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Campaign ME
2 days ago
- Business
- Campaign ME
Campaign Breakfast Briefing: Leaders reach a consensus on critical marketing strategies
Campaign Middle East has successfully concluded its third event of the year – Campaign Breakfast Briefing: Marketing Strategies 2025 – which witnessed a room full of client-side marketers, agency and adtech leaders reaching a consensus to get back to the fundamentals of curiosity, creativity, consumer-first mindsets and cold hard business outcomes at the Grand Plaza Mövenpick in Dubai Media City on 29 May. The event began with a look at the fundamental shift towards 'outcomes' to drive business impact. Panel discussions at the event also dissected human-first approaches, personalisation, and the importance of brand fundamentals as channels fragment at speed. Panelists discussed how B2B and B2C expectations are converging, and how AI is increasingly shaping how audiences discover and interact with content and brands. Marketers and industry leaders also discussed the benefits of a fragmented media landscape, the shift from traditional media to precision media, the impact of AI on marketing strategies and the need for brands to adapt to consumer behaviour in an era when consumer attention is fleeting. Challenges around cross-channel measurement were voiced and the potential of creative storytelling and innovative marketing strategies were reinforced. Additionally, the 'education piece' and cultural relevance were discussed while keeping an eye on brand and business outcomes as well as creative ambition. Panellists discussed how to craft creative campaigns that not only inspire but also drive tangible results and resonate deeply with diverse communities. Here's an in-depth look into how the event – organised by Motivate Media Group's Campaign Middle East, in partnership with Bloomberg Media, Platformance, and SRMG Media Solutions – panned out: Welcome speech The event began with a welcome speech by Nadeem Quraishi, Publisher, Campaign Middle East, who briefed the attendees about the brand's latest developments. Quraishi introduced Campaign Middle East's first bilingual edition of The Saudi Report, which marked the brand's first inclusion of Arabic-language content in print in its 16-year history. He also announced the official launch of the brand's Arabic-language website, expanding its digital offering to better serve audiences across the region. He shared the latest details about Campaign Middle East's Agency of the Year Awards, which is scheduled to take place on 11 December in Dubai, as well as about Athar Festival 2025, which is set to be bigger and bolder this year with more than 3,000 attendees, more than 150 speakers, more than 80 activations, and several new zones such as content creation, AI, production, and luxury brand marketing, among others. Chair's opening remarks Campaign Middle East Editor Anup Oommen then took the stage to deliver the chair's opening remarks. He discussed how marketers need to add a 'protein shake' of marketing strategy to their diet — blending creativity, culture, credibility and storytelling. Oommen detailed how generative AI, agentic AI, shopping agents and other AI tools are revolutionising the full marketing funnel, before calling for marketers to embrace change, try-test-and-scale strategies, and choose to upskill quickly rather than relying on what worked in the past. 'If time, attention and engagement are the marketing battlegrounds of the present, then consumer-first approaches of trust and empathy will be the marketing battlegrounds of the near future. Transactional relationships in the market absolutely won't make the cut any more. The industry requires meaningful partnerships with stakeholders across the supply chain; and brands need to resonate more deeply and more personally with communities and individuals,' he said. Calling it a 'challenging path' but one that is brimming with opportunity for those willing to lead the charge, Oommen added, 'Although this may sound very uncomfortable – we must embrace change, choose to educate ourselves, harness technology and cultivate marketing strategies that are both meaningful and measurable.' Keynote: The outcomes graph: Why the future of marketing is not where you advertise, but what it delivers Getting the event started, Wade Eagar, Chief Marketing Officer, took the attendees on a journey into the Outcomes Graph, exploring the shift from media placement to business impact. Eager highlighted the importance of outcome driven marketing, calling for a return to keeping the end-goal-in-mind instead of being focused on a budget-first approach. He also stressed on the need for cross-functional collaboration and performance-driven strategies to to shift the focus from mere metrics to business business outcomes. 'Outcome is a fundamental shift going back to how we drive business value,' Eager said. 