The 2026 World Cup produced a record surge in sports betting acquisition spending — and, according to TrafficGuard's data, a significant share of it may never have reached a genuinely new customer.
As buyers delay contacting vendors until deep into their decision-making, the real constraint on personalisation isn't technology — it's trust.
As AI agents like Alexa for Shopping and Walmart's Sparky curate shortlists rather than search pages, brands need answer-engine optimisation to be seen.
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.
Video plays are climbing and budgets are flattening, but the real gap is organisational: most teams still treat CEO video as a scheduled asset.
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.
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.
AI is reshaping performance and lifecycle marketing by automating repetitive work while shifting marketers towards strategy, context-building, creativity, and human judgment.
Merkle MENA’s Deepak Mankani outlines that only retailers who move from fragmented stacks to integrated, agentic CXM will bag higher conversion, bigger baskets, and lower service costs.
