Brand Lessons from Dubai: Evolving with Purpose and Power

Entrepreneur

4 days ago

This is a clear message to brands: if your creative is still playing it safe, or feels like a copy-paste job, you're already behind.
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Not long ago, much of Dubai's creative scene felt like it was borrowed from elsewhere. Many campaigns were adaptations of global ideas, not built specifically for the region. But that's shifting. Dubai's voice is evolving, from adaptation to originality, from safe to unapologetic.
What's driving this shift? Ambition. The ambition to become a creative powerhouse, to attract top talent, and to build world-class brands from the region outwards. And the UAE government is setting the tone. Just look at their Cannes takeover this year: a bold, logo-less campaign that declared, "The Emirates are open for ideas as long as those ideas are impossible."
This is a clear message to brands: if your creative is still playing it safe, or feels like a copy-paste job, you're already behind.
IDEAS BASED ON LOCAL INSIGHT
Brands in the Middle East are beginning to shred the "global-but-generic" creative template we see over and over again. For too long, campaigns created in the region have played it safe, polished, predictable, and built from formulas that worked elsewhere. But that's changing. The market is maturing. Clients are no longer asking, "What did London, Amsterdam or New York do?" They want ideas that begin here, shaped by the region's culture and created by people who live it, understand it, and are genuinely connected to the audience.
Adidas' I'm Possible campaign is a perfect example. Instead of rolling out a global message, they started with a local truth: a YouGov stat that 88% of women in the Middle East believe sports aren't meant for them. adidas invited women across Dubai to share their own stories, and then took over the city's billboards with their images. It cut through because it was rooted in real women's voices, stories that felt personal, not performative.
The takeaway? If you want your campaign to truly cut through, you can't afford to skip the work of uncovering local insight. It's not just about ticking a cultural box, it's about building creative that couldn't come from anywhere else. The brands leading the way are investing the time to understand the nuances: the humour, the language, the lived realities of their audience.
Regional cues aren't being diluted anymore, they're being amplified. And the result is work that feels more confident, more connected, and far more likely to leave a mark.
THINK BIG. ACT FAST.
This is a region that moves fast and thinks big. Brands that wait for global sign-off or rely on tried-and-tested ideas will likely miss the moment. The most effective work here is reactive and matches the region's pace and ambition. Bold ideas that are sharp, timely, and strategically sound.
Emirates nailed this strategic ambition with their Burj Khalifa stunt in 2021. When the UAE was removed from the UK's red list, Emirates responded quickly with a jaw-dropping visual: a flight attendant standing at the top of the world's tallest building holding signs celebrating the return of travel. Bold, timely, and completely mental. It gave them a new claim to fame: one of the "highest ads ever filmed".
This is the level brands are competing with here. The work that lands here doesn't just move fast, it taps into the moment. The best brands are plugged into what's happening around them, and they're brave enough to respond with big, bold creative. It's not about waiting for the perfect global brief. It's about recognising the opportunity and having the guts to go for it.
CREATIVITY BUILT FROM WITHIN
The brands making the biggest impact aren't just getting the message right, they're getting the people right. The work that really connects here is being made by teams who understand this place because they're part of it. Not just flying in for a briefing or asking AI for cultural cues. It needs to be created by those experiencing the rhythm of everyday life, what people care about, laugh about, talk about.
Campaigns like Puck's Recipe for Change or adidas' I'm Possible didn't land because they followed a formula. They worked because they were built by people who instinctively understood the tone, the sensitivities, and the stories that would resonate, and knew how to tell them in a way that felt natural, not forced.
If you want your work to land here, it has to be created from here. Not adapted. Not translated. Created by people who know the difference between a borrowed insight and a real one, and who know how to build something original with it.
Basically, what I'm saying is: brands need to be bold. More now than ever. And Dubai is the place to do it. I moved back because I could feel the ambition here and I want to be a part of it.
The brands making the biggest impact are the ones grounding their ideas in local truth, reacting to the moment, and creating from within, not adapting a global formula. If you want to stay ahead, show up with work that's original, unapologetic, and impossible to ignore.