'Start with the outcome, not the brief. Measure what you own — and this is the piece I want to bring home — move away from focusing only on the external data that we spend so much time measuring and building a nice story around, and move towards the internal data that shows up on the P&L. However, it's not about throwing the baby out with the bathwater, it's about stitching these two together to align with business outcomes.' He also called for marketers to become a lot more 'commercial' in the sense of learning to work cross-functionally. As a result, there's a shift coming through where marketers are asking: What does the business need, rather than how can we deliver a brief based on the given budget? 'The new marketer is not asking is it brand versus performance — they're looking at both; they're not getting rid of the creative — they're asking for the creative to perform; they're not saying get rid of the data — they're asking for value within the data rather than volume. At the end of the day, we need to understand our customers, and help them to take an exit that drives business value,' Eager concluded. Panel 1: Next-gen marketing: Personalisation, AI and the blurring lines of B2B and B2C The first panel discussion of the day witnessed multiple client-side marketers leading the charge, including: Aimee Peters , Regional Head of Brand, Partnerships and Wholesale Marketing, MENAT, HSBC , Regional Head of Brand, Partnerships and Wholesale Marketing, MENAT, Loay Nour, Vice President – Brand and Marketing Communications, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts Vice President – Brand and Marketing Communications, Sohail Nawaz, MBE, Head of Retail Media, Landmark Group, and Head of Retail Media, and Virginie Ludmer, Director of Marketing & PR, Volkswagen Middle East The panel, powered by Bloomberg Media and moderated by Emily Bentley, Head of Client Marketing, MEA at Bloomberg Media, discussed ways to navigate complex B2B sign-off chains to meeting B2C's demand for deeper, more meaningful connections, using strategies that engage with both humans and machines. The session also explored how to create campaigns that are not only intelligent and personalised, but also authentic, locally resonant and built for a landscape where trust, nuance and relevance matter more than ever. Aimee Peters emphasised the importance of brand fundamentals as channels fragment at speed, calling for marketers to hold on to old-school essentials, including curiosity, creativity, empathy and 'cold hard business outcomes'. Peters explained, 'The curiosity about why people do the things that they do is always going to underpin everything. The ability to challenge is always critical. But you can't constructively challenge if you're not curious and if you're not thinking about humans,' Peters said. 'We have to market to be human, first and foremost. But as we get deeper into sort of proposition-level marketing, we start to distinguish through much more personalised campaigns, which is where the distinction becomes much more apparent. However, the critical piece is that we need to think about being human-first.' The discussion also explored how personalisation has progressed from predictive AI — figuring out the best time to send that prospective and speculative marketing email moving into generative AI, where AI crafts bespoke content — to an era of Agentic AI, where shopping agents reach out to consumers on their birthdays, asking about their celebration plans and then taking care of their outfit shopping, from discovery to purchase and having it delivered all before they head out to celebrate. Speaking about the need for 'secret cyborgs' to be celebrated, Sohail Nawaz, MBE, explained, 'Secret cyborgs are those people who are using AI, but nobody knows they are using AI because they're not telling you what they're using. This is interesting at a time where business leadership is figuring out a clear policy on what they ought to do with AI and the governance around it. 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.' Wrapping up the discussion well on the blurring lines between B2B and B2C, Virginie Ludmer said, 'At the end of the day, the brand promise is the same. At the end of the day, we're all looking to enhance the customer experience. Whether we're working alongside our dealerships, in terms of B2B, or our consumers, in terms of B2C, we need to really ensure that their success is also our success — together.' 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. Panel 2: Fragmented media landscape: A boon or a bane for marketing in the Middle East? The second panel, conducted in partnership with SRMG Media Solutions, and moderated by Nader Bitar, Director of Digital Solutions, SRMG, welcomed to the stage, Mitin Chakraborty , Head of Marketing , Babyshop, Nikola Djordjevic, Head of Marketing, ASICS Arabia, Andrew Ene , Head of Performance, Spark Foundry MENA, and , Head of Performance, and Anjana Murali, Associate Director – Growth & Best Practices, Keyade Middle East The panellists delved into an in-depth discussion on capturing attention and connecting with consumers in a fragmented media landscape; identifying core target audiences and the most relevant media channels to reach them; as well as developing a cohesive brand story that can be consistently communicated across chosen media touchpoints. Nikola Djordjevic said, 'We have all seen a major shift in the way customers consume media and entertainment, and we all need to be where these customers and consumers are. 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.
