KUWAIT: Gulf Bank has announced it will be the title sponsor of "Stories With Hamad," the latest show hosted by social media influencer and personality, Hamad Alali. The new show is an audio and video storytelling podcast that aims to highlight a true story or event told by those who lived it over the course of 15-minute daily segments. The show is currently scheduled to air every day during Ramadan, right after iftar, and on both ATV and YouTube.

The new podcast show, which is hosted by Hamad Alali, will consist of interviews with 30 guests and stars across various fields, with fun and beneficial content set to entertain the whole family. The 30 episodes will vary with different themes to satisfy the largest target audience, and will highlight a variety of topics including community, the arts, culture, history, youth, and sports.

"Stories With Hamad" aims to entertain with a purpose. The podcast also aims to define and document local social events that will be spoken about publicly for the first time over the course of the show. The show also aims to use storytelling techniques to bring different generations and perspectives together, and highlight the best of our local communities and the values we hold dear. The show will follow a new format similar to the trending style of podcasts across the world, with a set-up that encourages viewers and listeners to focus solely on the dialogue, and interact with the stories being told. The podcast set-up is simple and straightforward, encouraging guests to be as comfortable and as candid as can be when retelling their stories.

"Gulf Bank is excited to sponsor 'Stories With Hamad,' Hamad Alali's latest show that will be narrating one beneficial and entertaining story a day during Ramadan," said Reem Hasan, Manager of Corporate Communications at Gulf Bank. "As always during the holiest month of the year, we aim to support and highlight local initiatives that are not only shedding light on the untold histories and stories of our beloved country, but are also bringing our local communities together. We are excited to sponsor a show that will truly be unlike any other in the region, and we hope that everyone tunes in to the podcast to learn more about what makes our country and local communities that much more special."

Gulf Bank is sponsoring "Stories With Hamad" as part of a wider set of initiatives pioneered by the bank in the interest of achieving community sustainability. It is worth noting that Gulf Bank is committed to maintaining a robust sustainability program at the community, economic, and environmental levels through sustainability initiatives that are strategically selected to benefit both the country and the bank.

The new podcast is hosted by Hamad Alali, an influential youth figure in the Gulf region, with over two million followers of all ages across social media (Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat). Previously and on television, Alali hosted his first local talk show program, the "With Hamad Show," for four seasons, during which he achieved the highest ratings in Kuwait and the Gulf. The show is widely considered one of the most interactive social media programs in the Gulf region, with its topics regularly trending on Twitter.

Commenting on his new podcast, Hamad Alali said: "Stories With Hamad is a social podcast with a meaningful purpose. One of the reasons why we were so determined to book that crucial time slot right after Maghreb prayer was because we were keen to target every member of the family. We are excited to launch a podcast, one of the newest talk show methods, that will cover a variety of noteworthy historical, social, artistic and sports events, told by the very people who these stories affected.

The show will be accompanied by one of the largest marketing campaigns in Kuwait that includes television, social media and external advertisements. We are also very proud to have a team of more than 30 young Kuwaiti men and women across various fields who spent several months collecting information, documents and photos for each story. The show will also be accompanied by a social media competition in cooperation with our title sponsor, Gulf Bank, who we have partnered with due to our shared target audience, all members of the family."