By Kamil Abi Khalil, head of production, Anghami Studios
During COVID, advertising and media had to adapt to the new reality and traditional advertising immediately became less relevant. At the start of the lockdown, people did not know where the end was. As a platform for advertising, we asked ourselves how we can inspire people at home. It started during Ramadan, when Pepsi, a client of ours, decided to create a song focused on the concept that although Ramadan may be more isolated this year, we can still celebrate together.
The song was a hit and immediately followed by other brands tapping into us to create music to inspire and cheer people up. We realised that branded content was a medium that brands wanted to tap into more especially post-COVID. And our forte initially was music. We started producing music for brands.
We realised we had two factors that gave us an edge. The first is data. With over 1 billion points generated each month, we truly know what audiences, in certain markets, listen to. This allows us to recommend relevant genres and music to brands that make sense for their customers. The second factor is a deep relationship with artists were struggling during the pandemic. We could seamlessly connect brands with artists using data at the centre.
As we started creating music for brands, they started realising the value – music is universal and crosses all boundaries while the brands own the content Anghami Studios produces. This gives the brand hero content they can distribute across channels. On top of these, we know from GWI data that Anghami users really on influencer reviews when making purchases (75 per cent do), and by creating music with artists, brands are essentially working with the artist in an influencer capacity. They speak on the brand’s behalf.
Our story is somewhat of a startup within a startup, and as we scaled, we realised music creation makes sense for many moments; Ramadan, National Day etc. while being industry agnostic. Our client set today is one that makes us proud; New Balance, PUBG Mobile, Pepsi, Chalhoub Group and more.
Our capabilities in sound then moved into bringing the sounds of brands to life beyond songs. Our production capabilities as Anghami Studios have expanded to podcasts, jingles, sonic branding and more. We want brands to know that the power of sound is accessible, affordable and quick.
