RIYADH — Drive Communication, a subsidiary of Abdul Latif Jameel Company (ALJC), announced yesterday that it would open new offices in Jizan and Dammam to cope with the growing demand for advertising in the Kingdom.
Announcing Drive’s future plans on its 10th anniversary, Dr. Majid Al-Kassabi, chairman of its consultant council, estimated that the Kingdom’s advertising market was more than SR10 billion.
“The market is growing rapidly because of the emerging economic cities that are being developed under special program chalked out by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah. Foreign companies like to advertise in the Kingdom to display their products and services to take part in the Kingdom’s rapid economic growth.”
Detailing the company’s expansion program, Kassabi said that the company is spreading its wings to reach a larger clientele. “We will be the first Saudi advertising agency to have four offices in the Kingdom besides its branches in Beirut, Damascus, Dubai, Algiers, Casablanca and Istanbul,” Kassabi said, recalling that Drive was launched in 1998 in Jeddah as part of ALJC to become the leader of the advertising agency in the region.
“Now we have achieved our target and now we want to serve a larger group of customers within the Kingdom.” Tomohru Tsuruda, managing director of Dentsu, the largest advertising agency in the world, was also present to mark the occasion.
In his brief speech, Tsuruda stressed the importance of the partnership between Drive Communication and Dentsu since 2005 and said that the cooperation between the two companies had gone a long way in penetrating to new markets in the MENA region.
Hannibal H. Reaidy, managing director of Drive Communication, said that the company has an ambitious program to set up more branches in all important cities to extend its services to individuals and companies that are interested in advertising, media and public relations sectors.
