From a cold email to a live session with 181 registrations in twelve days, and a median watch time of 44 minutes.
A Riyadh lighting consultancy sells to the developers behind the Kingdom's largest projects. Its August was a lesson in doing less outreach and more of the right kind: volume down 82 per cent, first replies in, and a live event built from nothing in under a fortnight.
Period: August 2026, one month inside an ongoing retainer. Every figure is taken from the client report and labelled with its source. No figure has been rounded upward.
The client
DTS Arabia, Design Tech Services, is an architectural lighting and daylighting consultancy in Riyadh. Its buyers are development companies, architects and the giga-project entities of the Public Investment Fund. Cush runs its marketing department: positioning, outbound, events, newsletter, speaking and awards.
Where they started
Outreach at volume with nothing coming back. A capable practice with no public stage, no newsletter and no route into the development companies that decide which consultants get in the room.
What was wrong
Professional buyers do not answer volume. They answer relevance, evidence and a reason to reconnect. Every unanswered email was also teaching the market to ignore the name.
What we did
A capability presentation delivered to more than twenty PIF development companies. Twenty-two researched, personalised emails to named decision-makers, replacing the previous volume approach.
Design Majlis: a live session with a guest academic on the gap between university and practice, built from a cold approach to a live event in twelve days, with separate registration links to measure real attendance.
A newsletter launched to 1,106 recipients, speaking slots secured at INDEX Saudi Arabia and the al-Shaibani Lighting Salon, and an IALD Awards 2027 entry filed for a Riyadh project inside the early-bird window.
What changed
Al Balad Development Company replied with direct contact details. SALFO booked a meeting for 2 September, reached through an earlier collaboration rather than a cold pitch. Abdul Latif Jameel Properties approached DTS. The Design Majlis drew 181 registrations and held 73 people live for a median of 44 minutes. The newsletter opened at 27.2 per cent against a 25.4 per cent architecture and construction benchmark. Two speaking appearances were confirmed while the month was still running.
The evidence
Every number on this page carries one of three labels, and the period it covers is stated above the figures.
Reach fewer, better-chosen buyers by name, then give them a reason to come to you.
The sector was design consultancy. The move was research-led outreach to named buyers, a stage of the firm's own making, and an awards and speaking calendar. It is the professional services playbook, run by a department rather than a freelancer.
Read the next case, or find out which pattern your marketing fits.
DARS: From page three to position three on Google for the Arabic term its clients actually search.