Top brands share insights on shaping talent in a tech-leaning landscape
Moderated by Campaign Middle East's Editor, Anup Oommen, the panel comprised of Mariam Farag, VP – Corporate Communications at DAMAC, Ashfaq Bandey, Executive Vice President and Global Head of Talent Acquisition, Mashreq, Wassim Derbi, Head of Marketing, Communication & Training, Hyundai UAE and Ahmed El Gamal, a Senior Director – Marketing in hospitality.
Discussions unveiled several concerns surrounding talent within the marketing, communications and advertising industry within the region. Prominent themes to note included shifting from traditional hiring models to a more skills-based approach, the need for continuous and rapid upskilling, the importance of organisational culture and leadership and the challenges in transparency around succession planning.
The following article summarises the key learnings from the panel and encapsulates the essence of what the industry in the region must do to stay ahead of the game as new technologies become further integrated into daily practice.
Shaping talent and teams around skills instead of experience
Panelists across the board agreed that traditional hiring models based on industry-relevant experience no longer holds a candle to the rapidly changing marketing landscape of today.
'I believe that marketers can market anything, products, services, anything,' said Hyundai UAE's Wassim Derbi. He made the case that with the right training, a marketer that is passionate about their craft can perform well in any sector, irrespective of the industry they have prior experience in.
Mashreq's Ashfaq Bandey backed this idea and said, 'Traditional hiring models are showing serious deficiencies when it comes to current work environments.'
According to him, these models were built for predictability and stability, failing to keep up with the pace of disruption the industry is currently witnessing. 'Roles are now evolving much faster than job descriptions can keep pace with,' he said.
The way forward requires a paradigm shift from traditional role-based hiring to skill-based acquisition. 'You need to be hiring based on potential and adaptability and not simply just education relevant experience and qualifications,' said Bandey.
Shaping talent and leadership require an open attitude to upskilling and adaptability
As the panel progressed, another key point emerged on how adaptability within leadership plays an equally important role in creating a holistic work environment.
Bandey cited a McKinsey study that finds that suggest that there's not enough talent in the region. 'The current demand for a digital skillset in areas like AI and advanced analytics exceeds almost four times the supply that exists,' he said, referencing the study. He urges leaders to invest in the talent they already have in these situations.
DAMAC's Mariam Farag also suggested that an openness to learning is of paramount importance. 'What I don't compromise on is attitude,' she said. According to her, the 'greatest CV on Earth' and a top education doesn't hold a candle to an attitude to learn fast and constantly come up with solutions and not problems.
To her, an ideal candidate for a job as demanding as communications is 'someone that is open to learning, excited about brand building, authentic storytelling, crisis management, content creation, digital transformation and completely available to agility and to flexibility.'
Ahmed El Gamal, a Senior Director in Marketing for a major hospitality brand also suggested that leaders should allow for employer upskilling during work hours. 'We should start learning at the same speed a prompt can be generated by AI,' he said.
During the panel he put forward a two pronged approach to enable learning at the workplace. First, a focus on the culture of the organisation: 'Have an attitude of learning and failing fast. If you're not experimenting and failing fast, I think that is where there is a gap,' he said, advocating for mentorship from inside and outside the organisation.
The second element includes micro-learning. 'If companies start introducing micro-learning tools like Duolingo, on a day-to-day, to get information in, and refresh your skills and start to apply them when the time is right, it would go a long way,' he said.
Transparency around succession planning
The panel concluded by focusing on succession planning, particularly examining whether the industry carries it out ethically.
'Succession planning usually is not transparent and this creates a negative feeling where you become insecure about your job,' said DAMAC's Farag. She emphasised the importance of loyalty within a team or department, and claims that it's detrimental to a work environment to have internal chatter about successors when a person is still sitting at their desk, completely unaware.
Hyundai UAE's Derbi also built on this discussion and said that the task of succession planning should fall onto HR and talent acquisition and that these decisions should not involve senior management. 'Succession planning is very political and always comes with a hidden agenda,' he said. 'I've seen situations when a CEO departs and suddenly all succession planning gets shelved.' He chalks this down to the human nature of picking based on preferences, and not on whether the person has the right skills or qualities to fill the role.
'So if succession planning is to be driven properly, it needs to be planned by HR and not by senior leadership,' he said.
Farag also suggests transparency to aide this process. 'You need to implement proper SOPs, and make processes transparent,' she said. 'Your team needs to be able to function without you while you're absent.'
