Campaign Talent & Tech event addresses critical industry concerns

Campaign ME

11-04-2025

Campaign Middle East's stellar second event of the year, Campaign Breakfast Briefing: Talent and Technology 2025 witnessed a room full of industry experts – including client-side marketers, and agency and adtech leaders (photo gallery linked) – gather at The Metropolitan Hotel in Dubai Media City on Friday, 11 April 2025, to address critical concerns within the industry.
Apart from addressing very real challenges, including consumers experiencing ad fatigue; leaders trying to break siloes that exist between marketing, sales, product and finance; marketers embracing more sophisticated approaches to data analytics that go beyond these vanity metrics; the event also shed light on two key themes: the evolving role of artificial intelligence and emotional intelligence within marketing.
Discussions delved into how modern multi-touch attribution and marketing mix modelling solutions provide a comprehensive view, allowing us to give credit where it is due and tap into deeper metrics that offer real value. Leaders also spoke about the need to embed advertising in relevant contexts, personalise it to people who would benefit from that advertising, offer it to people in a meaningful manner, and place it in places where people are actually engaging with it organically.
Leaders also discussed the growing need to prioritise empathy, positive attitudes, agility, flexibility and address cultural and skills challenges within the current workforce, which is seeing technologies outpace capabilities in an era where dependencies on AI are as normal as dependencies on electricity and the Internet.
The event organised by Motivate Media Group's Campaign Middle East, was held in partnership with EternityX, Fusion5 and Seedtag.
Welcome speech
The event began with a welcome speech by Nadeem Quraishi, Publisher, Campaign Middle East, who briefed the attendees about the brand's latest developments.
He introduced the latest print edition: Campaign Middle East's Faces to Watch 2025, and briefed attendees about Campaign's Editorial and Events calendar for 2025, which includes four breakfast briefings events, new industry roundtables, as well as the highly anticipated Annual Agency of the Year Awards in December.
Chair's opening remarks
Campaign Middle East Editor Anup Oommen then took the stage to deliver the chair's opening remarks, setting the scene for what turned out to be an incredible event filled with actionable insights and interesting takeaways.
Oommen explained how the industry is moving past B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) messaging, narratives and storytelling approaches and is increasingly focusing on AI to AI connections in the form of agentic AI, as well as about H2H (human-to-human) connections – in short, the ability to connect with cohorts of hyper-local communities and individuals – based on deep insights that we now have about each individual's behavioural patterns, preferences and purchase intent.
He called out the parallels between the advancement of artificial intelligence and the rising focus of emotional intelligence within the brand and marketing landscape. He also warned of a subtle and unseen shift from a digital-first world driven by a scarcity in time and attention to an AI-first future driven by a scarcity in trust, transparency and empathy.
Oommen raised some critical questions about the distribution of weighted credit, gaps in the implementation of contextual advertising, skills gaps within the industry, recruitment and retention strategies, as well as the need to move from vanity metrics to deeper brand metrics that result in meaningful brand and business outcomes.
Keynote speech
To begin proceedings, Deric Wong, Chief Business Officer, EternityX, took delegates on a journey beyond borders, delving into ways Middle East marketers can capture Chinese opportunities by driving growth with cultural intelligence intelligence and innovation.
During this keynote Wong shared a deep dive into a largely untapped consumer segment, which accounts for a third of the world's luxury market, and their behavioural patterns – showcasing how brands can connect meaningfully with 1.4 billion micro-segments within the global Chinese consumer segment.
Through numerous videos and interesting examples, Wong showcased how Chinese consumers are searching and looking for experiences in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the rest of the region, but shared how brands in the MENA region remain largely invisible of content platforms.
'MENA brands or cultural narratives are still unknown to the Chinese consumers. MENA brands are not active on platforms such as WeChat, Baidu, Douyin, Mafengwo, Xiaohongshu and Bilibili, where these consumers spend a majority of their time. These are people who want to spend money in the Middle East. Investors are knocking – but the welcome mat has not been rolled out,' Wong said.
He went on to explain exactly what Chinese consumers want, how brands can resonate culturally and emotionally with these consumers, and offered examples of brand authenticity and safety come under fire when brands get their marketing wrong.
Wong shared access to EternityX's Global Knowledge Hub after this deep dive into personalisation, cultural fluency, storytelling and the tech ease that Chinese consumers demand.
