The soap opera actor, Arabic Super Star contestant and renowned Moroccan musician Saad Lamjarred is now also the holder of a Guinness World Record for his breakout and most-viewed Moroccan video LM3ALLEM. While LM3ALLEM was the first song to break 100M views in under three months in the region, Saad Lamjarred’s musical legacy also includes two other multi-million view hits. In 6 short months, his channel has grown by +500K subscribers and accumulated over 182M views.
THE GOALS
Increase the channel’s viewership and subscriber base
Shift existing offline fans to digital followers
Diversify the channel’s demographics
THE APPROACH
Leverage Saad Lamjarred’s existing fandom
Engage with the artist’s community
Promote the channel’s content internationally
THE RESULTS
Released, LM3ALLEM (لمعلم), the first MENA video to reach 100M views
Placed in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most viewed video in the region
Grew by +500K subscribers in 4 months - totalling 700K subscribers
Through drawing on this legacy and regular activity on the platform, garnering an engaged fanbase, and expanding his content internationally, since release, Saad Lamjarred’s channel has continued to increase in viewership and subscriptions globally. Here are the three strategies that drove Saad Lamjarred and LM3ALLEM video to its current level of success:
1# Capture views through regular channel activity
Since launching his YouTube channel in 2012, Saad Lamjarred has managed a regular publishing schedule which combined official content (such as tour and music videos), as well as original content (birthday songs and the ice bucket challenge). While he is acclaimed for two breakout hits, Mal Hbibi Malou in 2013 and ENTY in 2014, neither of these videos were hosted on his channel and it therefore did not experience any associated growth.
It was in May 2015 when he published LM3ALLEM that his channel and back catalogue grew exponentially. As his audience discovered LM3ALLEM, they continued to browse the channel’s archive through suggested video (34% of channel traffic) and playlists (7% of channel traffic). The channel maintained this momentum through original programming and repurposing archive versions of his previous popular tracks. Released in the last year, the live and audio versions of ENTY alone have combined views of over 11M. Since releasing LM3ALLEM, the channel has grown from 80 to 700K subscribers and from 48K to 178M views.
2# Set An Engagement Precedent
When Saad Lamjarred and DJ Van released ENTY, it quickly became the most viewed video in MENA, receiving over 55M views and earning them an award at the Méditel Morocco Music Awards. When ENTY broke 1M views, Saad Lamjarred, DJ Van and the comedic talent Momo collaborated on a khaliji style dance video. This video, which has received 5.5M views, asked viewers to submit their own interpretations. Additionally, the Saudi talent temsa7LY produced a shoutout to promote the artists and the dance which was viewed by 3M. As the video grew in viewership, they continued to produce celebratory videos to engage with their fans and promote submissions. When LM3ALLEM was released in 2015, Saad Lamjarred had set a precedent for engagement and celebration of fan tributes. This video now boasts over 138M views with a further 11K copies uploaded.
3# Explore International Accessibility
Saad Lamjarred is best known for his Moroccan Darija vocals, most popular amongst Moroccan Arabic communities. However, Enty’s khaliji dance and Temsa7LY’s shoutout to the Saudi community showcased his work to a wider Arab audience. When producing LM3ALLEM, Saad Lamjarred combined both traditional and modern with national and international styles by infusing his track with khaliji beats (a favorite in the Persian Gulf) and dubstep influences. This innovative style allowed him to cross borders, first to an extended Arab community and then further internationally.
His global success can be measured through his channel demographics; from 2012 - 2015 his channel received 60% of its viewership from Morocco. After the release of LM3ALLEM, the channel’s demographics shifted dramatically, receiving over 30M views from Saudi Arabia alone and diversifying viewership internationally.
To further diversify his audience, the channel leveraged both cross-platform engagement and the YouTube campaigns feature which allows for promotion across fan uploaded content.
In addition to fan uploaded videos, they identified clusters of content from their extensive catalogue that were popular in different regions and promoted the LM3ALLEM track against them. They first leveraged their channel, then promoted against their fan uploaded content library and finally extended to their campaigns to include their entertainment catalogue to ensure thorough and wide-reaching promotion of the track.