Campaign ME
15-05-2025
- Business
- Campaign ME
Campaign to host senior marketers at Marketing Strategies 2025 briefing
Tickets are now on sale for the Campaign Breakfast Briefing: Marketing Strategies 2025 on Thursday, May 29, at Grand Plaza Movenpick, Media City, Dubai at 8 a.m. With a morning packed with the latest from senior agency and brand marketers on the seismic shifts reshaping brand strategies across the Middle East, the event promises top learnings from the industry. Hear from top brand marketers at Porsche Middle East, Hilton, Colgate and more on critically important subject matters such as navigating the region's fragmented media landscape, balancing creative ambition, business objectives, and community-driven demand for relevance and incorporating new technologies to better understand consumer segments. Your tickets to the Campaign Breakfast Briefing: Marketing Strategies 2025 also includes high-quality networking and insight-sharing – with unlimited coffee and a breakfast spread generous enough to justify the event's name. Join us to sharpen your strategy, spark new conversations, and step confidently into marketing's next chapter. Don't miss out on the last event from Campaign for this quarter, and get your tickets now. Check out the following for a brief overview of the event agenda: 8:00am: Registration & Breakfast 9:00am: Welcome Address by Nadeem Quraishi, Publishing Director, Campaign Middle East 9:05am: Chair's Opening Remarks by Anup Oommen, Editor, Campaign Middle East 9:15am: Keynote presentation: Marketing's great reset: How 2025 will redefine consumer loyalty forever This keynote explores how loyalty is being reshaped by values, community, and new definitions of trust. How can brands build lasting relationships in a time of constant change? What will loyalty even look like in five years? Expect bold ideas, real-world examples and a new blueprint for marketers who want to stay ahead — and stay chosen. 9:30am: Panel 1: Investments and insights: What are marketers prioritising in the Middle East – and how agencies must respond? This panel will explore how brands and agencies can invest into the right insights and tools to create culturally resonant and impactful marketing strategies, setting new standards for success in the region. 10:00am: Panel 2: Fragmented media landscape: A boon or a bane for marketing in the Middle East? This panel will view both sides of the coin and dissect the viewpoints of respected stakeholders within the media and marketing market. 10:30am: Panel 3: Balancing creative ambition, business objectives, and community-driven demand for relevance This panel will explore the delicate balance between creative ambition, strategic business objectives, and the critical demand for cultural authenticity, offering insights into how brands can successfully navigate this complex landscape. 11:00am: Closing comments by Anup Oommen, Editor, Campaign Middle East 11:05am: Networking session
Campaign ME
30-04-2025
- Business
- Campaign ME
Campaign Breakfast Briefing: Marketing Strategies 2025
The rules of engagement are changing. At the Campaign Breakfast Briefing: Marketing Strategies 2025, we'll unpack the seismic shifts reshaping brand strategies across the Middle East — from smarter investments and deeper human insights, to AI-enhanced personalisation and culturally resonant storytelling. Through a series of panels, industry leaders will tackle marketing's most pressing questions: how to harmonise creative ambition with business goals and community expectations; how to build loyalty in an era of algorithmic influence and audience fatigue; and how to make sense of a media landscape that's never been more fragmented. We'll explore what it really takes to create standout campaigns that do more than win awards — they win hearts, minds, and long-term value. Join us to sharpen your strategy, spark new conversations, and step confidently into marketing's next chapter. Click on the button below to register your interest now! See you at the event! When: 29/05/2025 8:00 AM Where: Grand Plaza Movenpick, Media City (location map) THE AGENDA 8:00am: Registration & Breakfast 9:00am: Welcome Address by Nadeem Quraishi, Publishing Director, Campaign Middle East 9:05am: Chair's Opening Remarks by Anup Oommen, Editor, Campaign Middle East 9:15am: Keynote presentation: Marketing's great reset: How 2025 will redefine consumer loyalty forever Consumer loyalty is shifting fast — and 2025 will be a tipping point. In an age of endless choice, algorithmic influence and economic uncertainty, old rules no longer apply. This keynote explores how loyalty is being reshaped by values, community, and new definitions of trust. How can brands build lasting relationships in a time of constant change? What will loyalty even look like in five years? Expect bold ideas, real-world examples and a new blueprint for marketers who want to stay ahead — and stay chosen. 