How Thrilla Works: From Brief to Booking in the GCC Creative Industry

If you've ever tried to hire creative talent in Dubai, you already know the process is broken. You chase referrals, scroll through Instagram DMs, negotiate rates with no benchmarks, send a bank transfer on good faith, and then wait. Sometimes weeks. Sometimes months. For the talent on the other side of that transaction, the waiting can stretch even longer. According to Thrilla's own market research, 75% of creative freelancers in the GCC have waited six or more months to get paid, and most of them have experienced that more than once.

Thrilla was built to end that cycle. It is the GCC's first AI-native creative talent marketplace, currently operating across the UAE and Saudi Arabia with Australia confirmed as its second international market. This is how it works, for both clients and talent.

The Way the Industry Works Right Now

The current system relies almost entirely on who you know. A brand needs a photographer for a campaign shoot in Abu Dhabi. Someone in the office knows someone who knows someone. A few WhatsApp messages later, there is a vague agreement, no contract, and an invoice that may or may not get processed before the next fiscal quarter.

For freelancers, the problem compounds. A model books a job, delivers the work, and then waits for finance departments that were never briefed on the engagement. A DJ plays a corporate event and follows up six times before seeing a dirham. A videographer finishes post-production and discovers the client has gone quiet. According to a 2023 report by the Freelance Industry Report, late payment is the single biggest threat to freelancer retention globally, and the GCC market reflects that pattern at an acute level.

This is not a people problem. It is a infrastructure problem. And infrastructure can be fixed.

How Thrilla Works for Clients

Clients on Thrilla start by posting a brief. The brief captures the job type, timeline, location, budget range, and any specific requirements. It takes minutes, not meetings.

Once the brief is live, Thrilla's AI matching engine gets to work. It surfaces verified talent profiles that fit the scope, factoring in category expertise, availability, location, rate benchmarks, and portfolio quality. Clients are not browsing a directory. They are receiving a shortlist that has already been filtered for relevance.

From there, clients review verified profiles and portfolios, communicate directly through the platform, and book the talent they want. Payment is held securely in escrow at the point of booking. The talent knows the money exists. The client knows the money is protected. Work begins with both sides operating in good faith, backed by a system that enforces it.

Once the deliverable is confirmed, payment is released. No chasing. No thirty-day invoice cycles. No surprises.

Thrilla serves clients across the full spectrum of creative production. If you need actors, models, DJs, photographers, videographers, production crew, content creators, or stylists, the platform covers all of it under one roof.

How Thrilla Works for Talent

For creatives, Thrilla begins with building a verified profile. This is where the platform earns its trust signal. A verified Thrilla profile is not simply a completed form. Verification requires identity confirmation, portfolio review, and category credentialing. It is the difference between a profile that a client can act on with confidence and one that raises more questions than it answers. Unverified profiles can exist on the platform in a provisional state, but verified status is what unlocks full matching eligibility and booking priority.

Once verified, talent sets their rates, marks their availability, and selects the categories and project types they want to be matched against. The AI does not send every freelancer every brief. It sends the right briefs to the right people, which means less noise and more relevant work.

When a match is made and a booking is accepted, the talent knows exactly what they will be paid and when. There is no ambiguity at the end of the job because the payment structure was agreed upon and secured at the start. For the 75% of GCC creatives who have experienced chronic late payment, that single guarantee changes everything about how they can plan their professional lives.

Built for the GCC, Expanding Beyond It

Thrilla launched with the GCC market as its foundation because the need here is both urgent and underserved. The region's creative economy is growing fast, driven by entertainment liberalisation in Saudi Arabia, a booming content creator ecosystem in the UAE, and major events that demand high volumes of skilled freelance talent on short timelines.

The expansion to Australia as Thrilla's second market signals that the model is designed to travel. The problems it solves, matching friction, payment insecurity, and the absence of verified professional standards, are not unique to the Gulf. But the Gulf is where Thrilla is building its foundation, and that focus is intentional.

The Difference, Stated Simply

Before Thrilla, hiring creative talent in the GCC meant navigating a referral economy with no guarantees, no benchmarks, and no protection for either side. After Thrilla, clients post a brief and receive AI-matched talent. Talent builds a verified profile and gets paid on time. The work still happens between people. The infrastructure that supports it finally works.

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If you are a brand, agency, or production company looking to book talent in the UAE or across the GCC, or if you are a creative professional ready to work with clients who take payment seriously, Thrilla is opening its doors now.

https://thrilla.io