To explore how effectively agencies are supporting Saudi brands and brands operating in the Kingdom, Campaign Middle East posed a simple but divisive question to industry experts in this Industry Forum: Are global and regional agencies working as effectively as local Saudi agencies?
The responses highlight why some believe globally enabled, hybrid models are delivering results, why others argue true effectiveness must be built from within the Kingdom, and why a third group sees the market still finding its creative footing.
Read what each of the industry experts had to say below:
Camille Haddad
CEO, VML KSA
YES
In Saudi Arabia’s dynamic and rapidly evolving market, achieving true impact demands more than just global reach – it requires profound local resonance. The true differentiator, however, lies in integrating and empowering dedicated local Saudi talent. These invaluable team members are the key drivers, providing essential cultural immersion, authentic language nuance, and granular market understanding that ensures campaigns genuinely connect. The powerful synergy guarantees that the work is not just globally excellent, but deeply resonant, culturally sensitive and truly impactful for the Saudi audience.
Jumana Radi
MENA Executive Producer, electriclimeº
YES
We’ve seen both local as well as global and regional agencies build effective and resonant work in Saudi. Global and regional teams can be effective in building work that’s culturally authentic, when they recognise that the market has its own rhythm and nuances. One of the most effective setups we’ve seen is a hybrid model: when a strong local team rooted in the culture is paired with global craft, structure, and production standards. As a global film house, we have a KSA-experienced team leading the way culturally, while tapping into our global leadership’s guidance, global directors and talent network. It’s not about one being better than the other; it’s about collaboration and respecting what each side brings. In Saudi, we think the work resonates when it’s built insightfully, authentically and locally, to global best practices.
Abdulrahman Suwailam
Head of Marketing, MENA – ESL FACEIT Group
NO
While global agencies have deep expertise, they often apply a regional formula that misses what makes Saudi unique. Success here isn’t about just having a local office. It demands a team that doesn’t just understand the culture but lives it. Insights, creative briefs, and major decisions must originate from within the Kingdom. True effectiveness comes from local talent having the autonomy to lead and make key calls, something local agencies inherently do better.
Mohammed Sehly
CEO, BigTime Creative Shop
NO
Real Saudi creativity won’t come from strategists sitting behind laptops abroad, researching how Saudis think or mapping Gen Z behaviour from afar. It happens when a collective of diverse, culturally fluent minds live and breathe the rhythm of this place, not when there’s just one Saudi voice on the call to fact check expressions. Until we invest in growing a full Saudi creative generation of thinkers, writers, directors and doers who create from within the culture, not about it, the work will keep sounding like observation, not truth. Real resonance starts from proximity, not PowerPoint.
George Skaff
Senior Commercial Director – GCC, Aleph Holding
YES
For Saudi clients that are primarily advertising within the Kingdom or the broader MENA region, the answer is yes. Local agencies possess the necessary deep market knowledge, cultural nuances, local capacity, and regional insight to be just as effective, if not more so, than the global regional agencies operating in Saudi.
However, the challenge for local agencies arises when considering the export book of business – that is, Saudi brands looking to expand or advertise internationally. In this context, it becomes challenging for local agencies to be as effective as global agencies. This difference stems primarily from the local agencies’ limited or non-existent presence, lack of local knowledge/capacity, and lower penetration in international markets outside the region, which global networks inherently possess.
Sunil John
Senior Advisor MENA, Stagwell
MAYBE
Saudi Arabia doesn’t need imported creativity; it needs rooted creativity. Whoever tells its stories must live its rhythm, its language, its contradictions. Global agencies have proven the world over that great work happens when local talent leads and global systems enable. And that matters because creativity is culture made visible. When Saudi is building cities, art, and experiences that awe the world, its communication should carry the same native confidence and originality. Yet in Saudi, both global and local agencies are still trapped in an expat echo chamber. The next creative wave must be for Saudi, by Saudi, not just branded that way, but built that way.
Makram Fata
Managing Director, World Edge
MAYBE
Both can be effective, but true success depends on localisation. Global agencies bring structure, strategy, and scale; local agencies contribute cultural fluency, agility and sharp social instincts. The strongest results emerge when international expertise fuses with local insight, when global frameworks are powered by Saudi talent that understand the pulse of its audience. The future of brand success in Saudi isn’t about global versus local, but global with local: collaborative, hybrid teams that blend creativity, data, technology and cultural authenticity.
Charli Wright
Owner & Managing Director, JWI
NO
For me, it’s not about geography, it’s about depth. The effectiveness of an agency, whether global, regional or local, comes down to the quality of its strategic thinking and its ability to uncover genuine consumer insight.
True cultural understanding doesn’t sit in a postcode – it sits in perspective. When a team brings together diverse viewpoints, such as regional context, global best practice and local nuance, that’s when strategy becomes powerful. The agencies doing the best work in Saudi aren’t necessarily the ones with the closest office, they’re the ones with the deepest understanding of its people.
Rami Hmadeh
CEO, Serviceplan Arabia
YES
Global and regional agencies can be just as effective, but only when they are truly embedded in the Saudi market. What makes the difference is not the logo on the door, but the people behind it
At Serviceplan Arabia, our strength comes from being locally rooted while backed by the global power of the House of Communication. We work hand in hand with Saudi talent, partners, and clients to create ideas that reflect the country’s culture and ambition. That balance between local insight and global capability is what drives real impact in today’s Saudi market.
Abdulaziz Al Qahtani
Business Development Director, Sifr
YES
If they have a Saudi presence. Global and regional agencies with strong Saudi offices and Saudi talent are contributing effectively, leveraging their scale, global experience, and exposure to large, complex projects that align with the ambitions of Vision 2030 and the giga-projects’ expectations. At the same time, the eagerness of local agencies is rapidly maturing the Saudi market through collaboration and the adoption of global practices, a trajectory that will soon elevate local agencies to even greater competitiveness. However, agencies without on-ground presence in Saudi would struggle. This market requires deep cultural fluency, historical understanding, and sensitivity to Saudi identity, where heritage and pride strongly shape communication.
Taha Kazmi
Co-Founder, Total Media Ventures & Growthnity
NO
While global and regional agencies bring strong strategic frameworks and best practices, local Saudi agencies often outperform them in execution and cultural resonance. The future of marketing in Saudi won’t belong to the biggest networks – it will belong to the most contextually intelligent ones. And today, that intelligence is unmistakably local.
Ibrahim Almutawa
Managing Partner, Jummar PR
NO
The growing demand for local agencies is a global trend. In the Saudi market, in particular, international agencies are still struggling to understand the local community, opting instead to develop unworkable strategies rather than innovating effective implementation.
Since the 1970s, international PR agencies have been in the Saudi market. Yet, they have not invested in national talent, and their localisation rates remain low. They made no genuine efforts to engage with the community or embrace its ideas; instead, they applied Western-oriented concepts to our market, which differs culturally, linguistically, and, most importantly, socially.