9:30am: Panel 1: Investments and insights: What are marketers prioritising in the Middle East – and how agencies must respond? As the Middle East evolves into a dynamic hub for innovation and consumer engagement, top brands are re-evaluating their marketing investment priorities, emphasising advanced data analytics, AI-driven personalisation and culturally resonant storytelling. Agencies must evolve, employing cutting-edge technologies and deep market insights to align with these shifts. This panel will explore how brands and agencies can invest into the right insights and tools to create culturally resonant and impactful marketing strategies, setting new standards for success in the region. 10:00am: Panel 2: Pitch and the project: Balancing creative ambition, business objectives, and community-driven demand for relevance In an era where creativity must intertwine seamlessly with business goals and cultural relevance, the challenge for brands in the Middle East is clear: how to craft pitches and projects that not only inspire but also drive tangible results and resonate deeply with diverse communities. This panel will explore the delicate balance between creative ambition, strategic business objectives, and the critical demand for cultural authenticity, offering insights into how brands can successfully navigate this complex landscape. 10:30am: Panel 3: Fragmented media landscape: A boon or a bane for marketing in the Middle East? The media landscape is growing increasingly fragmented. While some marketers say that we have moved from sledgehammers to surgical instruments within media that offer precision in targeting, timing and tasteful messaging, others say that the varied choice and the abundance of media formats, channels and platforms is causing constant headaches for media planners. This panel will view both sides of the coin and dissect the viewpoints of respected stakeholders within the media and marketing market. 11:00am: Closing comments by Anup Oommen, Editor, Campaign Middle East 11:05am: Networking session For sponsorship opportunities and for event tickets details, please email Tarun Gangwani at [email protected] or call 052 1466150
Campaign ME
11-04-2025
- Business
- Campaign ME
Campaign Talent & Tech event addresses critical industry concerns
Campaign Middle East's stellar second event of the year, Campaign Breakfast Briefing: Talent and Technology 2025 witnessed a room full of industry experts – including client-side marketers, and agency and adtech leaders (photo gallery linked) – gather at The Metropolitan Hotel in Dubai Media City on Friday, 11 April 2025, to address critical concerns within the industry. Apart from addressing very real challenges, including consumers experiencing ad fatigue; leaders trying to break siloes that exist between marketing, sales, product and finance; marketers embracing more sophisticated approaches to data analytics that go beyond these vanity metrics; the event also shed light on two key themes: the evolving role of artificial intelligence and emotional intelligence within marketing. Discussions delved into how modern multi-touch attribution and marketing mix modelling solutions provide a comprehensive view, allowing us to give credit where it is due and tap into deeper metrics that offer real value. Leaders also spoke about the need to embed advertising in relevant contexts, personalise it to people who would benefit from that advertising, offer it to people in a meaningful manner, and place it in places where people are actually engaging with it organically. Leaders also discussed the growing need to prioritise empathy, positive attitudes, agility, flexibility and address cultural and skills challenges within the current workforce, which is seeing technologies outpace capabilities in an era where dependencies on AI are as normal as dependencies on electricity and the Internet. The event organised by Motivate Media Group's Campaign Middle East, was held in partnership with EternityX, Fusion5 and Seedtag. Welcome speech The event began with a welcome speech by Nadeem Quraishi, Publisher, Campaign Middle East, who briefed the attendees about the brand's latest developments. He introduced the latest print edition: Campaign Middle East's Faces to Watch 2025, and briefed attendees about Campaign's Editorial and Events calendar for 2025, which includes four breakfast briefings events, new industry roundtables, as well as the highly anticipated Annual Agency of the Year Awards in December. Chair's opening remarks Campaign Middle East Editor Anup Oommen then took the stage to deliver the chair's opening remarks, setting the scene for what turned out to be an incredible event filled with actionable insights and interesting takeaways. Oommen explained how the industry is moving past B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) messaging, narratives and storytelling approaches and is increasingly focusing on AI to AI connections in the form of agentic AI, as well as about H2H (human-to-human) connections – in short, the ability to connect with cohorts of hyper-local communities and individuals – based on deep insights that we now have about each individual's behavioural patterns, preferences and purchase intent. He called out the parallels between the advancement of artificial intelligence and the rising focus of emotional intelligence within the brand and marketing