Opinion Archives - Campaign Middle East

The evolving role of communication agencies from campaigns to stewardship

Shantelle Nagarajan — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 08:15:04 +0000

For organisations across our region, change is rarely a distant possibility. It is part of the environment in which leaders make decisions, teams stay focused, and institutions continue to serve their communities. Over the years, this reality has reshaped the expectations placed on communication agencies. The shift is not from storytelling to strategy, as if […]

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Why Middle East brands must earn belonging, not claim it

Shantelle Nagarajan — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 07:49:10 +0000

There was a time when brands were appreciated simply for making the effort to show up. A Ramadan film, a National Day message, a few local references, a family gathering, a familiar soundtrack, a desert landscape, a skyline or a line in Arabic were often enough to signal that a brand was paying attention to […]

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Why earned media is becoming the new discovery engine

Hiba Faisal — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 07:40:45 +0000

Brand discovery is being rewritten – and the brands paying attention are already benefiting. PRHub.ae’s data shows that 58 per cent of consumers now use AI tools to find brands and products. What makes this especially significant for communications professionals is the source material these systems draw on: earned media appears in over 90 per […]

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IBM’s SVP of Marketing and Comms: “AI is not just a tool; it’s how marketing works”

Anup Oommen — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 06:00:33 +0000

This is not just another article about artificial intelligence (AI) adding to the cacophony of noisy opinions. This is an interview that reframes the conversation that marketers must have around orchestrating a fundamental shift. For much of the past two years, marketers treated AI like a new instrument in the orchestra: useful, exciting and occasionally […]

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A marketer’s confession (updated): Why AI is making me ditch the entire agency model

Shantelle Nagarajan — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 14:23:29 +0000

Last June, I wrote a piece on artificial intelligence (AI) that caused what can only be described as a collective aneurysm in the creative industry. Ad people. Copywriters. Creative directors. Agency founders. They all came for me with a level of fury usually reserved for people who put pineapple on pizza. It sparked a number […]

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MCP: Your best media strategist that doesn’t sleep and doesn’t burn out

Ishwari Khatu — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 11:13:55 +0000

Model Context Protocol (MCP) hasn’t made it into many boardroom conversations yet. That’s exactly the problem. While most marketing leaders are still debating whether to add AI to their workflow, a quieter shift is already underway. AI agents are beginning to talk to each other — reading live campaign data, querying audience platforms, logging decisions […]

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How regional brands are building emotional loyalty beyond points and discounts

Shantelle Nagarajan — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 05:21:29 +0000

For years, loyalty programmes across the region operated on a simple formula: spend more, earn more. Points, vouchers, cashback, and discounts became the currency of customer retention. But in today’s market, where consumers are overwhelmed with choice and increasingly resistant to transactional marketing, that model is rapidly losing its power. Across the Middle East, brands […]

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Is it too late to plan your FIFA World Cup campaign?

Anup Oommen — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 09:53:42 +0000

It’s almost time once again for the greatest show on earth: The FIFA World Cup 2026. With just a few days to go until kick off in Mexico City, it’s still not too late for your brand to capitalise on the upcoming festival of football. This will be the biggest World Cup in history. A […]

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How Arab football is changing fan engagement across the Middle East

Anup Oommen — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 09:52:45 +0000

Excitement around the FIFA World Cup 2026 has been building across the Middle East and North Africa as fans debate their teams’ chances, discuss star players, and prepare to follow the matches. Although the tournament will take place in North America, Mexico and Canada, it feels closer than ever for audiences across the region. This […]

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The human side of influencer marketing

Shantelle Nagarajan — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 09:43:46 +0000

In the years I have spent working in GCC influencer marketing, I have watched the industry get smarter at everything except the one thing that actually matters: building relationships that last. Brands spend months researching creators, optimising briefs, and tracking metrics. Then they are shocked when creators won’t work with them twice. The problem is […]

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