WHAT DOES WEBEDIA ARABIA GROUP DO?
With a foundation in content creation and community building, Webedia Arabia is a marketing, communications and content creation machine. We have closed the loop on all MarComm disciplines with interdependent teams who work both as independent units and/or as one fully integrated team.
This includes disciplines covering data and insights, strategic planning, digital media, creative, content creation (from TikTok to Netflix), production, influencer marketing, experience marketing, PR, and gaming and e-sports.
We offer our services to more than 120 clients through our network of companies; UTURN, Webedia, FullStop, Saudi Gamer, Made in Saudi Films, LeadGen, .XP and others that we are launching soon.
I refer to it as a machine because of how forceful and integrative our creative and production lines are in moving from local and culturally spirited ideas to effective strategies, impactful content and grounded and impactful solutions.
We are among the leading Arabic content producers, running five content communities and currently interacting with more than 45 million people. Our video content alone was viewed by over 376 million this year. We are also looking into launching more content communities within verticals that GCC consumers relate to.
Such proximity to audiences gives a unique advantage with first-party data points and insights on women’s perceptions and emotions, beauty trends, parenting needs, sports, entertainment, eating habits, spending patterns, consumer brand relationships and many more.
We also practice what is called ‘conversational transparency’. When we ask, our audience answers, because we are transparent about how we use their data.
TELL US MORE ABOUT YOUR GROWTH AND ROLE
Our Group has been growing remarkably. The growth we’re mostly proud of has been our ability to attract new talent, spread across 10 countries. And equally important, our audience trusts us.
My role is to ensure that this machine is well-functioning, guided by a vision that not only caters to the needs of our clients, but that also stimulates demand with new value offers and inspires our talent. We also grow and retain our communities by re-investing in new content, new formats, innovations and technologies.
The biggest threat to our growth is comfort-zoning. And this is something I picked up early on. So for us to remain ahead of the curve, our ecosystem needs to allow for disruption. We managed to build one that challenges the business-as-usual. We basically look beyond the low-hanging fruit.
HOW DID YOU BUILD A CREATOR NETWORK?
I have been exposed to the world of creators early on, and I learned to recognise talent from afar. Starting off as a salesperson in a local publishing house in Beirut, I soon moved to the agency world in 1999 before relocating to KSA in 2001.
Even though I come from the client-servicing and business side, I learned to understand how creators function. And I ended up connecting with creators at a level deep enough to nurture a co-creation relationship.
I have been working side-by-side with creative teams throughout my entire career, and from day one, I became quite fascinated with how we move from a brief to a ‘big idea’.
And during the past 25 years, the creative side in me was being continuously stimulated. It wasn’t a sudden snap, but I also realised that I can no more claim to be immersed only in the business side of the creative agency.
I guess I am a hybrid specie of the creative world, because even though I am not an artist, I cannot stop sketching. That said – I also realise that too many cooks spoil the broth. So the trick is how to develop a co-creation working relationship among teams.
As a CEO, I have to ask myself “why will this person work for us” when it is becoming quite easy to freelance from the perfect vacation spot and gain visibility on social media as a service provider or creator. Why the hassle of joining a team? So I have to ensure that teamwork brings together people from different backgrounds, and that this in itself is also energizing at the individual level.
CAN YOU DESCRIBE YOUR APPROACH?
I don’t really have a very peculiar approach. We all know different talents operate differently. A one-size-fits-all approach will not work. My approach is centered on three pillars. Not a fancy formula but rather the result of trial and error. This is how we, humans – learn.
It’s people-centered. Personal. And personalised. It mimics what we do at the Group level. And it’s working. Because at a time when job security forces team leaders to get locked into rigid multinationals, I was able to attract great talent to our Group.
And this triangularity also applies to our Group’s business model.
“When I highlight the tradeoff between teamwork and the individualistic nature of creators, it does seem as if a clash is inevitable”
CAN YOU EXPLAIN THE TRIANGULAR MODEL THAT YOU HAVE ADOPTED?
I have explained that our Group goes beyond the business-as usual. We are not the typical agency. And the model that we have developed rests on three foundations (1) integrating content creators with ad-minds and state-of-the-art technologies (2) empowering local talent across all lines, and (3) nurturing a culture of entrepreneurship guided by a sense of community.
I believe this industry from its very inception has flourished by the hands of entrepreneurs, and we have been limiting its potential by curbing such spirits. At our Group, team leaders are the masters of their own domains.
At the centre of this model is my genuine belief in two things: ideas and the people behind them. When I highlight the tradeoff between teamwork and the individualistic nature of creators, it does seem as if a clash is inevitable.
But it is this culture of entrepreneurship that gives a self-satisfying balance between the two.
WHAT WERE THE CHALLENGES IN WINNING OVER MNCS?
The post-pandemic period was a turning point in the brands-agency relationship. Between 2021 and 2022, more than 40 global brands conducted a marketing review, which resulted in moving billions of dollars from one agency to another.
We also saw an increase in in-housing of agency work and consolidation of marketing budgets by brands.
At the same time, the industry soon found itself moving from a celebratory data revolution era to the ‘Cookiepocalypse’. Third-party data consumers suffer, while first-party data collectors flourish, and we happen to belong to the latter.
So, despite the strong headwinds, we are growing. Companies soon realised that we have a power mix. It’s the power of the co-creation mélange between local talent and global expertise. MNCs are not local enough. When they hire locals, they do it to tick a box. As a façade. We do it because we are locally-rooted.
HOW DO YOU ENCOURAGE IDEAS?
We have to continuously come up with new ideas, right? But I soon came to realise that there is a general misperception of creators not working hard enough. As if ideas just pop up. But Newton didn’t really discover gravitation because he was relaxing under an apple tree.
Nor did Archimedes reach the ‘Eureka!’ moment while spending his days in a bathtub. Ziad Rahbani, a genius Lebanese composer, was once asked about his music given that he reflects a carefree approach to life.
I remember a journalist asking him about how and where he gets inspired. He answered saying: “I wake up and start working.
I sit on my piano for hours. One note after the other. I sweat like construction workers.”
Coming up with ideas is an exhaustive sweaty process. It is hard work. And it can be painful. Sometimes we have to throw away great ideas.
Because at the end of the day, my job is to ensure that our ideas contribute to a value-creation system. We don’t come up with ideas because it’s fun or artistic. It’s not an in-kind contribution to society. We do it because we are part of a capitalist economy.
This is how businesses survive: by investing more to create more value.