landscape. He also warned of a subtle and unseen shift from a digital-first world driven by a scarcity in time and attention to an AI-first future driven by a scarcity in trust, transparency and empathy. Oommen raised some critical questions about the distribution of weighted credit, gaps in the implementation of contextual advertising, skills gaps within the industry, recruitment and retention strategies, as well as the need to move from vanity metrics to deeper brand metrics that result in meaningful brand and business outcomes. Keynote speech To begin proceedings, Deric Wong, Chief Business Officer, EternityX, took delegates on a journey beyond borders, delving into ways Middle East marketers can capture Chinese opportunities by driving growth with cultural intelligence intelligence and innovation. During this keynote Wong shared a deep dive into a largely untapped consumer segment, which accounts for a third of the world's luxury market, and their behavioural patterns – showcasing how brands can connect meaningfully with 1.4 billion micro-segments within the global Chinese consumer segment. Through numerous videos and interesting examples, Wong showcased how Chinese consumers are searching and looking for experiences in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the rest of the region, but shared how brands in the MENA region remain largely invisible of content platforms. 'MENA brands or cultural narratives are still unknown to the Chinese consumers. MENA brands are not active on platforms such as WeChat, Baidu, Douyin, Mafengwo, Xiaohongshu and Bilibili, where these consumers spend a majority of their time. These are people who want to spend money in the Middle East. Investors are knocking – but the welcome mat has not been rolled out,' Wong said. He went on to explain exactly what Chinese consumers want, how brands can resonate culturally and emotionally with these consumers, and offered examples of brand authenticity and safety come under fire when brands get their marketing wrong. Wong shared access to EternityX's Global Knowledge Hub after this deep dive into personalisation, cultural fluency, storytelling and the tech ease that Chinese consumers demand. Panel 1: Harnessing advanced analytics and multi-touch attribution to maximise marketing ROI The first panel discussion of the day witnessed multiple advertisers and industry leaders taking the stage, including: Alka Winter , Vice President ‑ Destination Marketing and Communications, Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA) Vice President ‑ Destination Marketing and Communications, Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority Tina Chikhani Nader, Head of Digital Marketing, Media and Ecommerce, Unilever Head of Digital Marketing, Media and Ecommerce, Sourav Dey, Vice President of Growth for Wego Vice President of Growth for Matt Nelson, Senior Director – Marketing Performance, Miral Destinations The panel, moderated by Natale Panella, Head of Digital, Fusion5, discussed the fundamentals of audience-centric campaigns and the need to leverage data analytics and the right performance metrics to deliver tangible business growth. The panel discussed ways to optimise campaigns and budgets, reduce waste, and deliver customised, efficient solutions tailored to each brand's unique goals. Panelists also discussed going beyond vanity metrics and implementing modern alternatives to last-click attribution that enables the distribution of weighted credit and tracking of real-time consumer engagement. Unilever's Tina Chikhani Nader said, 'Today, marketers' biggest struggle is: how can we make our brands be an organic part of the community seamlessly without it coming across as advertising, while solving a problem or bridging a gap for the relevant consumers that need us.' She added, 'We've utilised our social listening data from the platforms themselves to target very specific people with very relevant and specific, personalised messaging based on their scrolling habits and their consumption preferences. We've seen the benefits of telling them what to unfollow and what to follow in order for them to have better experiences and more positive voices around them rather than negative ones, and we couldn't have done this without combining our expertise with the data that the platforms provide.' RAKTDA's Alka Winter explained that the 'nice, clean flow' through the marketing funnel from awareness to consideration to purchase doesn't exist in its traditional form anymore because there are so many different touchpoints to take into consideration. She said, 'With our media strategy team, we're constantly looking at that and at ways to optimise constantly, using AI, because we have so many different audiences and segments of people who need different things – and the content we create must speak to each of them.' Wego's Sourav Dey added, 'We need to define what we're trying to do and what we're looking for. We know everyone loves to talk about engagements, but there are times we need to talk about click throughs and then dive deeper into metrics that matter. Based on the objectives of each campaign, we need to go beyond