6 Marketing Shifts Driving Middle East’s Next Phase

Across the conversations at Vibe Marketing Tech Fest, Dubai, one idea surfaced repeatedly: marketing is becoming less about isolated metrics, channels and functions, and more about connecting the entire customer and business equation.

Participation should be viewed more as an opportunity for building sustained brand equity and consumer relationships and less as an indicator, says Hira Omar Aamer, Brand Strategy Director, Sprite, Eurasia and Middle East Operating Unit, The Coca-Cola Company.

Video plays are climbing and budgets are flattening, but the real gap is organisational: most teams still treat CEO video as a scheduled asset.

Brands need to function as a connected unit grounded in a solid customer data foundation or else they risk missing hidden signals across their organisation, says Varun Sharma, VP & Head of SAP CX – Middle East Africa, SAP.

The Marquee Awards will culminate in a gala celebration on September 10 in Dubai, bringing together marketing and technology leaders to recognise outstanding digital campaigns, innovation, and technical excellence across the Middle East.

The analysis finds ecommerce advertisers increased paid social investment sharply in Q2, while click-through rates rose and cost per click declined.

AI Overviews are cutting clicks to top results. The next challenge is making websites as responsive as the search that brought visitors there.

Five years ago, a customer looking for a service typed a query, which we could bid on and measure, says Service Club CMO Michiel Das. "Today, a meaningful share of that same intent goes to an AI assistant instead. There is no query to buy and no results page to rank on. There is an answer, and you are either in it or you are not."

Composability and AI are ushering in a new era of Martech flexibility, giving organisations greater control over their data, technology choices and ability to innovate.

As enterprises move beyond simply unifying customer data, the next challenge is making that context actionable across marketing, AI and commercial systems, says Mohamed Ali, RVP MENA at Zeotap.