Bold bets: Marketers and industry leaders share focus areas for 2026

After 12 months of testing, experimenting, and trying out new platforms, technologies and tools in search of better outcomes, client-side marketers and industry leaders are now calling for 2026 to be a year of focus.

Some of the most respected voices across the brand and marketing landscape speak to Campaign Middle East about turning away from meaningless messaging, the noise of synthetic slop and vanity metrics.

Instead, they advise finding the balance between technology and trust, data and dialogue, strategy and speed, content and clarity, and efficiencies and empathy. Much to the industry’s delight, this means conversations are finally driving onto an open highway past the traffic jam of artificial intelligence (AI) and authenticity.

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With margins tight and differentiation pivotal in competitive categories, marketers and leaders raise crucial questions: What value are brands adding to people’s lives? Are marketers servicing human needs? Do people trust brands and their leaders?

There’s no two ways about it: In a world where audiences are quick to block apps, boycott brands, opt out of tracking, use virtual private networks (VPNs) and clear cookies, there is a clear and obvious need for brands to listen to their consumers, simplify messages, add value, learn to be human, connect meaningfully with communities and fix targeting and measurement to build long-term relationships with consumers.

Contributing to the conversations on key learning from 2025, priorities for 2026, and the path ahead are:

• Khaled AlShehhi, Executive Director of Marketing and Communication, UAE Government Media Office;
• Amina Taher, Chief Marketing Officer, Wio Bank;
• Mohamed Al Awadhi, Vice President – Personal Banking Marketing, First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB);
• Ibrahim Al Mayahi, Vice President – Brand and Marketing Communications, du
• Sara O’Hara, Group Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, AW Rostamani Group;
• Ahmad Numan, Director of Marketing and Corporate Communications, Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone (RAKEZ);
• Dina Jreissati, Group Executive Director – Marketing and Communications, Modon Holding;
• Elie Haber, Managing Partner, Fusion5;
• Christine Najarian, Regional Business Director, Boopin; and
• Ahmed El Sherbini, Chief Executive Officer, Think Human.

“We have over-produced content and under-built meaning. The brands that win will publish less but ship better: fewer campaigns, more product truth; fewer claims, more proof.”

Priorities for 2026: People first; less is more; focus on ‘focus’

It begins with people. If 2025 was the year when ChatGPT, Perplexity, Bard and custom-built artificial intelligence (AI) dashboards provided all the answers, then 2026 will be the year when consumers claim their voice back and demand to be heard.

Amina Taher, Chief Marketing Officer, Wio Bank, says, “Marketing in 2026 is about putting people first – always. The landscape is evolving; technology is moving fast; but it’s empathy, transparency and purpose that build real connections. At Wio, we listen deeply to our customers and design experiences that anticipate their needs, not just respond to trends. When you align your brand’s values with the ambitions of your community, you create impact that lasts.”

Dina Jreissati, Group Executive Director – Marketing and Communications, Modon Holding, adds, “A marketer’s priority should always be the customer. Sustainable growth comes from genuinely listening and building brands around what people value, rather than chasing short-term wins. Marketing communication works best when it reflects the customer’s voice, not just the brand’s key messages. While tools change, with AI integration and data mastery taking on more significance, we should recommit to long-term brand value by putting customer experiences at the centre of every decision.”

Through their conversation with Campaign Middle East, several marketers and industry leaders repeat the refrain from the previous year: Can the industry please reduce the noise, and increase the signal? The idea is not simply to garner attention, but to speak with intention, let truth lead the conversation, and enact each strategy as a deliberate action rather than carpet bombing messages across channels. The through-line is: Less is more.

Khaled AlShehhi, Executive Director of Marketing and Communication, UAE Government Media Office, says, “In 2026, marketers should prioritise reducing marketing – not budgets, but noise. We have over-produced content and under-built meaning. The brands that win will publish less but ship better: fewer campaigns, more product truth; fewer claims, more proof. The new advantage is not attention; it’s selective silence, knowing when not to speak. Marketing should feel like a signal, not an echo. If your brand needs a campaign to be believed, you have a deeper problem than messaging.”

Ahmad Numan, Director of Marketing and Corporate Communications, Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone (RAKEZ), adds, “The past few years pushed marketing into expanding across platforms, tools and initiatives, often at the expense of clarity and impact. As a result, many teams stayed busy without being truly effective. The brands that will perform best in 2026 are the ones that will make clear choices about where to invest their time, budgets and effort. Fewer priorities, stronger positioning, and deeper execution will matter far more than broad presence. In a crowded landscape, sustained results will come from doing fewer things better.”

However, to achieve clarity and benefit from ‘less is more’, marketers say that the industry must be more focused, especially given that the market is teeming with disruption and distractions.

