The Shift From Regional Thinking to Hyper-Local Precision
Matthieu Tebaus makes it clear: broad assumptions kill growth in MENA. Brands that generalise across countries or even within cities risk wasting spend and missing demand. He sees AI as a partner, not a replacement—empowering planners and sales teams to evolve from admin roles to trusted growth architects.
The Middle East is often lumped into one market bucket, but as Matthieu Tebaus, SVP Channel Partners MENA at Ask Locala, points out, no two cities behave alike, whether in consumer habits, brand positioning, or media channel maturity.
From districts in Dubai that differ dramatically in demographics and purchasing power to national contrasts between promo-driven Cairo and premium-first Riyadh, treating MENA as “one region” is a costly mistake.
Even within a single country, consumer journeys are fragmented—what drives conversion in Jeddah may fall flat in Riyadh, and what works for affluent expat neighborhoods may alienate family-first districts just a few kilometers away.
For brands, the future of sales and retention lies in hyper-local precision, where city-level insights dictate how campaigns are designed, delivered, and measured. It’s no longer enough to adapt by language or culture; marketers must now calibrate for micro-markets shaped by mobility flows, channel maturity, and evolving retail habits.
The brands that can localise at this granular level will be the ones that turn relevance into measurable retention and long-term growth.
Excerpts from the interview:
What customer behaviours or expectations are brands overlooking in the region, and how is this affecting their sales and retention?
The biggest mistake brands make in MENA is treating the region as one market. No two cities behave alike, not in how people live or shop, not in how brands are positioned, and not in how channels perform.
Audiences: districts (and countries) don’t look the same. In Dubai, two districts a few kilometers apart can be worlds apart: one dominated by young expat professionals with high disposable income, another by families with very different purchasing power and cultural habits. And if you compare across markets, say Cairo and Riyadh, consumer expectations diverge again: Egyptians are price-sensitive and promo-driven, while Saudis lean into premium convenience. Plan on averages, and you miss the real demand.
Brands/markets: one size doesn’t fit all
Take automotive: in the UAE, EV adoption is already mainstream, with charging points on every corner. In Saudi Arabia, consumers are still weighing infrastructure and reassurance. The same campaign message cannot serve both. If you don’t adjust by market, you dilute conversion.
Additionally, a brand might be the market leader in Kuwait but only a challenger in Saudi. Even within one country, a retailer could dominate in Jeddah but face fierce competition in Riyadh. If you don’t adapt your positioning to the local market share reality, you either waste spend defending what’s already secure, or fail to invest where growth is still on the table.
Channels: availability and maturity is uneven. Dubai is a CTV-first city with highly measurable indoor DOOH across malls and transit hubs. In Jeddah, roadside DOOH dominates and streaming adoption is catching up. Copy-paste your global media mix and you’ll over-invest where attention isn’t, and under-invest where it’s growing fastest.
At Locala, our strength is city-level insight. We don’t just say ‘MENA’; we tell you where the real consumer demand is, district by district. That’s how you protect both ROAS and retention: by being relevant to how people actually live, shop, and move in each market.
What are the telltale signs that AI is being used as a gimmick rather than a revenue-boosting tool?
The easy way to spot AI gimmicks is to look for the outputs. If it dazzles but doesn’t drive sales, it’s theater, not transformation.
Future talk, no present impact: Everyone loves to say how AI will change the industry. The truth is, if it’s not already changing how you plan, buy, and retain today, then it’s hype. We measure AI by what it delivers now, not by slides about tomorrow.
Tech-first, outcome-second: When a media partner talks more about the algorithm than about lift in visits or conversions, it’s usually a gimmick. AI should disappear into the background and make the results obvious.
Where do AI-powered systems most fail in omnichannel execution?
AI often fails in omnichannel because it’s trained on yesterday’s reality, not today’s options.
Outdated training data: Most systems are built on 2023 or 2024 data. But activation platforms evolve monthly: new targeting rules, new privacy restrictions, new ad formats… If your AI doesn’t keep up, it gives you strategies for a market that no longer exists.
No proprietary inputs: Another red flag is when partners run their AI on generic training data alone. Without injecting exclusive mobility, audience, or market-share signals, you won’t get outputs more actionable than what ChatGPT could generate. Insights have to be rooted in something only you can see.
The consequence: That’s why so many ‘AI-driven’ plans feel generic: they recommend the same mix everywhere and stop at the insight stage, without helping reallocate budgets or audiences in real time.
At Locala, we built our AI on exclusive, location-based data and keep it live inside the activation workflow. That’s the difference between a system that just predicts, and one that actually drives omnichannel revenue.
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How is Locala helping frontline teams leverage AI without losing the human touch?
AI shouldn’t replace the planner: it should make the planner better.
Augmented, not automated: With Ask Locala, we don’t hand over the brief to a machine. We give frontline teams an augmented planner, AI does the heavy lifting of crunching data, surfacing patterns, and suggesting scenarios, but the human makes the call. That balance is how we keep campaigns strategic and client-centric.
From static briefs to vibe planning: Frontline teams can go beyond demographics. They can ask: what’s the context of this district? What are people doing here after work, during Ramadan, on weekends? Locala turns raw data into cultural and mobility context, so operational teams can tell a more human and insights-anchored story to clients.
Closing the loop: Plan → Activate → Learn: The real win is that Locala isn’t just an insights tool. It connects directly to activation: pushing the right audiences, geos, and formats into campaigns: and then loops the learnings back. So the planner never loses sight of the outcome, and the AI gets sharper with every cycle.
That’s how we keep the human touch: the AI speeds the work, the planner shapes the narrative, and together they deliver campaigns that resonate city by city.
How do you see AI reshaping the role of sales agents in the next 3 years?
AI won’t replace sales agents: it will replace the way they spend their time. In the next three years, the role of the sales professional will look radically different, but more valuable than ever.
First, from admin to advisory. The hours spent chasing data, formatting media plans, and building slides will disappear. AI will do that in minutes. Sales agents will finally dedicate their time to shaping strategy, interpreting insights, and building trust with clients.
Second, from product pushers to market consultants. With AI automating the mechanics of planning, agents will walk into a meeting armed with city-level insights, market share realities, and nuanced channel maturity. They’ll move the conversation from “what inventory can I sell you” to “how should your brand grow here.”
Third, from one-off campaigns to continuous loops. Instead of pitching once and waiting for results, agents will operate a live cycle of plan–activate–learn with their clients. The relationship becomes a growth partnership, not a transaction.
Fourth, from generalists to specialists. AI makes it possible to scale hyper-local knowledge. A sales agent in Dubai can speak with authority on how Downtown differs from Deira, or how Riyadh’s retail pulse diverges from Jeddah’s. That level of precision turns salespeople into indispensable local advisors.
Fifth, from reactive to proactive. AI will surface opportunities before the client even asks: competitor surges, shifting mobility flows, new ad formats. Sales teams will move from responding to briefs to setting the agenda for growth.
In short, AI doesn’t erase the sales role: it elevates it. The future sales agent is no longer a messenger between product and client, but a growth architect, orchestrating outcomes city by city. That’s the human-AI partnership that will define the next era of sales.
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