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From launching a single free weekly classifieds title in 1992 to being a fully integrated group 17 years later, Alwaseet International (AWI) aims to become something of a trendsetter, and is propelling itself full-throttle into an extensive and diversified expansion plan. But first the group must go through the restructuring process it has been dabbling in for several years.

Depending on who you talk to or which of the group’s various Web sites you read, it can be difficult to get a grasp of the common thread that links the myriad companies related to Alwaseet International. Not that AWI’s people have a taste for secrecy, but the labyrinthine group is in the midst of a complete structural makeover.

MY NAME IS… Founded in Kuwait in 2003 by Kuwaiti nationals Mohammed Abdulaziz Mohammed Al Otaibi and Sabah Jaber Mubarak Al Sabah (the group’s chairman and vice-chairman respectively), and Bashar Kiwan, the group’s Syrian CEO, Alwaseet and all its branches comprise the main media assets of AWI, a Kuwaiti closed shareholding company based in Dubai Media City.

AWI’s Alwaseet classifieds newspaper is also known as Alwaseela in Saudi Arabia and Syria, since it doesn’t own the Alwaseet name in those two countries, according to Marwan Dimas. Dimas is general manager of Al Wataniya Group, AWI’s Saudi-centric sister company established in 2001. Al Wataniya Group is owned by Prince Khalid bin Sultan and publishes Alwaseela. In Syria, the company in charge of Alwaseela is UG (United Group for Publishing, Advertising and Marketing), an AWI subsidiary and one of the country’s largest media groups.

So much for global brand consistency. But with 32 operations, 38 editions (including English versions) in 12 countries, and more than 5,000 employees, Alwaseet is nonetheless a success. It currently has a total circulation of almost 6 million copies, read by more than 22 million people every week. Having virtually no competitors in the regional classifieds market, the paper happily boasts an average 77 percent market share in the areas where it is distributed, while its Web site, eWaseet.com, has 100,000 registered members and 4.8 million page visits per month.

But Alwaseet is just the tip of AWI’s iceberg, as the group deals with far more than classified advertising alone. An increasing number of dailies (including Al Balad, Baladna, and Al Hayat) and magazines (such as Layalina, Laha, Top Gear, and What’s On) are part of its portfolio.

Its brands are scattered among various companies though, which makes a centralized branding strategy difficult: Al Wataniya runs Al Hayat and Laha in all countries, whereas in Lebanon, Al Balad is published by a company named Integra Marketing and Public Solutions. In Syria, UG publishes Baladna, What’s On, Top Gear and others, and is also involved – under various names – in advertising (as Concord Media, an outdoor company), printing (as Concord Digital Printing),
directories (as Yellow Pages Syria and Tourist’s Yellow Pages) and distribution (as UG for Distribution).

On another front, since April 2007 AWI has held exclusive rights to publish, distribute and market the Guinness World Records Arabic edition (as well as the right to produce special branded copies) along with a partnership called “Records for all” with Guinness World Records, whereby AWI organizes record-breaking activities and promotional events with local companies and individuals (see “On the record,” page 40, Communicate, Oct. 2007).

Among this flurry of brands and companies, the group seems to have had a hard time finding the right corporate and branding formula. Dimas admits AWI’s branding strategy wasn’t fully pre-planned. “The group has been known under a lot of names; these names were ‘borrowed’ from different entities: Wataniya, Waseet group, UG, etcetera,” he says. “When we established Al Wataniya and started sales for Al Hayat, the group was ‘casually’ called Al Wataniya in the absence of any group name.”

So when it was established as a holding company five years ago, AWI was supposed to gather the group’s various operations under one single brand, and become the whole structure’s engine. But in 2006, Alwaseet announced its various brands and operations would be gathered under the umbrella of Al Wataniya Group. And today AWI is again the group’s identity of choice.

Evasiveness and confusion won’t be options if the group intends to go through its ambitious expansion plans and create a unified, efficient brand identity.

THE FUTURE IS NOW. Over the past year or so, Kiwan and his partners have stepped up their efforts to enter the media giants’ regional playground. Not only did they launch the Arabic edition of French magazine Marie Claire in Kuwait in October and in the UAE in November (see “Can Marie Claire woo Arab women?” page 42, Communicate, Jan. 2009), and a Comoros edition of Al Balad (Kiwan is heavily involved in the Comoros islands through his company, Comoro Gulf Holding), but a Kuwaiti edition of Al Balad and a Lebanese French-language daily Action are among the group’s new projects. And Alwaseet TV, billed as the region’s first “advertainment” station, is expected to go on air within the first six months of 2009 (see boxes).  