Sara O’Hara, Group Chief Marketing & Communications Officer, AW Rostamani Group, says, “After years of rapid experimentation, the real advantage will come from making clearer choices about where to play and how to win. This means simplifying technology stacks, investing in fewer but stronger brand platforms, and aligning creativity more closely with commercial outcomes. Marketers need to prioritise focus.”

She adds, “Trust, consistency, and creative distinctiveness will matter more than being present everywhere at once, which has often led to overload, fatigue, and indifference. Perhaps I’m showing my age when I say this, but too much activity has long been mistaken for progress. The brands that succeed will be those that resist distraction, take the time to truly understand their audiences, and execute with discipline rather than chasing every new trend as it arises.”

Agreeing with this notion, Ahmed El Sherbini, Chief Executive Officer, Think Human, adds, “Build smaller, more focused, and highly relevant brand communities through targeted communication, meaningful experiences, and tailored offerings – driving brand loyalty and long-term retention, not just reach.”

Industry leaders also call for a focused approach to onboarding the right talent, driving meaningful content, ensuring effective communication and shifting the conversation to insights and outcomes. They call for 2026 to be the year of making hard choices.

Christine Najarian, Regional Business Director, Boopin, says, “The past few years have rewarded caution. The refrain was: test everything, optimise endlessly, spread the budget across every channel. The truth is that we’ve A/B tested our way to sameness. Every brand sounds the same, looks the same, targets the same, uses the same messages.”

Najarian adds, “The brands that break through in 2026 will be the ones willing to make hard choices. Kill the underperforming channel instead of optimising it again. Say no to the safe campaign that tests well but changes nothing. This isn’t a call for recklessness. The performance era taught us to measure everything, but it also trained us to avoid decisions that can’t be de-risked. Prioritise the courage to be wrong.”

The opening score for 2026 is clear: Listen deeply to customers and learn the beauty of selective silence amidst the noise; build brands and design experiences that offer value and meet their needs; and finally, focus on ‘focus’ – achieve clarity on budgets, efforts and communication – with discipline, without distractions. Then, make the hard choices instead of floating comfortably in the sea of sameness.

“Co-creation and participation will be at the heart of marketing strategies in 2026.”

Marketers and agency leaders discuss decision-making in 2026

Several different factors seem inextricably tied to crucial decisions in 2026: Artificial intelligence (AI) promises pace and productivity, while first-party data offers sharper routes to consumer insights, relevance and personalisation.

Reiterating the growing influence of AI on decision-making, Mohamed Al Awadhi, Vice President – Personal Banking Marketing, First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) says, “Marketers must prioritise master AI, which enables routine tasks such as data analysis, copywriting and visual creation to be completed in minutes. These efficiencies enable real-time feedback, higher productivity and sharper decision-making.”

Yet, amid the growing dependence on data and dashboards, consumer trust seems to be a narrow canoe navigating the large waves of doubt and scepticism.

Ibrahim Al Mayahi, Vice President – Brand and Marketing Communications, du, explains, “In 2026, media and marketing leaders will rely on AI to transform fragmented signals into actionable intelligence, enabling precision planning and dynamic optimisation across channels. First‑party data becomes the strategic backbone, powering everything from audience modelling to real‑time creative. But the real competitive edge will come from brands that treat trust as a design principle, not a compliance requirement.”

While marketers agree that AI and first-party data are transforming what’s possible in marketing, they also share a reminder that the real power of these tools lie in how they are used to serve people better, anticipate needs, remove barriers, and solve problems, rather than propagating unsolicited contact, frequent and intrusive messaging, and ‘creepy’ over-personalisation that disrupts the daily lives of consumers.

“Trust is the key word,” says Modon Holdings’ Jreissati. “People are increasingly aware that they have become products and data-points for tech-enabled companies, and a feeling of mistrust is prevalent. That’s why harnessing this data is a responsibility that cannot be taken lightly.”

This means that marketers and industry leaders will need to prioritise transparent value exchanges and responsible data governance in order to earn long‑term engagement.

Wio Bank’s Taher says, “Trust is the foundation: we must be transparent, ethical, and always put privacy first. When brands combine smart technology with clear communication and a human touch, they earn the confidence to innovate boldly.”

Offering a word of caution, the UAE Government Media Office’s AlShehhi adds, “In 2026, the smartest brands won’t ask how to use AI, but what must never be automated: claims, ethics, crisis responses and anything that can harm trust. First-party data will shift from targeting to permission economics. People will trade data only when they get real value back. The new key performance indicator (KPI) won’t be conversion; it will be credibility under scrutiny.”

There’s no doubt about it, AI-powered insights and first-party data will enable smarter targeting, better budget allocation, real-time optimisation and deeper personalisation, but these tools are not meant to be a shortcut to conversions.