Panel 1: Harnessing advanced analytics and multi-touch attribution to maximise marketing ROI
The first panel discussion of the day witnessed multiple advertisers and industry leaders taking the stage, including:
Alka Winter ​​​​, Vice President ‑ Destination Marketing and Communications, Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA)
Vice President ‑ Destination Marketing and Communications, Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority Tina Chikhani Nader, Head of Digital Marketing, Media and Ecommerce, Unilever
Head of Digital Marketing, Media and Ecommerce, Sourav Dey, Vice President of Growth for Wego
Vice President of Growth for Matt Nelson, Senior Director – Marketing Performance, Miral Destinations
The panel, moderated by Natale Panella, Head of Digital, Fusion5, discussed the fundamentals of audience-centric campaigns and the need to leverage data analytics and the right performance metrics to deliver tangible business growth. The panel discussed ways to optimise campaigns and budgets, reduce waste, and deliver customised, efficient solutions tailored to each brand's unique goals.
Panelists also discussed going beyond vanity metrics and implementing modern alternatives to last-click attribution that enables the distribution of weighted credit and tracking of real-time consumer engagement.
Unilever's Tina Chikhani Nader said, 'Today, marketers' biggest struggle is: how can we make our brands be an organic part of the community seamlessly without it coming across as advertising, while solving a problem or bridging a gap for the relevant consumers that need us.'
She added, 'We've utilised our social listening data from the platforms themselves to target very specific people with very relevant and specific, personalised messaging based on their scrolling habits and their consumption preferences. We've seen the benefits of telling them what to unfollow and what to follow in order for them to have better experiences and more positive voices around them rather than negative ones, and we couldn't have done this without combining our expertise with the data that the platforms provide.'
RAKTDA's Alka Winter explained that the 'nice, clean flow' through the marketing funnel from awareness to consideration to purchase doesn't exist in its traditional form anymore because there are so many different touchpoints to take into consideration. She said, 'With our media strategy team, we're constantly looking at that and at ways to optimise constantly, using AI, because we have so many different audiences and segments of people who need different things – and the content we create must speak to each of them.'
Wego's Sourav Dey added, 'We need to define what we're trying to do and what we're looking for. We know everyone loves to talk about engagements, but there are times we need to talk about click throughs and then dive deeper into metrics that matter. Based on the objectives of each campaign, we need to go beyond vanity metrics to assess the success in ways that matter.'
Miral's Matt Nelson summed it up, saying, 'Ultimately, going beyond vanity metrics means that measuring success is not going to be about a single number on a page anymore. It's about a set of indicators that constantly guide what we're doing. It's not about one measurement framework, but about different ones working together. It's going to be more of a weather report than a report card.'
Panel 2: Contextual advertising: Making marketing meaningful
The second panel, conducted in partnership with Seedtag, and moderated by Nader Bitar, Director of Digital Solutions, SRMG, welcomed to the stage,
Hussain Al-Nabi, Executive Director – Marketing & Digital, Alat
Executive Director – Marketing & Digital, Yasmine Al-Turk, Advanced DOOH & Digital Supply Lead at GroupM MENA
Advanced DOOH & Digital Supply Lead at Sherry Mansour, Managing Director – MENA, Seedtag, and
Managing Director – MENA, Abdelnabi Alaeddine, Regional Director – Digital & Partnership, UM MENAT
Panelists discuss how brands can foster more meaningful interactions, enhance brand perception, and drive higher conversion rates without the need for intrusive data practices by aligning advertising content with the context of what users are actively engaging with.
Unlike traditional ad targeting methods that rely heavily on user data, contextual advertising places ads based on the content of the webpage the user is viewing. This approach enhances user experience by ensuring that ads are relevant to the immediate interests of the audience, thereby increasing engagement and reducing ad fatigue.
Seedtag's Sherry Mansour set the tone saying, 'Contextual advertising is right and it's here to stay. We need to not only focus on the brand's narrative but also need to understand the consumer's mindset and tap into what people are interested in at a given moment of time, at a specific minute – that's what is important. Looking at the context, powered by AI, and looking at how we analyse and understand the context of where and how the ad is being served – this is what ensures brand safety and suitability. Also, the creative itself plays a huge part in this conversation, which we should focus on alongside the technology.'