On top of these diversified projects, the number of Alwaseet editions should multiply exponentially, with an official objective of reaching 100 publications of the weekly classifieds paper and a $150 million annual turnover by 2012, and expanding the brand way beyond the region. In order to achieve this objective, Alwaseet recently became the first publication in the region to franchise. Alwaseet Warsaw was the group’s first incursion into the European market in November and should be fol lowed by a foray into Romania. The first Alwaseet franchise in Africa was set up last December with two Alwaseet editions in Nigeria published by Nigerian franchisee Adwise Integrated Resources. Central and Southeastern Asia are apparently next on AWI’s map.

Since July 2008, the group has finally been undergoing a massive restructuring to provide a solid backbone for its extensive plans, confident that its impressive growth rate (32 percent in 2007) provides it with a solid enough financial backing.

“All our operations will be split into four units, under the umbrella of AWI,” says Elie Wakim, the group’s managing director for magazines: dailies, headed from Lebanon by AWI’s managing director of dailies Gilbert Tegho; magazines, under the umbrella of UG; classifieds (Alwaseet, all its supplements and derivatives such as eWaseet); and Al Wataniya, which will stand alone. “We believe Al Wataniya deserves a separate unit, as KSA is the region’s biggest market and must be managed with a specific focus,” says Wakim. Indeed, with a total circulation of 1,050,000 copies in the Kingdom alone, Alwaseela is worthy of special treatment.

“The restructuring stipulates different business units in different legal entities and a new group brand entity,” says Dimas. He won’t yet say what that identity will involve, though. “The restructuring strategy is still not final and we should not disclose the details.”

Considering the array of companies, the variety of business fields and the diversity of legal entities, untangling AWI’s web is by no means simple. But at this stage, it seems unavoidable.
 

That’s advertainment
“It won’t be TV shopping,” says Nicolas Haddad, general manager of the soon-to-air Alwaseet TV. In Lebanon’s Studiovision’s building (home to Rotana’s offices), Alwaseet’s team is preparing for what they hope will be a “unique” pan-Arab TV station in the region’s overcrowded free-to-air TV landscape. “Advertaining is a new concept, mixing advertising and entertainment,” says Haddad, who adds that the group is developing its own programs in-house. “Usually, you have an ad channel or an entertainment channel. But, along with TV shopping programs offering unique products at competitive prices, we’ll have live shows at peak hours with anchors interacting with viewers through game shows, as well as straps of advertising at the bottom of the screen, 24/7.” Alwaseet TV customers – mostly small-to-medium-sized businesses – will have three options to place their ads: through the station’s call centers in each country where AWI is already present, by texting the station, or through its Web site. Haddad is confident that any Alwaseet reader is a potential viewer and that the relationship between the classifieds title and the channel will work to increase viewership. “I’m sure our marketing and sales team will come up with creative incentives to combine the newspaper’s and the channel’s offerings,” he says. “We have no competitor at the moment, but we have to create awareness and a positive impact at launch, so a good share of our multimillion initial investment will go into marketing and PR.”
 

Action stations
With the soft launch last December of newcomer daily Action by Integra Marketing and Public Solutions (Al Balad’s legal entity in Lebanon), newspaper L’Orient-Le Jour’s (OLJ) de facto monopoly on Lebanon’s French-speaking readers may be coming to an end.  The all-color Action, published by Al Balad, is already available on the Internet from Al Balad’s Web site, will hit the stands as a print edition this month. “As no new political newspaper licenses are granted in Lebanon, we bought an existing one which had never been put to use,” says Gilbert Tegho, AWI’s managing director of dailies. “Hence the name, Action, that went with the license. But we insist on “Published by Al Balad,” as one of our objectives is to boost Al Balad’s brand equity.” In the title’s outdoor campaign, the name “Action” is left out altogether, and the newspaper is promoted as Al Balad in French. Rather than competing directly with OLJ, Tegho says he wants to attract new and younger readers by offering them a more modern and less politically biased paper than those generally available in Lebanon. Openly inspired by successful free French daily 20 Minutes, which provided the Lebanese team with consulting services, Action offers a subscription free-of-charge for the first six months, while a multimillion marketing campaign has been launched to promote the two dailies, based on this offer. “All our marketing is designed with a business mind,” says Tegho. “We aim to become leaders in change.”

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