AW Rostamana’s Sara O’Hara warns, “Trust will sit at the centre of how brands use both AI and data. The strongest brands will be those that use it to support and amplify creativity rather than attempt to substitute or replace it, which is where trust is easily lost. Using AI as a shortcut instead of a tool is where brands can do real damage. As reliance on first-party data grows, marketers will need to be far more deliberate about transparency and value exchange. Consumers are increasingly conscious of how their data is handled, and brands that are careless or opaque will lose credibility quickly.”

Elie Haber, Managing Partner, Fusion5, sums it up nicely: “AI will be transformative this year, but it’s only as strong as the data and values behind it. First-party data gives us accuracy and control, and trust gives us permission to use it meaningfully. The real magic happens when intelligent systems and human empathy operate together, delivering decisions that are not only smarter but more respectful, transparent and aligned with consumer expectations.”

Has the industry learnt its lessons from 2025?

A/B testing has often been positioned as marketing science: run an experiment, read the result, repeat and realise a path to better outcomes. However, after a year of scaling tests across creative and media, marketers and industry leaders suggest the reality is messier – results change with context and the biggest danger is mistaking a local or anecdotal win for a strategic truth.

Al Mayahi explains, “In 2025, media teams learned that testing only works when it’s paired with solid, reliable data. We also saw that today’s fragmented audiences and creative formats require more advanced testing methods, not one‑off experiments. Context – such as the platform, format, or user mindset – can completely change results. In 2026, leaders will turn experimentation into an ongoing feedback loop, using automated testing across media buying, creative variations and audience targeting. The biggest change is cultural: teams now see testing not as a quick performance trick, but as a core way of working that leads to smarter spending and stronger long‑term growth.”

Haber adds, “Last year taught us that consumers don’t behave in straight lines. Large-scale A/B testing revealed how quickly intent shifts and how emotional triggers, timing and context often outweigh perfectly logical journeys. In 2026, our testing must be more dynamic, continuous and reflective of real behaviour, not just neat hypotheses. Automation helps us test more ideas, more often, but human interpretation is what turns those patterns into action. The lesson is clear: agility wins, but only when paired with the curiosity to understand why something works, not just that it works.”

If 2025 was about pushing experimentation harder, 2026 looks set to be about refining the purpose of experimentation and asking harder questions. Testing remains essential, but it must become more discerning. It’s time to learn how to tune the strings of each marketing instrument, rather than simply swapping out strings that sound out of tune.

AlShehhi says, “The biggest learning from 2025 is that A/B testing at scale often rewards the most clickable version of the wrong strategy. Instead of worshipping lift, start asking the harder questions: lift in what timeframe, at what cost, and with what brand trade-offs? In 2026, teams will test fewer things but test better with clear hypotheses, incrementality, and long-term signals such as retention and brand search, not just in platform metrics. Some decisions should never be A/B tested. Distinctiveness is a leap of faith, not a spreadsheet.”

Numan agrees, “A/B testing in 2025 exposed diminishing returns on micro-optimisation. Testing without a strong hypothesis consistently led to noise rather than insight. Creativity proved difficult to refine through incremental testing alone. Data worked best when it informed direction, not when it replaced judgement.”

What does this mean? Testing and learning is not like a vending machine – press button, get answer. Instead, it’s more like a stethoscope – listen and pay attention to what is happening, and realise that it takes skill to diagnose and infer problems that need to be solved based on the beat of the market.

The path ahead for 2026: Marketers share their take on nostalgia and co-creation

Barely more than a month into 2026 and marketing is already shifting: It feels a lot less like broadcasting from a high-rise tower and much more like hosting an intimate gathering.

Older audiences are enjoying the ‘walk and talk’ down a nostalgic memory lane while younger audiences are actively co-creating with brands, contributing to content and engagement and building a two-way dialogue. For both older and younger generations, participation is no longer a nice-to-have; it is part of the Middle East cultural grammar.

Al Mayahi explains, “In 2026, media and marketing strategies will need to do two things at once: On one hand, give younger audiences more ways to participate, and on the other hand, reconnect with older audiences through nostalgia. Gen Z and Gen Alpha want to co‑create – they like shaping stories, remixing content and influencing how brands show up. Older generations respond well to nostalgia that’s refreshed through modern formats such as short‑form videos, interactive experiences and AI‑powered content.”

Taher adds, “Younger audiences are redefining expectations. They don’t want fragmented platforms; they want simple, easy experiences that fit naturally into their lives. But it goes beyond convenience – this generation wants to shape the story, not just hear it. Co-creation and participation will be at the heart of marketing strategies in 2026, as we invite audiences to collaborate, share ideas and build communities. At the same time, remixing nostalgia for older generations creates emotional resonance and bridges generational gaps. The most successful brands will blend fresh thinking with familiar stories, ensuring every customer feels seen, heard and empowered to help shape what comes next.”