GroupM MENA's Yasmine Al-Turk said, 'A lot of people are trying a one-size-fits-all approach, which isn't right. It's really about finding what is suitable and safe for each brand. What are the brand's values? What audiences are they looking to reach and how? What perception of they want to maintain and how can we suppport them with this?'
Alat's Hussain Al-Nabi built on this concept stating that while data is very important, marketers need to also focus on ensuring that values that resonate with relevant audiences. He explained, 'Brand values really need to be on point and placed on the right platform in the right way in a manner that speaks to Gen Z audiences, whose trust can be gained and lost very quickly if marketers are not on point or are tone deaf to their values and expectations.'
UM MENAT's Abdelnabi Alaeddine concluded, 'A brand has to set its own benchmarks; it's not the platform that should set the benchmarks. While every platform must have its exclusion lists – all of which are necessary for brand-safe content – at the end of the day, each brand must set its own benchmarks rather than have a platform or a tech player or even another brand set a benchmark.'
Panel 3: Shaping talent and teams in a tech-leaning landscape
The third and final panel of the day explored how the industry needs to upskill its current talent pool, ensure succession planning, improve company culture and create avenues for upskilling and training to meet the needs of the market.
The panel, moderated by Anup Oommen, Editor, Campaign Middle East, welcomed on stage three client-side marketers, including,
Mariam Farag , VP – Corporate Communications at DAMAC
, VP – Corporate Communications at Ashfaq Bandey , Executive Vice President and Global Head of Talent Acquisition, Mashreq
, Executive Vice President and Global Head of Talent Acquisition, Wassim Derbi, Head of Marketing, Communication & Training, Hyundai UAE
Ahmed El Gamal, Senior Director – Marketing
Discussing ways to overcome difficulties in attracting and recruiting the right talent, Mashreq's Ashfaq Bandey began the conversation, saying: 'It starts with creating a nourishing a culture that adapts quickly to change and focuses meaningfully on values, diversity, inclusion, and anticipates future needs. This requires a paradigm shift from the traditional role-based hiring to capabilities or skills-based acquisition. This means looking far beyond educational qualifications to the skill sets that allow for continuous learning and adaptability in a market that is constantly evolving.'
DAMAC's Mariam Farag added, 'We need to hire based on the right attitude, agility and flexibility rather than inflated CVs or skills on paper. This includes an attitude to learn, the attitude to solve problems and come up with solutions, the ability to manage crisis, plan proactively and think critically. This is what differentiates people with similar technical skill sets. At the end of the day, it's not only about what you've achieved in the past and what's on a piece of paper.'
Building on this discussion, Hyundai UAE's Wassim Derbi said, 'Open any job posting today, there's always that very disturbing statement of a minimum requirement of five to 10 years industry experience. This needs to change because marketers can be trained. Also, we're misusing the word 'talent'. There are two types of people: one is a group of people who decided to develop and work on a skill set, and then others who decide that they have it and never work on it.'
He explained that people can't claim to be social media expert, if they're not passionate about it from a personal perspective and active on it.
Ahmed El Gamal added, 'I think upskilling at speed in this day and age is inevitable. But the culture of the organisation needs to support learning fast and failing fast. If you're not allowing people to test and learn, I think that is where there is a bit of gap, a bit of a flaw, because you're expecting them to be far ahead, but you're holding them back. It's important to focus on transferable skills and enable micro learning within organisations so that people on our teams are learning as they are working, and thus growing in their roles and capabilities constantly – at the same speed that technology is growing and evolving.'
All in all, the panelists at the Campaign Breakfast Briefing: Talent and Technology event concluded that the industry needs a greater focus on:
Artificial intelligence and emotional intelligence in equal parts
Psychology and technology in equal parts
Metrics and meaning in equal parts
Context and creativity in equal parts
Building a brand while meeting sales objectives
Hussain Al-Nabi, Executive Director – Marketing & Digital, Alat, concluded. 'We need to bring back the magic to the industry.'
After the keynotes and panels at the Campaign Breakfast Briefing event, delegates stayed back for a time of networking. For those of you who were unable to attend this stellar gathering of like-minded leaders shaping the top trends and addressing the top challenges in the industry, keep an eye out for the YouTube video of the entire event.
Mark you calendars. Campaign Middle East's next event, Saudi Breakfast Briefing: Strategy & Technology will be held on 15 May 2025 at the Sheraton Riyadh Hotel & Towers in Riyadh.