Marketing Strategy

85% of UAE marketers trust AI to respond to customers versus 81% globally; yet 78% struggle to access the customer context needed for personalised engagement

New research finds that only half of marketing and finance leaders measure how marketing is driving business outcomes, and 71% believe AI-powered marketing tools prioritise short-term performance over long-term brand growth.

AI has erased the gap between zero and “good enough,” but in doing so, it is pushing brands towards sameness. As synthetic creativity floods the market, marketers must prioritise messy, emotional, human storytelling to stand out and rebuild real connections.

In a world where creativity dominates the marketing and advertising community, Marquee Awards focus on ideas in action, the strategy that drives business impact through measurable value.

AI is moving beyond experimentation to become the connective layer linking data, creativity, media, and measurement. As agentic systems mature, marketing organisations are beginning to orchestrate entire customer journeys through AI-driven collaboration across teams and channels.

AI-generated marketing is everywhere, and consumers are increasingly calling it out. But this isn’t a rejection of AI itself; rather, it’s what standards marketers are willing to sacrifice in the name of speed and scale.

Ask the Author: Martechvibe speakers to Kevin Chesters about why humans tend to resist new things on a biological level, and why creative thinking is the key to commercially successful marketing.

As digital attention fragments and performance pressure intensifies, marketers are repositioning television — not as a legacy branding channel, but as a measurable growth engine built for accountability.

Modern CMOs must blend data mastery, AI adoption, financial fluency and creative leadership to drive measurable business value and lead high-performing teams.

Leaders from Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group, Careem, Property Finder, and Century Financial discussed how brands can balance short-term performance goals with long-term brand building, measure impact effectively, and leverage AI and data to drive growth.