Yet, marketers also have a hard truth to share: audiences can spot performative gestures quickly, and they are not shy about walking away.

AlShehhi warns, “In 2026, audiences will punish fake participation. The winners will design participation with real ownership access, credit, decision rights and community value, not just hashtags. Nostalgia will also shift. It won’t be about retro aesthetics, but emotional refuge. People don’t miss old logos; they miss certainty. Brands that offer stability through consistent behaviour, not just storytelling, will win across generations.”

Al Awadhi adds, “Amid rapid regional transformation, audiences across the Middle East are increasingly expressing their emotions by choosing brands based on their values – actively supporting or rejecting those that reflect their beliefs. This is not new; similar moments have surfaced repeatedly throughout the region’s history. What’s different today is how these audiences use creator-led platforms to amplify sentiment at scale, accelerating how perception translates into real commercial impact.”

What’s the through-line? Consumers have spoken. They believe their voice matters. Industry leaders have realised that effective marketing is less about targeting and reaching the right segments and more about recognising that there are voices demanding recognition. It is about recognising that it’s not just competitors, but also consumers that are demanding a share of voice.

Numan says, “Younger generations increasingly expect participation, not one-way communication from brands. They want to engage, contribute and feel involved, rather than simply being targeted. Co-creation will only work when brands are genuinely willing to give up some control and listen.”

Jreissati adds, “Audiences expect brands to listen, respond and engage in social-first, culturally relevant ways. Younger audiences – such as Gen Z and Gen Alpha – want to participate and co-create, while older audiences value familiarity and trust, particularly when nostalgia is celebrated, not manufactured. The opportunity for brands is to connect these behaviours across channels, creating consistent human experiences wherever people choose to engage. In 2026, I expect more participatory and community-led campaigns rooted in partnership and action rather than traditional passive messaging.”

O’Hara advises, “Brands that succeed will balance both – honouring heritage through nostalgia for older audiences while inviting younger ones in to peek behind the curtain, understand it and reshape it, without becoming hollow or performative.”

Leaders also caution that the clear lines of generational marketing will blur in 2026 as cross-generational consumption grows rapidly. While leaning into nostalgia and co-creation, they also warn against over-indexing on generational strategies.

El Sherbini explains, “The influence of younger generations – through music, television commercials, cartoons, formats, language and digital culture – increasingly shapes what older audiences watch, listen to and share. On the other hand, older generations remain deeply emotionally connected to traditions, iconic music, classic movies, familiar activities and shared cultural moments. These elements carry trust, nostalgia and emotional weight that younger generations respect – and associate with, when shared and explained to them correctly.”

Addressing generational stereotypes, Najarian adds, “The phrase ‘Gen Z wants authenticity’ has become a cliché that explains nothing and excuses weak strategy. Many brands assumed Gen Z would be mini-millennials. They were wrong. Now the same mistake is happening with Gen Alpha: treating them as mini-Gen Z when the data shows they’re fundamentally different: more device-agnostic, more in real life (IRL)-oriented, shaped by pandemic childhoods and millennial parenting. This is a structural change, not a generational one. Co-creation isn’t a ‘Gen Z thing’ – it’s a call for a participation economy.”

She adds, “What works is cultural specificity – genuine understanding of what a reference means to a particular community. That requires research, taste and restraint. Most marketing teams have the budget for none of those. The opportunity is for brands willing to be genuinely distinctive rather than generationally performative.”

Haber concludes the conversation, saying: “For us as marketers, the shift is from storytelling to story-building. It means designing platforms, not just messages; inviting collaboration, not just attention. The brands that resonate in 2026 will be the ones confident enough to hand over the brush and let their communities paint with them.”

All in all, client-side marketers and industry leaders predict that 2026 will be a year where the mechanics of marketing – AI systems, data strategies and experimentation frameworks – will matter enormously, but only as part of a wider discipline that is centred on all people.

The real differentiators will be trust, co-creation and being emotionally resonant with all segments of society – rather than an over-reliance or over-investment on tools.

If marketers are trying to distance themselves from the noise in the industry, then they have to start disassociating and differentiating themselves from public loudspeaker brands. Marketing in 2026 will be less about building decks and disseminating a message and more about inviting consumers into the strategy majlis to partake in therapeutic conversations that uncover real problems and co-create real solutions.

In a year defined by powerful technology and equally powerful distrust, brands that win will be those that are brave enough to be transparent, disciplined enough to be respectful, and confident enough to invite their communities to help write what comes next.