Augustus Media Newsletter: October Overview 🚀

NOTE FROM THE CEO

Building Regional Influence Through Local Stories

The Middle East’s media landscape is moving faster than ever.‎ Staying relevant requires more than keeping up with trends; it demands local depth, authentic talent, and true platform ownership.

We explored this theme at our third edition of the Local Influence: Regional Impact event, where industry leaders gathered to discuss how regional shifts are reshaping content and brand strategy.‎ That philosophy is live across our footprint every day, from the ground-up community engagement of the Lovin’ Awards running across cities like Dubai, Riyadh, Cairo, Doha, and Abu Dhabi, to expanding regional grassroots sports coverage through Smashi Sports.

Real impact comes from empowering creators who know their communities, crafting stories that resonate locally, and building the technology to deliver them seamlessly.‎ Thank you for continuing to shape the future of regional media alongside us.

Richard Fitzgerald

CEO & Founder

CONTENT

Peek Into Performance 👀

September brought strong momentum across the region, starting in the UAE, where Lovin' Dubai hosted Indian cricket star Suryakumar Yadav, generating over 800K views, while the wider podcast network passed 162,000 downloads.

The Lovin’ Awards 2026 also went live across all five cities, generating more than 65,000 votes by month-end and creating one of the month’s strongest audience participation moments.

Saudi had one of its busiest months of the year, with Saudi National Day driving extensive coverage and activations across Riyadh and Jeddah. Lovin' Saudi added 6,000+ Instagram followers and averaged 1.2M+ YouTube views per week, while Lovin' Jeddah tripled its reach, peaking at nearly 4M.‎ The team also delivered campaigns for 30+ clients and strengthened its industry presence through partnerships with LEAP, Money20/20 Middle East, and Creative Industry Summit.

Elsewhere, Lovin' Qatar closed the month with 16.4M views, while Lovin' Muscat reached a record 70.7K Instagram followers.

On the Smashi side, September saw the launch of UAE FA Division 2 and 3 coverage, with more than 80 matches streamed, active subscribers passing 1,144, and registrations exceeding 45.5K.‎ The redesigned Smashi website also launched alongside continued expansion into connected TV and FAST channels.

Overall, September reflected growing strength across content, community, sports, partnerships, and product.

Rakan Felemban

Head of Content

COMMERCIAL

As Q4 Nears, Brands Are Looking for Impact

September marked a clear return in commercial momentum across the region.‎ As clients and agencies moved out of the summer period, conversations quickly shifted towards Q4 planning, year-end budgets and the need to deliver strong results before the close of the year.

Across the market, brands remain focused on making every investment work harder.‎ There is continued pressure to prove impact, but the discussion is moving beyond reach alone.‎ Clients are looking for campaigns that can build relevance, earn genuine attention and create a clear route to action.

This is particularly evident around high-attention moments.‎ Sports, entertainment, cultural events and seasonal retail opportunities are playing an increasingly important role in Q4 plans.‎ Across Augustus, we saw this reflected in growing conversations around Lovin', Smashi and Odeum, alongside continued demand for media partnerships, event-led activity and content that can travel across platforms.

September also brought a stronger focus on integrated solutions.‎ Rather than working in isolated channels, more clients are looking for ideas that connect social video, editorial, talent, events and commercial outcomes.‎ This gives us a strong opportunity to bring the full group offering into the conversation and support cities and markets across the network.

As we head into October, the pace will continue to build.‎ With major campaigns, retail moments and year-end activity ahead, the priority is clear: help clients stand out in increasingly crowded spaces, while turning attention into measurable commercial value.

Michael Smith

Senior Commercial Director

NEWS

Augustus Media Joins the UAE Gender Balance Council’s SDG 5 Pledge

Augustus Media has joined the UAE Gender Balance Council’s Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5) Pledge, reinforcing our commitment to gender balance, inclusion and creating greater opportunities for women to grow and lead across the business.

The pledge brings together organisations committed to advancing women’s participation and equal opportunities in private-sector leadership and decision-making.‎ Augustus Media joins eight new national and international organisations taking part in the initiative, becoming part of a wider network focused on turning gender-balance commitments into practical workplace policies and actions.

Building a more inclusive workplace

As Augustus Media continues to grow its brands, teams and operations across the region, the pledge reflects our focus on creating an environment where diverse talent can develop, contribute and take on leadership opportunities.

Richard Fitzgerald, Founder and CEO of Augustus Media, said the commitment reflects the company’s ambition to build a workplace where women have meaningful opportunities to grow, lead and shape the future of the business.

NEWS

Smashi Sports Wins Big with AI-Powered Innovation

Smashi TV has announced that Smashi Sports has won Best Innovation in Sports at the Tech Innovation Awards 2026, recognizing its proprietary, AI-powered approach to automating sports content production.

The award recognizes Smashi TV’s development of an in-house AI highlight pipeline that automatically processes live matches, identifies key moments, creates highlight reels and custom artwork, and publishes content directly to Smart TV applications, all within hours of the final whistle.

Scaling sports content with AI

The proprietary technology is designed to support coverage across 40 leagues and nearly 4,000 matches during the 2026/2027 season, while reducing reliance on third-party SaaS platforms.

By automating the post-production workflow, Smashi Sports can turn late-night live broadcasts into ready-to-publish highlights by early morning, helping deliver faster and more consistent sports content to audiences across connected devices.

TEAM UPDATES

Welcoming New Team Members 👋

Mohamed Hesham Assets and Operations Manager 📍Egypt Rana Shafik Digital Marketing Executive 📍Egypt Amr Essam Assets and Operations Manager 📍Egypt Youssef Gaafar Content Writer Executive 📍Egypt Peter Besher Senior Finance Manager 📍Egypt

YouTube video by Lovin Dubai | لوڤن دبي

Tennis Star Sania Mirza’s Stunning Dubai Home!