Campaign Middle East's latest edition is out: The Luxury Issue
Campaign Middle East's latest edition, the Luxury Issue, spotlights how marketers are redefining value, storytelling and consumer connection across high-end categories. In a region where luxury is embedded in both culture and commerce, this issue dissects how brands are navigating sophistication, scarcity and personalisation in 2025.
Senior voices from across luxury, hospitality, real estate and agency worlds explore what modern luxury means and how it's being sold – both globally and within MENA. Pauline Rady of GroupM MENA highlights the shift toward meaningful, culture-rooted experiences, while Bureau Béatrice's Jon S. Maloy considers the luxury battle between possession and preservation.
Guerlain's Nicola Lavelle focuses on decoding luxury consumers in the Middle East using data, relevance and personalisation. Dana Tahir of Havas Red Middle East writes about how the consumers of tomorrow are shaping the meaning of luxury rather than simply purchasing it. Catherine Bannister and Aneeta Aby of TBWA look at the retreat from surface-level luxury in favour of narrative, wellness and heritage.
Swarovski's Sarah Dja Yahia reflects on cultural authenticity, and OUI Agency's Rémy Abouchakra critiques luxury's fixation on perfection.
Senior marketers at ARADA, House of OCTA, ALTA Real Estate and Devmark share additional insights on how branded residences and architecture are influencing the future of premium living in a feature by Campaign reporter Shantelle Nagarajan.
The issue also includes a look into the luxury hospitality sector. Leaders from The Ritz-Carlton Dubai, Palazzo Versace Dubai, Anantara Santorini Abu Dhabi, Rosewood Hotel Jeddah and Waldorf Astoria Cairo Heliopolis shared with Hiba Faisal how experience, exclusivity and how service expectations are being redefined across high-end travel.
From there, the issue takes a step back to ask a broader industry question: has marketing lost its balance between brand building and performance? In a comprehensive cover story feature, Campaign explores how the region's marketers are trying to realign long-term brand equity with short-term performance goals.
Commentary comes from marketing leads across key sectors – including tourism, banking, retail and communications – offering a clear-eyed look at how the pendulum has swung and what's required to bring it back to centre. Contributors include Alka Winter, Mary Anne He, Vicky Kriplani, Mai Cheblak, Hemalatha Subramanian, Maya Tayara, Gita Ghaemmaghami and Ibrahim Ghazal.
In addition to the main feature, several industry voices contribute opinion-led perspectives on this shifting balance. Megan French-Ritsch writes on belief-building as the root of strong brands, while G42's Faheem Ahamed argues that marketing is not broken – but its role must be redefined. Careem's Tayab Hasan positions retail media as a bridge between branding and performance. Additional voices include Al Masaood Automobiles's Delia Sandu, Mashreq's Muna Al Ghurair, Landmark Group's Mitin Chakraborty, and HSBC's Aimee Peters, who dissect storytelling, loyalty, and the role of automation and AI in more adaptive marketing systems.
The issue also includes the Industry Forum section where agency and brand leaders share concise responses to the question: are we over-prioritising short-term KPIs at the expense of long-term value?
Next, the spotlight turns to this month's TV & Video Guide – a practical, multi-platform overview that outlines the current landscape across free-to-air, paid TV, streaming platforms, and in-flight entertainment. Designed as a quick-reference directory for buyers and planners, the guide also includes commentary from regional experts on how video continues to shape consumer attention and cultural relevance.
MIS Gulf's Marwan Kai reflects on the evolving perception of news, while Jean-Pierre Tannous of Middle East Media Services highlights the emotional depth and long-tail power of video-led storytelling. Mathieu Yarak from MMS breaks down what's driving performance across formats and platforms, and Prasad S. Amin from IAS Media offers a take on how TV and video continue to mirror wider social shifts across the region.
This issue also recaps Campaign Middle East's first Market Minds CMO Roundtable, which brought together a dozen retail media leaders to explore how marketing functions are adapting to fast-moving commercial pressures and platform evolution.
Participants from Samsung MENA, Chalhoub Group, Lulu Group, Landmark Group, Beiersdorf, Careem, Union Coop, talabat, Publicis Media, Publicis Commerce, Epsilon and 6thStreet.com discussed topics such as measurement, change management, in-house retail media units, platform trust and what it means to futureproof the retail marketing discipline.
