As marketers across the Middle East navigate the pressure to deliver immediate results while building brand, a key question continues to divide the industry: is regional marketing truly brand-led, or has it become overly campaign-led?
For some, the region remains trapped in a loop of short-term activations, seasonal moments and performance-driven tactics that prioritise immediate results over lasting brand equity. Others argue that brands across the region are becoming increasingly strategic, using campaigns as vehicles to reinforce broader brand platforms, purpose and cultural relevance.
Campaign Middle East asked industry leaders whether regional marketing today is more brand-led or campaign-led. Here’s what they had to say.
Khaled Akbik
General Manager, Chain Reaction
NO
The industry is currently trapped in a ‘performance loop,’ prioritising short-term campaign economics over long-term brand equity. While ‘revenue pulses’ satisfy impatient investor expectations, they offer diminishing returns. By neglecting brand-building and innovation, companies drive up their future cost per actions (CPAs); they are essentially paying a tax for lack of brand awareness. True growth lies in the 60/40 balance: using brand-building to influence the 95 per cent of out-of-market buyers so that short-term activations actually convert at lower costs. Short-termism might buy sales today, but it’s a high-interest loan against the brand’s future loyalty.
Irem Narmanli
Senior Marketing Director, Middle East Region, The Coca-Cola Company
YES
At Coke, our regional marketing is unapologetically led by the brand. We build enduring cultural platforms rather than isolated and temporary campaigns. Think of permanent brand assets like Coke Studio or our historic FIFA partnerships. With our powerhouse frontline team including human insights, creatives, media, and experiences, our goal in the Middle East is to take a globally coherent brand and make it deeply, locally relevant. Campaigns are simply the rhythmic pulses that activate our core brand purpose. Whether activating a local music season or a major football tournament, campaigns come and go, but the master brand remains our permanent North Star.
Philip Dodwell
Director – Integrated Planning, Magna Global MENA
NO
Despite brand-led ambitions, regional marketing remains predominantly campaign-led, and that’s a problem. Seasonal hooks and tactical moments tempt marketers as convenient shortcuts to relevance, but that relevance is borrowed, not owned. Over-reliance on it leaves brands drowning in a sea of sameness. When campaign calendars take precedence over a consistent brand narrative, the trade-off is long-term equity for temporary noise. True effectiveness requires more than a series of disconnected moments, even when they perform well individually. Marketers are comfortable analysing past campaign performance, but must foreground whether those campaigns cohesively built the foundations for the future performance of the brand.
Rami Hawa
Business Director, HuManagement
NO
A few years ago, the answer might have been different. But today, our region is definitely more campaign-led. Think of brand-led ideas that truly stuck with people: L’Oréal’s ‘Because you’re worth it’, McDonald’s ‘I’m lovin’ it’, or Coca-Cola’s ‘Taste the Feeling’. These were not just campaigns; they became part of culture and built long-term emotional connections. Today, many brands focus on emotional moments built around seasonal bursts: Ramadan, Mother’s Day, Christmas, New Year and Eid. These involve tight timelines, seasonal campaigns, quick launches and going live before competitors do. The intention exists, but without a consistent brand platform, impact can become short-lived. That said, the region is slowly moving back to brand-led thinking.
Hiba Momani
Managing Director, Hills Advertising
NO
The region has largely been campaign led, driven by short-term cycles and tactical planning. What’s starting to shift is not just how campaigns are executed, but how platforms themselves are being built. In OOH, we’re seeing a move from isolated placements toward more structured networks that operate at scale. When that happens, the role of brand changes. It becomes less about a single campaign moment, and more about how presence is built over time – through consistency, repetition, and coverage. So, while the market may still behave in a campaign-led way, the foundations are increasingly being built for brand.
Firas Kais Alzubaidi
Executive Director of Strategic Development, ICON MarCom Group
NO
The region is becoming more brand-conscious, but let’s not confuse activity with maturity. Much of the market is still campaign-governed, planned around launches, seasons, offers, content calendars, and performance dashboards. Brand, in many rooms, is still treated as a logo guideline with better lighting or a section in a dead pitch presentation. A truly brand-led business uses positioning, customer insight, distinctive assets, and behavioural consistency to govern every market expression. The mature players are moving there, especially when leadership sees brand as commercial infrastructure, not marketing decoration; but the wider market still rewards noise faster than equity. That is my two cents on the region’s next maturity gap.