vanity metrics to assess the success in ways that matter.' Miral's Matt Nelson summed it up, saying, 'Ultimately, going beyond vanity metrics means that measuring success is not going to be about a single number on a page anymore. It's about a set of indicators that constantly guide what we're doing. It's not about one measurement framework, but about different ones working together. It's going to be more of a weather report than a report card.' Panel 2: Contextual advertising: Making marketing meaningful The second panel, conducted in partnership with Seedtag, and moderated by Nader Bitar, Director of Digital Solutions, SRMG, welcomed to the stage, Hussain Al-Nabi, Executive Director – Marketing & Digital, Alat Executive Director – Marketing & Digital, Yasmine Al-Turk, Advanced DOOH & Digital Supply Lead at GroupM MENA Advanced DOOH & Digital Supply Lead at Sherry Mansour, Managing Director – MENA, Seedtag, and Managing Director – MENA, Abdelnabi Alaeddine, Regional Director – Digital & Partnership, UM MENAT Panelists discuss how brands can foster more meaningful interactions, enhance brand perception, and drive higher conversion rates without the need for intrusive data practices by aligning advertising content with the context of what users are actively engaging with. Unlike traditional ad targeting methods that rely heavily on user data, contextual advertising places ads based on the content of the webpage the user is viewing. This approach enhances user experience by ensuring that ads are relevant to the immediate interests of the audience, thereby increasing engagement and reducing ad fatigue. Seedtag's Sherry Mansour set the tone saying, 'Contextual advertising is right and it's here to stay. We need to not only focus on the brand's narrative but also need to understand the consumer's mindset and tap into what people are interested in at a given moment of time, at a specific minute – that's what is important. Looking at the context, powered by AI, and looking at how we analyse and understand the context of where and how the ad is being served – this is what ensures brand safety and suitability. Also, the creative itself plays a huge part in this conversation, which we should focus on alongside the technology.' GroupM MENA's Yasmine Al-Turk said, 'A lot of people are trying a one-size-fits-all approach, which isn't right. It's really about finding what is suitable and safe for each brand. What are the brand's values? What audiences are they looking to reach and how? What perception of they want to maintain and how can we suppport them with this?' Alat's Hussain Al-Nabi built on this concept stating that while data is very important, marketers need to also focus on ensuring that values that resonate with relevant audiences. He explained, 'Brand values really need to be on point and placed on the right platform in the right way in a manner that speaks to Gen Z audiences, whose trust can be gained and lost very quickly if marketers are not on point or are tone deaf to their values and expectations.' UM MENAT's Abdelnabi Alaeddine concluded, 'A brand has to set its own benchmarks; it's not the platform that should set the benchmarks. While every platform must have its exclusion lists – all of which are necessary for brand-safe content – at the end of the day, each brand must set its own benchmarks rather than have a platform or a tech player or even another brand set a benchmark.' Panel 3: Shaping talent and teams in a tech-leaning landscape The third and final panel of the day explored how the industry needs to upskill its current talent pool, ensure succession planning, improve company culture and create avenues for upskilling and training to meet the needs of the market. The panel, moderated by Anup Oommen, Editor, Campaign Middle East, welcomed on stage three client-side marketers, including, Mariam Farag , VP – Corporate Communications at DAMAC , VP – Corporate Communications at Ashfaq Bandey , Executive Vice President and Global Head of Talent Acquisition, Mashreq , Executive Vice President and Global Head of Talent Acquisition, Wassim Derbi, Head of Marketing, Communication & Training, Hyundai UAE Ahmed El Gamal, Senior Director – Marketing Discussing ways to overcome difficulties in attracting and recruiting the right talent, Mashreq's Ashfaq Bandey began the conversation, saying: 'It starts with creating a nourishing a culture that adapts quickly to change and focuses meaningfully on values, diversity, inclusion, and anticipates future needs. This requires a paradigm shift from the traditional role-based hiring to capabilities or skills-based acquisition. This means looking far beyond educational qualifications to the skill sets that allow for continuous learning and adaptability in a market that is constantly evolving.' DAMAC's Mariam Farag added, 'We need to hire based on the right attitude, agility and flexibility rather than inflated CVs or skills on paper. This includes an attitude to learn, the attitude to solve problems and come up with solutions, the ability to manage crisis, plan proactively and think critically. This is what differentiates people with similar technical