The public relations industry seems to be having a bit of a rebirth. The crisis, the medium’s increased professionalism, and the role of social media have all, in one way or another, contributed to the growth of the sector. Nowadays it is more of a necessity than a luxury in a client’s marketing mix.
Even Saudi Arabia, known more as an advertising destination, has witnessed the development of its public relations industry. Several multinational public relations agencies have set up offices in the country, including Weber Shandwick in Jeddah, and Hill & Knowlton and Asda’a Burson-Marsteller in both Riyadh and Jeddah. And both regional and Saudi agencies have opened up in the Kingdom, capitalizing on the need for a more developed industry. But while the practice of PR is gathering momentum in the Kingdom, the industry still faces many challenges, not least a need for professionalism.
Industry insiders say Saudi Arabia’s public relations sector is riddled with problems, with the biggest issue being the lack of talent, according to Jamal Al Mawed, senior account manager at d’PR, a Dubai-based PR company boasting the BMW, Visa, Hilton and Canon accounts in Saudi Arabia.
“In other words, there are not enough PR practitioners in the Kingdom – in fact, it is almost impossible to find someone with PR experience for your agency, so most agencies either send someone from their Dubai office, employ someone with no prior background in PR, or simply employ ex-journalists,” explains Al Mawed, who works on the BMW account.
The lack of local talent adds to the professionalism challenge, says Al Mawed. “It means that you always have people working in PR who need to absorb the culture first before trying to apply professionalism,” he says.

USED BUT ABUSED. The dearth of professionalism in the Saudi public relations industry is mainly noticeable in the misuse, or abuse, of press releases. Badi Al-Badrane, managing director of MPR Communications, a Riyadh based public relations company with a regional network, says both private and public institutions misuse PR.
He says that the aim of some private corporations when hiring a PR agency is to try and sell their products and services through press releases, which in turn sees them sending out scores of press releases to the media. Al-Badrane says they are more often than not unworthy of publishing. “It is also not surprising to find an abuse of press releases, some of which are published to expose the achievements of the general manager of a given company, institution or organization,” he says.
As for the public sector, Al-Badrane says that when there is a public relations department (they can be hard to come by) the function is once again misused or abused, by turning the role into a routine and administrative function that lacks creativity and innovation.
Walid Karanouh, managing director of PR Arabia in Jeddah, a public relations company with clients including Aston Martin, Mazda, and Sony among others, says that after 20 years in the field, he stills encounters problems with the lack of professionalism in Saudi Arabia, and with the misuse of the PR medium. “In government departments, public relations means receiving people from the airport and preparing a welcome kit or arranging for a driver,” he says.
Sarah Al Ayed, managing partner and network vice president of TRACCS communications in Saudi Arabia, says that public relations practitioners need to have an understanding of the country they are operating in, and of the nuances of the industry itself. “It’s a lot more than just knowing how to write a press release,” says Al Ayed. “If you’re not able to study, research, and analyse the market, and how it affects audiences, then it’s not public relations.”
Karanouh stresses the need for education and awareness in the public relations field, particularly now that advertising has taken a backseat as a marketing strategy in the face of the economic crisis. Al Ayed says that while pitches used to be sporadic, TRACCS has been called in for several pitches a month recently. “It’s partly due to crisis, when a lot of companies cut down on advertising and marketing and turned to PR, so there has been a massive growth,” she explains. “Another reason is that people are more aware of what PR really is, and how it can add value to organization.”

MUNDANE MEDIA. Al Mawed says that another big challenge faced by PR practitioners in Saudi Arabia is the underdevelopment of the media. “For most of the media, news is still intertwined with advertising, so many publications will not carry anything you send them unless you advertise with them,” he says. “I have been with editors of a couple of the biggest Saudi dailies and seen them in front of me take a stack of new press releases and match them up with a list of who advertises with them and who doesn’t, then dump the ones that don’t advertise in the trash without even reading them.”
Personal relationships with the media are necessary to get coverage, according to Al Mawed, who says that, on a newsworthiness scale, anything involving a prince or a member of the ruling family takes priority, followed by government news, positive business stories, and then news from companies that advertise with the publication.
The PR industry’s relationship with the media has long been an issue in Saudi Arabia, says Al-Badrane. He says that agencies are accused of using “subtle” methods such as gifts to journalists to ensure their clients are getting publicity.
“Such practices are totally rejected by public relations agencies that operate according to practices and principles of high quality,” says Al-Badrane. “However, some form of complex relationship and rivalry still exists among journalists and workers in the field of public relations. This is not attributed to negative personal encounters, but it is deeply rooted in the culture of the media function itself.”
In an industry worth an estimated 100 million rials, according to Al Ayed, public relations professionals need to up their game on the ground.
“Saudi is the biggest market in the region, yet a lot of companies like to have things run by remote control from a distance,” he says. “You can have a big global or regional company working with a client, but their team on the ground is not up to the caliber you’d expect from the company. It’s a token person in the Saudi office, a person who just implements things, even if they don’t have the know-how. This ruins the industry, and affects the image of public relations in the Kingdom.”

CLEAN FUTURE. This all adds up to a lot of problems for one growing industry. No one ever said it wasn’t problem-ridden, of course; but in the face of these issues it’s important to realize that things are not all bad. With the establishment of multinational agencies, and certain sectors using the public relations medium properly (the automotive industry, according to Karanouh), PR in Saudi Arabia is picking up, and cleaning up.
“The viability and sustainability of the agencies in Saudi Arabia depend on the transparency and professionalism in their work and their capability to be innovative and creative,” says Al-Badrane. “While we notice the emergence of new agencies for the first time in the Saudi market, we also notice other agencies are phasing out from the market after a few short years of operation. This means there is a healthy competition that will ultimately lead to the exclusion of the weakest or least professional agencies and survival of the best agencies that operate with transparency and professionalism.”
Al Ayed says the trend of PR companies opening up and closing down in the Kingdom will go on for another couple of years until the market strengthens.
“There needs to be diversification,” she says. “We need to add value to advertising and marketing with specializations like corporate social responsibility or crisis management. The whole development of the industry is very important, and we really should look at finding and training the right talent.”