Nihar Anand
Head of Marketing Communications – RAM, Dodge and FIAT, Stellantis Middle East
YES
Regional marketing is brand led. Businesses across the Middle East understand the value of building strong brand perception, rather than relying solely on large campaign moments. Long-term brand building drives trust, familiarity, and relevance, particularly in markets like ours where relationships and reputation carry significant weight. While campaigns remain important, they are most effective when viewed as part of a broader brand strategy, reinforcing identity, values, and cultural relevance rather than acting as standalone moments. The brands that succeed in the region are those that stay culturally connected, visible, and consistently engaged with audiences throughout the year.
Yvie Balbuena
Group Account Director, TBWA\RAAD
YES
The UAE is transitioning from ‘transactional noise’ to ‘institutional legacy’. Historically, the market favoured tactical, high-decibel campaigns measured in 30-day cycles. Today, the rise of ‘national champions’ has shifted the focus toward brand-led strategies. In this region, a brand is a social contract; legacy-building entities must prioritise trust and vision over short-term bursts. We are witnessing the death of the disposable campaign. As architects of national identity, sophisticated marketers now adopt a brand-first hybrid model. Without this foundational north star, tactical efforts become white noise. In 2026, building an emotional moat is the only path to true relevance.
Sophia Boudjemaa
Managing Director, MENA, The Romans
NO
The strongest signal that we are in a campaign-led market is that marketing budgets are still heavily in favour of traditional advertising. But things are shifting. Brands are recognising that shiny billboards on Sheikh Zayed Road or television commercials (TVCs) that aren’t remembered beyond the Cannes jury, on their own, aren’t the answer to successful brand-building. To be truly brand-led and create long-term trust and loyalty, brands need to prioritise earned-first thinking. To participate in culture and show up in the places and conversations where the people buying their products are. There’s still more to do on that front.
Sary Richat
Regional Strategy Director MENA, Mindshare, a WPP Media Brand
NO
It’s predominantly campaign led. High digital adoption and immediate ROI demands prioritise short-term conversions via seasonal pushes, product launches, and lower-funnel tactics. This neglects the crucial primin-stage brand building, which cultivates the biases, influencing 84 per cent of purchases.
While global brands lead more in brand campaigns, local and regional brands struggle to invest in brand, despite supporting studies that correlate brand investment with long-term growth and improved resilience. This strategic change is something we have been implementing with our clients, ensuring there’s enough brand investment to drive their business objectives and long-term growth.
Anam Amin
Head of Marketing, TXT Media
MAYBE
It’s a mix. I think today brand and campaign are becoming harder to separate. In this region, visibility creates credibility very quickly. Being present in the right conversations, partnerships, cultural moments and platforms can directly influence business outcomes, not just perception. At the same time, the market has become far more performance-driven because digital maturity, e-commerce, and platform accountability have accelerated rapidly. So marketers here are balancing two things simultaneously: long-term brand equity and short-term commercial results. The brands doing well today are usually the ones managing to build both at the same time.
Mahmoud Dogheim
General Manager, Kairo
MAYBE
It depends on the client’s objectives and the nature of the brand. We’re lucky that most of our work is with brands that share our belief that strong storytelling is what truly separates brands from one another. People remember and connect with brands that tell inspiring stories, and Ramadan is still the Super Bowl of the season when it comes to brand communication. It’s also no because, due to tighter budgets, many brands are moving toward a more campaign-led approach, especially with AI tools making content production faster and easier. Quick campaigns can work, but strong storytelling is what builds lasting brands.
Piyush Talreja
Account Manager, ComCo Middle East and Africa
NO
Regional marketing is still largely campaign-led because consumer decisions today are far more instant and reactive. People respond quickly to trends, collaborations, limited drops, seasonal moments and culturally relevant conversations happening in real time. Whether it’s a summer special, collaboration or social-first activation, campaigns are driving attention, conversation and purchase behaviour more than ever.
The current market situation has made this even clearer. Brands are under constant pressure to stay visible, adaptive and culturally present, making both short-term and long-term campaigns essential. Strong branding builds recognition over time, but it is campaigns that keep brands culturally alive, constantly remembered and impossible to ignore.