Shaping talent and teams in a tech-leaning landscape may sometime seem like navigating an extremely challenging situation. However, the final panel at the Campaign Breakfast Briefing: Talent & Technology aimed to do its part to break down these barriers and put forward actionable suggestions that increases trust, productivity and the quality of work.
With transparency, an attitude to learn and a commitment to the craft, the region holds utmost potential to continually evolve towards best practice. To watch the full event, click here.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Campaign ME
2 days ago
- Campaign ME
Seed & Bloom Community Café shares rollout, success of brand launch campaign
Seed & Bloom Community Café, a homegrown brand, has shared details about its brand launch, activation and influencer campaign with Campaign Middle East. The campaign leaned into a multi-channel strategy to create awareness about its launch, introduce a novel concept to the market, and catalyse foot traffic to the debut venue. The homegrown F&B concept in Abu Dhabi built its brand identity around mindful living, sustainable design and exceptional artisanal food, hoping to build brand love and loyalty through a nurturing space for connection and community engagement. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Foode 🇦🇪 Essa Ali (@ Stakeholders involved in the Seed & Bloom launch campaign The brand launch and activation campaign was brought to life in partnership with TGP International, which was responsible for concept and brand development, interior design and ongoing oversight of operations, marketing, events, PR, and advertising for Seed & Bloom. The brand is now entirely operated and managed by TGP International. Meanwhile, Katch International was tasked with generating media coverage for the venue and coordinating influencer visits during the opening phase. Me:Mo provided auxiliary marketing support during the three-month launch period, including content creation and social media management. Pyong Sumaria handled the photography for F&B and social, while Gavriil Papadiotis handled photography for the interior design elements. The campaign ran for a duration of eight weeks from 5 March to 5 May, 2025. Objectives and rollout of the campaign In conversation with Campaign Middle East, the brand revealed that the main objectives of the campaign included: Introducing the brand to the market and establish its identity and brand values; Driving initial traffic to the venue and revenue through F&B sales; Attracting media and influencers to discover and experience the brand; Generating bookings for workshops and classes; Growing social media platforms and engagement; and Achieving positive early-stage Google Reviews ratings. The brand primarily looked to reach a targeted audience of families, Emiratis, local communities, as well as family-focused influencers. As a result, the campaign was rolled out through social media, traditional public relations and media outreach, community events, influencer marketing and through its website. The campaign unfolded in three distinct phases, starting with early awareness efforts before progressing into targeted media and influencer engagements, and then culminating in highly community-focused activations of workshops and activities, which set the direction for the venue's ongoing programme of experiences offered to its guests. Pre-launch awareness Ahead of its March 2025 opening, the team laid the groundwork for targeted brand awareness. Bilingual press materials were shared with regional media, and first-look exclusives were pitched to trusted lifestyle outlets. Regional publications featured Seed & Bloom before its launch, drawing attention to the design details and menu highlights. Fact Magazine called it 'a space for cakes, classes and coffee in equal measure,' capturing the layered intent behind the concept. This early presence established media recognition and positioned the brand as experience-led from the outset. Launch coverage The launch campaign brought together select content creators to engage their audiences with original, immersive storytelling. Influencers including Alia Alhosani, Amal Ismail, Lana Kaati and Sister's Diary covered their visits through Reels and stories. Through detailed concept briefing and on-the-ground collaboration with these individuals, content focused on the concept's craftsmanship, interiors and the sense of calm the space offered. Time Out Abu Dhabi's walkthrough reel highlighted the café's botanical interiors and pastry selection. A similar walkthrough on TikTok added another strong stream of content. Secret Abu Dhabi's video looked at the sustainability story and the space's distinctive tone. View this post on Instagram A post shared by @gardensplazaad Combined, these videos received more than 80,000 views across platforms. The narrative was picked up by early visitors who began posting their own stories, photos and reels, which helped build an important layer of community-generated content within days of launch. Community event Seed & Bloom also hosted a dedicated 'A Blooming Beginning' event the weekend following its launch, inviting local families, creatives and lifestyle voices to experience the café through workshops, live music and community moments. The day featured a mix of hands-on activities including flower arranging, painting, and interactive culinary stations, with a focus on creating moments families could enjoy together. Attendees included Shania Rosario, Leen Melthem and Arpita Soni who captured impressions of the space that went beyond food. From floral focaccia to slow mornings on the terrace, the content reflected a sense of discovery that aligned with the brand's personality. Finally, a café in Abu Dhabi that feels like home—warm, personal and proud of where it comes from. — Experience Abu Dhabi The event extended the reach of the campaign into the local community and created additional stories that positioned the brand as part of the neighbourhood. Post-launch momentum In the months following the launch, Seed & Bloom continued to receive editorial coverage in What's On Abu Dhabi, BBC Good Food, Curly Tales and Experience Abu Dhabi. These pieces moved the narrative forward by spotlighting the café's evolving programme of events and workshops, including sourdough classes, sustainability pop-ups and creative gatherings. Freshly baked pastries, earthy interiors and a warm welcome—Seed & Bloom is one of Abu Dhabi's most exciting new openings. — Curly Tales Reviews on Tripadvisor consistently cited the ambience, service and quality of food, reinforcing the messages shared in media and influencer content. The café maintains a full 5.0 rating. Success metrics of the Seed & Bloom campaign Since its launch, Seed & Bloom Café Abu Dhabi has carved out a clear identity in the city's evolving café scene.
