then he answered.

"I'm incapable of knowing something, having someone tell me 'help me', knowing exactly what they need to do — and not saying it."

He traces it back to two places. The first is the community: "People helped me a lot too. I asked incredibly stupid questions, and people gave me their time."

The second is home: "That's how I was raised. And that's how I raise my kids."

He also does it publicly. When someone posts a new ad on Instagram, Netanel is there in the comments. "To give them that boost."

What he wants next

A series. He has a folder on his computer called "Series and Films", with documents written on some day of inspiration and untouched since. Some comedy, others closer to drama.

He is in no rush to get there. "Everything has its own time."

"We get signs all the time. Through music, through wind, through people who pass by us. You just have to listen to the signs."

And when I asked which brand he would love to make a campaign for, he answered Apple or Disney, because Disney connects to his musical world. "I want a brand that tells you do whatever you want, you have all the tools, go dream."

I asked what he wants someone reading this to take with them.

He thought for a second, and then said the least expected thing you can say when you're in first place:

"I want a person who reads this to say: I can be like that too."

And immediately after, as if to make sure we understood: "I don't think I'm anything special."

"I always loved this field, and when I discovered the world of AI all I did was simply not give up, and persist, and learn, and invest. I have no other way to say it to you."

"I know I have some talent, but talent alone isn't enough. You have to learn every day, improve and grow — and most importantly, not be afraid of problems along the way. That's how you learn."

And then, almost in passing, the grown-up version of what he told his son:

"Just dare, and you'll get as far as anyone in the world. And you won't always see it straight away. It's a path."

Five months. Eight wins. Never first place.

And in the long run, as of today, dad is in first place.