Off Brief Media has officially launched as an independent media company, introducing a new portfolio-led approach to building digital media brands across Egypt and the wider MENA region.
Founded by Ahmed Aboud, Founder & CEO, and Fayrouz Khaled Salah, Co-Founder & Head of Content, the company launches with two owned platforms: Lemonade, focused on culture and entertainment, and Traction, focused on business, markets and entrepreneurship.
The launch follows the evolution of Off Brief from a podcast into a wider media business. What began as conversations around media, brands and changing audience behaviour developed into a platform, before growing into the idea for an independent company built around creating and owning distinct media brands.
At the heart of Off Brief Media is a belief that the way audiences consume information has changed significantly, creating an opportunity for more focused, social-first media brands with clear identities and communities.
Rather than building one publication covering multiple verticals, Off Brief Media is developing individual platforms around specific audience interests. Each brand will operate with its own editorial identity, tone of voice and community, supported by the wider company’s content, communications and commercial capabilities.
Leading the company’s first portfolio is Lemonade, a culture and entertainment platform created for younger audiences. The platform covers entertainment, trends, people, social conversations and moments shaping contemporary culture, with content developed primarily for social platforms.
Alongside it, Traction approaches a different audience and subject matter. The business platform covers companies, startups, entrepreneurship and wider developments shaping Egypt and the region, with a focus on making business stories more accessible and easier to understand.
While the two platforms serve different audiences, both reflect Off Brief Media’s wider strategy of building brands around clearly defined communities rather than applying the same editorial approach across multiple categories.
Ahmed Aboud, Founder & CEO of Off Brief Media, said: “The media landscape is evolving quickly, both in how audiences consume content and in how brands engage with those audiences. We believe there is an opportunity to build focused media brands that combine strong editorial identities and engaged communities with sustainable commercial models.”
He added: “Lemonade and Traction are our starting point. The wider ambition is to build a portfolio of brands that can grow independently while benefiting from the capabilities and regional perspective of Off Brief Media. We are already working with global brands across our platforms, which gives us early confidence in the commercial opportunity behind the model.”
The company also brings together the founders’ complementary backgrounds across the media industry, combining experience in commercial media and business development with content, communications and brand strategy.
Fayrouz Khaled Salah, Co-Founder & Head of Content at Off Brief Media, said: “Audiences today have an enormous amount of content competing for their attention. For us, building a media brand starts with understanding why someone would choose to follow it in the first place.”
She added: “Our approach is to give every platform a clear purpose, personality and understanding of its audience. Lemonade and Traction are intentionally very different because they are built for different communities, but the thinking behind them is the same.”
Off Brief Media will initially focus on strengthening both platforms in Egypt, while building partnerships and commercial opportunities around their respective audiences.
The company plans to expand its portfolio over time, with ambitions to grow beyond Egypt and establish a wider presence across the GCC and MENA region.
Starting from Cairo, Off Brief Media aims to build a regional network of digital-first brands shaped around the changing relationship between content, communities and commercial media.