Content creator’s food videos fill gap in the Saudi market

Rahaf Jambi

RIYADH: Food content creators on social media have stepped up their game by posting cinematically shot food pictures and videos to create a tempting and glossy gallery of images.

One of them is Jeddah-based Raneen Joudah, a housewife and a digital creator with 305,000 followers on Instagram, 33,000 on Tiktok, and 350,000 on Snapchat. She also has 172,000 YouTube subscribers.

Joudah started her social media journey by making simple food vlogs of delicious home-cooked meals but decided to take things up a notch when she realized there was a lack of creative, professional, and informative content.

“I am a content creator who cooks food and shoots at the same time. Before, people viewed me as a housewife who cooks, but now I elevated my content by cinematography,” Joudah told Arab News.

She offers tips and tricks for baking, and ideas for children’s lunchboxes, sweets, spreads, and salads. Her Instagram shows a range of recipes, mostly covering the Arab and Mediterranean regions.

As a content creator, Joudah shares more than just recipes. She also shares proper cooking techniques and the science of food in her perfectly shot and aesthetically appealing videos.

Simple recipe videos take around six hours comprising cooking, filming, and editing, but a creatively shot video can take anywhere from three to seven days of work, which includes building the creative concept, shooting, and editing.

“Creating content as in production with a certain style of cinematography is something that we lack on social media and I like that I’m filling the gap here.

“The market lacks content creating production, and in Saudi Arabia, we don’t have a middle ground. You either find an immature cinematographer or pay so much for a professional production company, so I established a creative production house and named it Creative Table that’s going to be launched soon.”

Joudah believed that Creative Table, a location to shoot and produce content, bridged the gap between big production houses and small solo videographers working on creative campaigns.

She said all social media platforms could work together to create a brand.

“I use Snapchat as a curtain raiser of the recipe video that I, later on, post the professional content on Instagram. Snapchat is a good engagement tool to get people excited and communicate with the audience, and having more than one platform like Snapchat, Instagram, and now, Tiktok all serve together.”

Joudah preferred Snapchat because she could be herself more and be close to people.

“Snapchat people can see the behind-the-scenes most of the time, so they know the effort and appreciate it.”

She also thought working on social media was better than opening a restaurant.

“Many people advised me to open a restaurant since I’m a food content creator. However, opening a restaurant is my last priority, and I won’t open one under my name because I don’t like to link my name to a place, and everything that may go wrong in the restaurant can reflect on my name.”

Courtesy: arabnews