In the Brand Focus section, Renos Fountoulakis of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi and Claudia Raya-Garcia of DIOR offer brand-side reflections on long-term strategy. Fountoulakis explores the importance of data and intelligence in destination marketing, while Raya-Garcia shares a dual lens on how luxury can be both agile and enduring.
Turning to Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Focus looks at two key narratives. Julie Audette from The Red Sea and AMAALA shares how brand storytelling in the Kingdom is shifting towards emotion, identity and human-scale experiences. Meanwhile, NEOM's Toby Evan-Jones lays out how the rise of homegrown gaming is opening up new arenas for marketers, creators and commercial partnerships.
This month's issue closes with a Provocations column by Tahaab Rais, who issues a sharp critique of the awards circuit. In it, he argues that lobbying has become an overlooked, institutionalised aspect of awards culture – one that may require the industry to rethink how it defines excellence and fairness.
Read the full luxury issue below or here.
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In such a context, there needs to be a lab set-up within the business environment that pulls these secret cyborgs to test AI tools.' He added, 'These stealth employees using AI are now becoming pioneers in new AI lab environments that companies are setting up, even as leadership teams set out their clear vision for AI's impact on the workplace and organisation. What does this teach us? Don't wait to be an AI expert — just be AI active.' Addressing the conversation around business-to-business (B2B) audiences and business-to-consumer (B2C) audiences, Loay Nour said, 'We make sure that whenever we create any campaign that we take into consideration the two audiences and the channels — especially as we go through the creation of the process. What's interesting is not only B2C and B2B audiences, which we always think about, but also how to create a funnel for B2B2C, because they become your advocates to promote your brand and your campaign.' 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These people don't want to be passive consumers of media on traditional channels such as television anymore; they want to consume on the go and whenever and wherever they choose. So, I think, we as brands need to evolve, as well. It's not about going omnichannel every time. Instead, we need to pick our battles and choose the best medium contextually at a given moment of time depending on where — and when — the consumer wants it.' Mitin Chakraborty built on this discussion, calling for brands to pick and choose channels that are relevant to the brand, and based on what's relevant to the customer and to the category. 'I think that magical mix is what we need – a mix of logic and magic; a mix of the art and the science, which is super critical,' Chakraborty said. 'I think it goes back to always us as marketers, really identifying: What's the problem that we're trying to solve? Now, there are those who may call it grand idea to focus on purpose, but I think it's very important if you're trying to chase brand equity within this fragmented space, It's very important for us to know what is our biggest story, and how that is being translated across every touch point for our customers.' During the discussion, Andrew Ene also shared how the marketers' mindsets have now shifted to multi-channel more than omnichannel, especially since the latter is a term that has been overused through the years. Ene said, 'Omnichannel is more about what's the brand truth that you're trying to communicate to the consumer, and how do you make sure that you communicate that brand truth consistently across every touch point that the consumer engages with. However, when you're thinking of multi-channel strategies, you're thinking about making a choice about where you have the right to win based on where the consumers are at in a fragmented media landscape, and then crafting a story that touches all of those points.' Anjana Murali added, 'The way we fundamentally think about marketing is shifting. Quite often, we find ourselves as marketers sitting in a room to identify five personas that match our brand. However, if you're thinking of narrowing all of your target audiences into merely five personas, you're already missing out. This is where algorithms and AI come into the picture. They can predict and reach people far better than we used to do, and can do.' She continues, 'However, just because AI and algorithms seem to be doing the heavy lifting, it doesn't mean some of us marketers can take a nap. It's important to marry the two together — what AI can do and what we bring to the table in terms of our experience, the creative, understanding the feedback, leveraging what message resonates with the user, and more. That creative and strategic input still lies with us — and that's why at the core, we are still needed.' Before the panel concluded, Chakraborty also highlighted standardised measurement as a common pain point that needs to be addressed on priority — a problem that's becoming a road block for marketers trying to join the dots in terms of decision-making around platforms, providers and an ideal full-funnel approach. To view the panel