Campaign ME
4 days ago
- Campaign ME
PIF-backed HUMAIN's Acting CMO on Saudi Arabia as a global AI powerhouse
As artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly reshapes industries worldwide, Saudi Arabia has set its sights on becoming an AI powerhouse, positioning itself as a global leader at the heart of the transforming AI-driven economy. At the heart of this movement stands HUMAIN – a PIF-backed AI company envisioned by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud to place the Kingdom, and the greater Middle East region, front and centre in its development of AI infrastructure, Arabic large language models (LLMs) and cloud services. At the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in July 2025, Campaign Middle East spoke exclusively to Steve Plimsoll, Chief Strategy Officer and Acting Chief Marketing Officer, HUMAIN, about going beyond the headlines and billion-dollar deals to answer crucial questions: What makes AI truly transformative for businesses and brands? How do data quality, cultural context and clearly defined use cases determine the real impact of AI strategies on brand, marketing and the society at large? At the core of AI lies data and used cases At the outset, Plimsoll told Campaign Middle East, 'In the same way that Aramco has led the region and the world in the oil sector, HUMAIN was established to lead the world in artificial intelligence. HUMAIN will be global first, but sovereign by design. We will power and enable AI from the ground up, creating capabilites in the region for the world, and this includes data centres, tokens, LLM models and applications built on top of it.' Since its launch in May 2025, the company has already signed deals worth more than $23 billion with global AI leaders such as Nvidia, AMD, Amazon Web Services, and Qualcomm. Plimsoll added, 'HUMAIN will power global AI moves with data centres and large language models. We will enable AI infrastructure while delivering on global demand and the sovereign needs of Saudi Arabia and the region from a data protection, security and capabilities perspective. This includes storing data, processing data and managing it in our data centres in Saudi Arabia – for the region and for the rest of the world.' However, brand and marketing leaders in the region leaning into artificial intelligence who are evaluating the effectiveness of AI strategies have stated that these strategies are only as good as the insights derived from AI analytics, which in turn are only as effective as the quality of first-party and third-party data that feeds AI. When questioned about data integrity and clean data, Plimsoll responded, 'Unfortunately, this is one of the less-asked questions and, yet, one of the most important ones. AI is trained on data. If you train AI on bad data, you get bad AI. If you then feed a bad AI model with bad data again, you get even worse answers. Sure, data remains one of the most important aspects in all of this.' He added, 'But more important than the data is the used case. Why are we using AI? What are we using it for? While it's easy to say that AI is going to change the world, we need to understand how and why.' Plimsoll uses the story of a drill as a metaphor to 'drill the point home'. We buy a drill to drill a hole; we need the hole to put a nail in; we need the nail to put a painting up on the wall – so essentially we bought a drill to put a painting up on the wall. However, AI is like double-sided sticky tape that we buy to put up the painting instead, which metaphorically disrupts the 'drill' and 'nail' industry. 'This is why we've got to ask ourselves, what is the problem that I'm trying to solve?' Plimsoll explained. 'We've got several tools at our disposal, and with the right data and approach, we can solve any problem. We can make any industry more efficient. We can make any human better. We can take the interdependency of human creativity and AI's precision and power, and bring them together to create a unique force that is better than what it is today.' View this post on Instagram A post shared by Campaign Middle East (@campaignmiddleeast) Arabic large language models: Built in Saudi Arabia, but for the world Building on the conversation of making the brand and marketing industry better, Plimsoll also addressed the untapped potential of Arabic large language models (LLMs) targeting users in Saudi Arabia and across the Middle East – especially given growing conversations around the localisation of content and connecting brands with communities by leveraging the languages in which consumers think. 'In the Middle East, and specifically in Saudi Arabia, it's important to understand that tradition, culture and heritage are embedded in everything we do, but most LLMs that we use are built of generic content available globally that are meant for everyone, everywhere. They don't understand cultural nuance or the several sub-dialects of the Arabic language. It's important to understand that the 400 million Arabic speakers in the world don't all speak the same way,' Plimsoll said. He added, 'This is why we need to train AI and large language models based on how people speak and choose to ask questions in their language. Then we need to train LLMs to create generative content that is relevant, contextual and culturally nuanced enough to accurately and efficiently respond to a query set in a hyper-local context.' Through the conversation, he went on to add that global campaigns 'converted', 'translated', 'created' or 'generated' to suit the Middle East region may look appropriate to a global audience, but completely inappropriate to audiences in the region due to its misrepresentation of national attire, colloquial language, cultural etiquette – all of which need to be addressed not only by creatives, but also by those developing LLMs for the region. 'We need to build the best Arabic large language models from the region that aren't just about Arabic, but are about understanding the Middle East in all its facets, including religion, culture, tradition, heritage, customs, behaviours, preferences, intent and, most importantly, people – and that's how we're going to change LLMs and the future of marketing,' Plimsoll concluded.
