ABOUT THE PRO JECT
BUILDING PUBLIC TRUST IN SAUDI AQUACULTURE
SAMAQ Saudi Mark of Aquaculture Quality was developed as a national certification identity to help consumers recognize Saudi aquaculture products as local, fresh, safe, and certified at the point of purchase.
The project focused on building a trusted national quality mark that could work across government communication, producers, retailers, packaging, awareness campaigns, and digital channels.
THE CHALLENGE
TURNING TECHNICAL STANDARDS INTO A PUBLIC TRUST SIGNAL
Consumers cannot always see the standards behind seafood products. Origin, freshness, safety, and responsible production need to be communicated clearly at the moment of choice.
SAMAQ needed to become more than a logo. It had to act as a trusted national signal that supports local producers, guides consumers, and gives Saudi aquaculture products a recognizable point of difference across retail and communication channels.
Key challenges included:
Making certification easy to understand
Communicating local origin, freshness, safety, and trust
Creating a mark that works on packaging and retail displays
Supporting producers and retailers with clear brand application rules
Connecting government credibility with consumer-facing communication
OUR Strategic APPROACH
FROM QUALITY MARK TO MARKET CONFIDENCE
The approach was built around the role of SAMAQ as a certification seal: official enough for government and industry stakeholders, simple enough for consumers, and flexible enough for producers and retailers.
I focused on translating technical quality standards into a brand system that could communicate trust, Saudi origin, freshness, safety, and confidence across packaging, retail, digital, and public awareness touchpoints.
COMMUNICATION DIRECTION
The visual direction was built around four simple public-facing ideas: local, fresh, safe, and Saudi.
SAMAQ needed to feel official, credible, and easy to recognize. The identity direction combined Saudi relevance, water and freshness cues, certification confidence, and a clean market-facing system that could work across packaging, labels, retail displays, awareness campaigns, and digital communication.
INTEGRATED
COMMUNICATION SYSTEM
A consistent brand system was developed to help SAMAQ work across government communication, producers, retailers, packaging, public awareness, and digital channels.
Core elements included:
Certification mark direction
Brand manual structure
Packaging label system
Fresh fish tag application
Retail display guidance
Producer toolkit logic
Public awareness messaging
Digital and campaign asset direction
Website content direction
Social media channel direction
Brand launch messaging
PR and media communication support
Public program interview direction
Public awareness messaging
Digital and campaign asset direction
Final Outcome
A NATIONAL TRUST SYSTEM FOR SAUDI AQUACULTURE PRODUCTS
The final outcome was more than a brand identity. It was a national trust system designed to support one of Saudi Arabia’s strategic aquaculture initiatives led by the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture with the Saudi Aquaculture Society.
Our role was to help transform SAMAQ from a technical certification program into a public-facing brand system that could support producers, retailers, government communication, packaging, social media channels, public awareness, PR, interviews, website communication, and brand launch activities.
The system helped make certified Saudi aquaculture products easier to identify, understand, trust, and promote supporting the wider national effort to move Saudi seafood products from production to market shelves, build consumer confidence, and strengthen the readiness of the sector for local and international market growth.
