Clicks and conversions may be easy to measure, but they do not always explain whether advertising created additional value or simply captured demand that already existed. According to Michael Shang, SVP of Technologies at StackAdapt, when outcome data enters the active media workflow, planning becomes more iterative.
Brand preference doesn’t disappear, but it splits into two audiences. The consumer still forms the preference. They decide which brands they trust enough to let an agent act for them, and that decision stays emotional and human, says Brian Kealey, Managing Director, APAC, Klaviyo.
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.
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.
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."
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.
People may follow a hospitality brand because of a beautiful beach or an attractive offer, but they remain connected because of how the brand makes them feel, says Nina Mohamed, Cluster Director of Marketing & Communications at Mövenpick and Pullman Resort Al Marjan Island.
Right now, AI defaults to a textbook approach that isn't always pragmatic or takes into account interesting context or human taste, says Martina Lauchengco, Author of LOVED, where she talks about how to rethink the marketing of tech products. “The winners will have systems that do a better job on that.”
According to Roxana Nicolescu, VP, Brand Marketing & Social Media (Global), Wego.com, attention is not necessarily disappearing; it is becoming more fragmented, selective and rapidly reallocated between feeds, creators, searches, messages and cultural moments.
According to Álvaro Martínez, Sr. Director MENA - Growth Marketing and Pricing, talabat, the question is always: what channel drives the cheapest CPA versus which channel drives the best user cohort at an acceptable cost. Small semantics, big difference.
