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posted on Aug. 11, 2025 at 1:00 pmAug 11, 2025

Stacked, stuck and scrolling: Why the MENA marketing playbook needs a rewrite

posted on Aug. 11, 2025 at 1:00 pmAug 11, 2025

NAAS Digital's Saad Muhammed Bhatti explains how marketing in the Middle East is being reshaped by AI, by integration and by innovation.

NAAS Digital's Saad Muhammed Bhatti explains how marketing in the Middle East is being reshaped by AI, by integration and by innovation.

Saad Muhammed Bhatti, Founder, NAAS Digital

The Middle East marketing landscape is at a turning point. With Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) poised to redefine how people discover information online, marketers in the MENA region are no longer optimising for keywords alone — they’re now competing to become the cited source within AI-generated summaries.

This emerging shift demands a new mindset: Generative engine optimisation (GEO). In this future, only brands producing deeply authoritative, structured, and multilingual content, especially in Arabic — will earn visibility.

Traditional SEO tactics are no longer enough. Authority, clarity and trust will determine who wins the AI citation race.

Yet while AI pushe

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Tags:Advertising AI Artificial Intelligence Campaigns Engagement generative engine optimisation GEO innovation marketing MENA middle east and north africa Performance scrolling SEO stacked Stuck teams visibility

the authorAnup Oommen

Anup Oommen is the Editor of Campaign Middle East at Motivate Media Group, a well-reputed moderator, and a multiple award-winning journalist with more than 15 years of experience at some of the most reputable and credible global news organisations, including Reuters, CNN, and Motivate Media Group. As the Editor of Campaign Middle East, Anup heads market-leading coverage of advertising, media, marketing, PR, events and experiential, digital, the wider creative industries, and more, through the brand’s digital, print, events, directories, podcast and video verticals. As such he’s a key stakeholder in the Campaign Global brand, the world’s leading authority for the advertising, marketing and media industries, which was first published in the UK in 1968.