Filling the Conference Gap: How SABIC Built a Controlled Global Social Strategy During COVID

ABOUT SABIC

Headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corporation) is a global chemicals and petrochemicals company headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with operations in more than 50 countries and roughly 34,000 employees. The company is majority owned
(70%) by Saudi Aramco and serves industries spanning agriculture, automotive, building and construction, electronics, healthcare, and packaging under its “Chemistry that Matters” brand.

THE CHALLENGE

SABIC’s global team, situated mostly across the Middle East, India, and Europe, with a marketing team split between the EU and US, had no real social media strategy to speak of. Many employees were social-media shy, and the company needed a way to bring them onto social platforms responsibly, with messaging that stayed controlled and on-brand rather than left to chance. The timing mattered too: SABIC had long relied on industry conferences for visibility, but COVID shut those down, cutting off a primary source of exposure right when the company
needed it most.

THE SOLUTION

MarketBeam gave SABIC a way to build a social media presence from close to scratch, getting social-shy employees comfortable showing up online while keeping messaging controlled and consistent across a marketing team split between the EU and US. With conferences closed,
social media stepped in to supplement the exposure SABIC had been losing, keeping the company visible to its global audience across the Middle East, India, and Europe even without in-person events.