Campaign ME
5 days ago
- Campaign ME
Hot off the press: Campaign Middle East's Cannes Lions 2025 magazine hits stands
Campaign Middle East's latest magazine spotlights the glitz, glam and glory of Cannes Lions 2025 while unpacking the raison d'etre of advertising. This July edition of Campaign Middle East is packed with opinions from key industry leaders on ethical and 'do-good' marketing. The issue also incorporates recaps from some in the region who attended the 72nd Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, who coincidentally, also raise questions on how the industry can strategise and create 'marketing for good'. Senior-level marketers and advertisers, both brand and agency side, have poured their concerns into the pages of this issue to make the case for better advancements in ethical and sustainable media and marketing practices. Al Masaood's Marwa Kaabour reflects on how ethical leadership weaves sustainability, inclusion and governance into the fabric of business. C2 Comms' Roy Aftimos echoes this and attributes his agency's success to prioritising people and purpose. Unilever's Manan Gupta adds to the discussions with a take on why the retail shelf is one of the biggest missed opportunities in consumer sustainability, while Warner Bros. Discovery's shares how brands can inspire ec-action in young audiences through kids' media and entertainment. Contributors to Campaign Middle East's annual 'Do-Good' issue also include Conscious Media's Andy Powell, WonderEight's Karim Abou Rizk, The Vantage's Robin Phillips, and Motivate Val Morgan's Sahal Valliyot. Also under the spotlight this month is an in-depth look into all the heated debates, interesting insights and top takeaways from Cannes Lions 2025. In the issue's cover feature, Anup Oommen, Editor at Campaign Middle East, recounts perspectives on this year's Festival of Creativity from Simon Cook, CEO, LIONS, Aude Gandon, Global Chief Marketing Officer, Nestlè, Fabio Silveira, Managing Director, Havas Creative Middle East, Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO and Chairman, Vayner Media, Siddarth Sivaprakash, Head of Brand & Marketing, Home Centre, Landmark Group, Josefien Olij, Senior Director Marketing Communications, Phillips, Ali Rez, Chief Creative Officer, Impact BBDO, Melissa Hsieh Nikolic, Director of Product Management, YouTube Ads, Andy Yang, Global Head of Creative and Brand Products, TikTok, Fahd Hamidaddin, Board Member & Founding CEO, Saudi Tourism Authority, Reda Raad, Group CEO, TBWA\Raad, Tarek Miknas, CEO, FP7 McCann MENAT, and Khaled Al Shehhi, Executive Director of Marketing and Communications, UAE Government Media Office. Also contributing their thoughts on the Festival is UK Advertising's Aisling Conlon, DCT Abu Dhabi's Nada Assaf, Déjà Vu's Manasvi Gosalia, Serviceplan Group Middle East's Natalie Shardan and Livingroom Dubai's Seyoan Vela. This month's Brand Focus section hears from Modon Holding's Dina Jreissati, who writes that brands that nudge societal conversations end up on top. Amjad Puliyali contributes to the month's Saudi Focus, and explains how Saudi Arabia's investments in artificial intelligence position the Kingdom as a leader in technological advancements. From recaps from the shores of the south of France to discourse on how the industry can be better and do better, Campaign Middle East's Cannes Lions 2025 and Do-Good magazine holds a mirror to the industry's wins and areas of improvement. Read more in the full issue below or click here.
