Hamad Alenizi

The large number of upcoming giga-projects in the Kingdom offer Faden Media Group a great opportunity to demonstrate its range of technologies and innovations to reach out to more people than ever.

Can you provide an overview of your operations in Saudi Arabia?

Our core business is in media and advertising. We are a group of companies under Faden Holding called Faden Media Group, which has seven subsidiaries. Two are in outdoor advertising which are Faden Media and Wave Media, one is a production house called United Printing, and we also own Spike E-Media, a company that handles the e-commerce advertising segment of our operations, app advertising, and the influencers business. We are working to make the influencers’ business more organized because it is a huge business, though it is not one of the main pillars of media. Another of the subsidiaries is Social Clinic that handles our digital and social media advertising segments. There is also Faden Spectrum, which is the hardware and software provider in partnership with a global partner in China. Most of the iconic digital infrastructure in the kingdom were done through Faden Spectrum This is an extremely promising sector, and we see great value in it as there is a huge untapped market in Saudi Arabia.

How are you keeping up with technological innovations to retain your customer base and attract new ones?

Today, we transformed more than 80% of our static signage into digital signage. Faden is the biggest consumer of LED and digital signages in Saudi Arabia and the region. In addition, lately, we have installed measurement tools inside our screens that can give provide a large amount of data, such as traffic, gender, age, and so on. Today, we have more than 8,000 screens carrying this technology in shopping centers and supermarkets. In Saudi Arabia, we have the largest number of screens in terms of square meters in the region. We also can integrate social media within these screens and make direct engagement with our audience. We have done a few campaigns with clients on Instagram that appeared on our signages. If our clients take a Snapchat video or pictures, we can integrate them directly on the system. Customers are usually looking for new technology and are more into data-driven media. Without the measurement tools, we lose value, because clients are becoming increasingly aware and tech savvy and KPIs driven than previous generations. That is why we are working to grab clients’ attention by communicating and developing new technology in the market. This is the main reason we invest heavily on R&D and we have a new innovation almost every year.

What specific partnerships are you seeking to help you advance your operations, and what potential growth opportunities have you identified overseas?

We seek partnerships in technology and AI and anything related to media. We saw an opportunity in e-commerce, which is why we launched our new company, Spike. We now have the rights to advertise on the e-commerce platforms. The market is gradually moving away from shopping centers, and businesses need to be flexible and adapt to the market. This strategy will ensure continued growth for the company. We also see potential growth overseas and have already started talks with Dubai, Kuwait, and Bahrain to install some of our screens there. We will also have an office in London for Spike. By 2025, we are planning cover the region.

What other sectors have the greatest potential for growth, eventually boosting demand for your services?

We believe growth lies within the giga-projects in Saudi Arabia. The Red Sea project, Qiddiyah, Diriyah, and NEOM all have massive potential, and we will invest heavily in these projects. We want to be the provider for their outdoor digital media. For example, PIF is establishing a new airline RIA, and it will require at least eight agencies to cover all marketing and media aspects. It will need a company such as Faden to provide the right services for its media needs. The market is huge, because new companies are opening in Saudi Arabia, and there are many initiatives local businesses or foreign investors.