discussion in its entirety, stay tuned for the full video of the Campaign Breakfast Briefing that will be added to this article shortly. Fireside chat: Balancing creative ambition, business objectives, and community-driven demand for relevance The final discussion of the event, a fireside chat with marketers, explored ways to measure the effectiveness of cultural relevance within campaigns, while simultaneously staying aligned with broader brand and business objectives. The fireside chat, moderated by Anup Oommen, Editor, Campaign Middle East, welcomed on stage two client-side marketers, including, Iva Kutle Škrlec , Director, Destination Marketing, Hilton MEA, and , Director, Destination Marketing, and Remya Menon, Associate Director of Marketing, Bayut Iva Kutle Škrlec said, 'I think the whole cultural relevance piece starts by defining what that means for your brand and what you're trying to achieve, because that then determines what you're measuring. Do you need a brand-lift study? Do you need to look at your engagement rates and so on? For example, when we launch channels and newsletters and content that resonates with a lot of people in the region and links into cultural concepts here, we definitely see increased engagement rate, engagement rates, and better response from our customers. But again, there needs to be a piece where you ultimately tie that back to the business and say, 'okay, this is having an impact' or is it just a nice to have, and are we getting it right?' Through the chat, marketers discussed the cultural nuances of the region — how there's no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach to 'Middle East culture' or the 'Arabic' language, given that the region is a confluence of so many different cultures, dialects, traditions, beliefs, histories, and nuanced forms of expressing each of these. Škrlec added, 'So I think getting that granularity right and to understand what it is exactly that resonates with people — in terms of messaging, offers, promotions and products is essential. The way we market one hotel in this market might be entirely different to another place. That's why it ultimately comes down to that granularity of what matters to each individual community and customer and what impact it has on the brand and the business outcomes.' Building on this conversation of measuring the impact and effectiveness of getting cultural relevance right, Remya Menon, said, 'I'll be honest, the measurement piece is a conversation that we have all the time, almost on a weekly basis with our CEO, and we've been doing this for about two years. And I think measurement and specifically in the context of cultural relevance is difficult, right? But am I saying that it's impossible? No. We have all of our usual levers such as brand lift studies, surveys, feedback loops and so on and so forth. But as a brand guardian, you also have to build your own hardware and use your internal data and what your audience is actually feeding back to you to build those measurement methods.' Through the discussion, the marketers delved into the need to truly listen to consumers in order to get the 'cultural relevance piece right'. Menon added, 'Yes, there are KPI-driven conversations and there are creativity-driven conversations, but the consumers now have made their opinions very clear — they want to co-create with brands. They want their feedback to be heard and to be more involved in the conversation.' The panellists also discussed the need to build the right team structures to ensure that creative outputs and brand is aligned with cultural relevance, and organizational culture: Nurturing a safe environment that embraces mistakes and learning is how you innovate and stay ahead of the curve. They concluded the discussion sharing their take on the course correction required within the industry. To view the panel discussion in its entirety, stay tuned for the full video of the Campaign Breakfast Briefing that will be added to this article shortly. All in all, some of the key takeaways that attendees shared from the event were: Curiosity remains key; those who take a hands-on approach to the latest tools are those who will win. However, the adage 'garbage-in-garbage-out' remains true, given that generative AI tools are only as smart as the information they learn from, and the prompts they respond to. Meanwhile, even as personalisation, shopping agents, precision targeting and tasteful messaging are shaping marketing strategies, the core objective of the 'game' still remains to serve people. The magic of marketing strategies is to take a human-first approach and be a brand that matters to people. After the keynotes and panels at the Campaign Breakfast Briefing: Marketing Strategies 2025 event, attendees stayed back for a time of networking. 1/4 Campaign Breakfast Briefing: Marketing Strategies 2025 Attendees networking at the Campaign Breakfast Briefing: Marketing Strategies 2025 event. For those of you who were unable to attend this stellar gathering of like-minded leaders shaping the top trends and addressing the top challenges in the industry, keep an eye out for the YouTube video of the entire event. Mark you calendars. Campaign Middle East's next event, Campaign Breakfast Briefing: The Future is Now, which will be held on 12 September 2025.
