Set against the backdrop of a rapidly emerging music entertainment scene, MDLBEAST LLC has announced its strategic partnership with Snapchat in Saudi Arabia to further enhance the organization’s ability to deliver unique music experiences in conjunction with its flagship festival ‘SOUNDSTORM’ and ‘XP Music Futures’ 2022. The event experience organization is seeking to leverage the pace of change and further enhance its offerings thanks to the creative tech opportunities provided through a partnership with the social media and technology platform Snapchat. Faisal Shams,Strategic partnership lead at Snap Saudi commented: “We are pleased to partner with MDL Beast to create innovative marketing methodologies for major music festivals, superbly demonstrating the development of the Saudi music scene. Through the use of augmented reality (AR) experiences based on a set of advanced qualitative ideas for content development, this work will influence and benefit a large global audience as well as enhance user experience. Using augmented reality lenses during musical events, audiences will be able to create new and attractive opportunities to capture new content.” The new partnership sees Snap Inc support MDLBEAST on many enhanced provisions in the tech arena, including weekly optimizations, performance insights, and monitoring of content delivery to maximise the opportunities for actionable insights for the organisation. The events brand also benefits from bespoke creative support, such as video edits across the platform, to deliver increased visibility and user-sharable content amongst its visitors and followers. Snapchat is the most popular social media platform in Saudi Arabia, with over 90% of 13–34-year-olds in the region using it. This provides the perfect gateway to a key audience and is set to grow even further. In Saudi alone, Snapchat’s monthly addressable reach has reached 20 million monthly unique users, with demand continuing to increase. Robert Bock, Executive Director Marketing & Communications in MDLBEAST added: 'MDLBEAST’s mission is Amplify the Unseen, which is why we work closely with regional and international platforms to help support our mission. We’re proud of this partnership and we looking forward to future collaborations that help our young talent' With SOUNDSTORM 2022 having happened back on December 1st-3rd and XP Music Futures on November 28-30th, Snap Inc also worked closely with MDLBEAST to create a variety of Augmented Reality (AR) experiences that are promotable across the platform, driving engagement through unique user experiences which were available on the ground during the actual events. Snapchat users were able to use the brand-new augmented reality lenses during the events to experience fresh and engaging opportunities for capturing new shareable content. AR is proving a popular marketing tool across several MENA markets. According to Deloitte Digital, who completed a survey commissioned by Snap Inc., in the UAE and KSA, interacting with products through AR experiences lead to a 94% higher conversion rate than traditional brand engagements. Deloitte also reports that by 2025, over 75% of all smartphone users will use AR daily, with almost the entirety of Gen Z and Millennial populations of the UAE and KSA anticipated to be ‘frequent’ AR users.