skill sets. At the end of the day, it's not only about what you've achieved in the past and what's on a piece of paper.' Building on this discussion, Hyundai UAE's Wassim Derbi said, 'Open any job posting today, there's always that very disturbing statement of a minimum requirement of five to 10 years industry experience. This needs to change because marketers can be trained. Also, we're misusing the word 'talent'. There are two types of people: one is a group of people who decided to develop and work on a skill set, and then others who decide that they have it and never work on it.' He explained that people can't claim to be social media expert, if they're not passionate about it from a personal perspective and active on it. Ahmed El Gamal added, 'I think upskilling at speed in this day and age is inevitable. But the culture of the organisation needs to support learning fast and failing fast. If you're not allowing people to test and learn, I think that is where there is a bit of gap, a bit of a flaw, because you're expecting them to be far ahead, but you're holding them back. It's important to focus on transferable skills and enable micro learning within organisations so that people on our teams are learning as they are working, and thus growing in their roles and capabilities constantly – at the same speed that technology is growing and evolving.' All in all, the panelists at the Campaign Breakfast Briefing: Talent and Technology event concluded that the industry needs a greater focus on: Artificial intelligence and emotional intelligence in equal parts Psychology and technology in equal parts Metrics and meaning in equal parts Context and creativity in equal parts Building a brand while meeting sales objectives Hussain Al-Nabi, Executive Director – Marketing & Digital, Alat, concluded. 'We need to bring back the magic to the industry.' After the keynotes and panels at the Campaign Breakfast Briefing event, delegates stayed back for a time of networking. 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, Saudi Breakfast Briefing: Strategy & Technology will be held on 15 May 2025 at the Sheraton Riyadh Hotel & Towers in Riyadh.
Campaign ME
09-04-2025
- Business
- Campaign ME
Campaign Saudi Briefing 2025: Strategy and Technology
Campaign Middle East will be hosting its annual Campaign Saudi Briefing: Strategy and Technology, gathering key stakeholders across governmental entities, brands and agencies for a morning of networking and in-depth discussions at Sheraton Riyadh Hotel and Towers in Riyadh on 15 May 2025. Join us for an insightful event focused on the changing landscape of Saudi Arabia's brand and marketing industry. With the nation's burgeoning cultural and entertainment scene attracting significant investment, businesses are increasingly focusing on experiential marketing to craft memorable campaigns that resonate deeply with audiences. These strategies signify a pivotal shift from traditional marketing approaches to those that prioritise dynamic, digital engagement and influencer partnerships, reshaping media buying and consumer interaction. The anticipated FIFA World Cup 2035 and the Esports Olympics also positions Saudi Arabia as a forthcoming titan in sports marketing, and esports and gaming realm, presenting unique opportunities and challenges for brands aiming to engage local and global audiences. As Saudi Arabia's economy thrives and disposable incomes increase, the demand that PIF-led gigaprojects, including The Red Sea Project, Diriyah, NEOM, and ROSHN, have witnessed is considerable. This boom necessitates innovative marketing strategies for B2B markets and opens avenues for technology-driven advancements in CRM and data analytics. Furthermore, the proliferation of internet and social media usage in Saudi Arabia underscores the critical role of digital marketing services tailored to local cultural nuances. As nearly the entire population accesses the internet and engages with social platforms, there is an increasing demand for Arabic-language content, performance evaluation through data analytics, and hyper-personalised consumer experiences. Marketers who have the tools to exploit digital transformations effectively, must also focus on personalisation aligned with ethical data practices and Saudi Arabia's Personal Data Protection Law. Discussions would address the balance between technological innovation and cultural sensitivity, a necessary equilibrium for successful campaign development in the Kingdom's rapidly evolving digital landscape. When: 15/05/2025 9:00 am Where: Sheraton Riyadh Hotel and Towers (location map) THE AGENDA 09:00am: Registration & Breakfast 10:00am: Welcome Address by Nadeem Quraishi, Publisher, Campaign Middle East 10:05am: Chair's Opening Remarks by Anup Oommen, Editor, Campaign Middle East 10:15am: Keynote presentation 10:30am: Panel 11:00am: Panel 11:30am: Networking power break 12:00pm: Fireside chat 12:20pm: Panel 12:50pm: Closing comments by Anup Oommen, Editor, Campaign Middle East 1:00pm: Lunch and networking For sponsorship opportunities and for event tickets details, please email Tarun Gangwani at [email protected] or call 052 1466150
