Marketing Strategy

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

As AI reshapes marketing, leaders share their top priorities that will define success in 2026—from AI fluency and data foundations to trust, creativity, and simplified martech stacks.

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.

Leaders from GroupM Nexus, Huawei Consumer Business Group, and The Trade Desk shared how brands can unify touchpoints, use data to drive smarter engagement, and build customer-first strategies across channels.

Riyad Khalil, Director - Middle East and North Africa, Adjust, talks about how predictive analytics, incrementality, and MMM form the new tech stack for marketers navigating rising acquisition costs and privacy-first regulations.

Richard Shotton, best-selling author and Founder of Astroten, reveals how simple behavioural insights can dramatically improve marketing performance.

From balancing metrics with brand magic to ethical uses of synthetic data, modern marketing is a high-wire act. David Norris, CMO at boost.ai breaks down how AI is reshaping campaigns, CX ownership, and the very role of CMOs and what it means to stay ahead.

Stephanie Webster argues that the real advantage of marketing isn’t the latest tools but the ability to build trust, adapt strategy, and make bold calls.

CMOs are burning out not from doing too little, but from doing too much without direction. Brand strategist Andrej Persolja unpacks why clarity, not complexity, will define the next era of marketing leadership, and why the best CMOs will start thinking more like investors than executors.

In an industry obsessed with growth hacks and shiny stacks, marketers are now losing nearly a month each year just troubleshooting tools. Creativity is being sidelined. Morale is dropping. Strategy is on hold.