SME Revival case study: Dubai’s Finyal Media on its expansion plans

Motivate Media Group – Gulf Business‘ parent company – announced a $1m initiative called SME Revival last year offering 20 homegrown UAE small and medium companies affected by the pandemic with free advertising and marketing support.

We speak to the campaign’s beneficiaries to understand its impact on their operations in a tough year.

Finyal Media

Finyal Media is a podcast network based in Dubai which creates content for young Arabs across the MENA region. The company began broadcasting what it claims is the region’s first original drama podcast series called The Basement, in September 2020. The Arabic language series is available on all major platforms including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Anghami, Deezer and Spotify. We speak to Leila Hamadeh, co-founder and CEO of Finyal Media, to learn how the company benefitted from the SME Revival campaign.

How did you benefit from the SME Revival campaign?

The SME Revival campaign was a major help in boosting exposure of our business. In many cases, we would not otherwise have had access to Motivate’s audience across so many publications and different forms of media, so this campaign was an incredible opportunity for us to reach some of the region’s most prominent business leaders and industry specialists with our stories. It also allowed us to experiment with different forms of digital marketing and understand what works best for our business without the need to invest significantly in marketing costs.

Do you believe marketing is a key requirement in the current economy?

In the current economy when businesses are just starting to get back up on their feet, it is more crucial than ever to run effective marketing campaigns that cut through the clutter and read the right people.

Looking ahead, what are the plans for your company?

At Finyal Media, our audience is growing incredibly fast and our plans for the next 12 months include significant expansion across the MENA region. We have 15 new seasons of content coming out and hope to be able to partner with Motivate again to ensure that more people hear about and tune into our shows.

Also read: Why podcasts are winning in the Arab world