TBWA\RAAD hosted the inaugural edition of BETA, an innovation event series designed to cut through the AI noise and equip brand leaders with the frameworks, tools, and thinking they need to compete in a rapidly shifting marketing landscape.
The half-day gathering brought together CMOs, CEOs, and senior marketers from across the region alongside speakers from TBWA\RAAD, Omnicom Advertising, Google and Flywheel Commerce Network. The event explored five interconnected themes: AI and creativity, cultural strategy, YouTube effectiveness, connected marketing intelligence and the future of commerce.
The event opened with Noah Khan, Chief Innovation Officer at Omnicom Advertising CEE & AME, who delivered an overview of where the AI landscape actually stands, beyond the hype cycles and vendor pitches.
Khan’s session drew on data that showed that 83 per cent of ad executives now deploy AI in the creative process which has gone up from 60 per cent just a year ago, and yet 95 per cent of GenAI pilots in organisations have generated zero measurable P&L impact. He emphasised that AI adoption was now minimum requirement in the market and not a competitive advantage.
While Khan focused on the more strategic aspects of the AI, Catherine Bannister, Chief Strategy Officer, and Astha Sirpaul, Head of Strategy at TBWA\RAAD took a look at the more creative usage and the more human aspect of AI.
They shared that AI become a deeply personal presence in daily life, with 73 per cent of AI usage now comprising personal conversations, the world is searching for evidence of aliveness, authenticity and genuine human effort.
Ali Cheikhali, Creative Strategy and Innovation Lead at Google, opened with a big number: $47.8bn. That’s how global media efficiency is lost every year by brands failing to tailor creative for digital environments.
His session laid out the case for creative quality and variety as the primary growth lever in an “outcome-based marketing” era where platform algorithms handle media optimisation seamlessly. Ali also emphasised on the need for different creatives and campaigns that cater to the brands’ different objectives.
Further on, Rony Skaf, Head of Digital and Innovation at TBWA\RAAD, and Sirpaul presented a demonstration of OMNI, Omnicom’s proprietary intelligent growth platform.
The morning closed out with insights from Sulagna Kapoor, Senior Director at Flywheel Commerce Network, who mapped the convergence of media, retail, and performance marketing into what the industry is calling Connected Commerce. Kapoor presented case studies featuring Pepsi demonstrating how integrated full-funnel commerce strategies combining retail media, audience intelligence, digital shelf management and AI-enabled optimisation are delivering measurable sales results.
The event ended with a performance from Zaki, TBWA\RAAD’s AI-powered robot, who served as the event’s host throoughout the day – introducing presenters, guiding sessions and setting the tone of future for the event.
According to the agency, the name of the event BETA is rooted in its belief that the most resilient brands and agencies are never finished, always iterating, always reinventing, never too comfortable with the status quo to ask what comes next.
“We say we are always in BETA”, said Reda Raad, Group CEO of TBWA\RAAD. “That is not a metaphor. It is how we work. This event is an extension of that mindset, a space where we bring our clients into the process of thinking, questioning, and building what’s next together. The brands that will win are the ones who treat today as a permanent prototype.”
The agency said that they would return with further editions of the event in the future.
