Title: CEO, Hypermedia
Years in the role: 1 year
Years in the industry: 26 years
Years in the Middle East region: 35 years
Other roles / board memberships: IAB board member
Power Essay: The new DNA of OOH
Most cities build billboards. Dubai builds intelligence.
For decades, outdoor media was a one-way performance. Big screens, big budgets, big statements, but no idea who was watching. Impressive in scale, yet far from intelligent.
Now, the rules have changed. We’ve built a media network that doesn’t just broadcast, it responds. It understands. It engages. This isn’t a design tweak. It’s a shift in the DNA of Out-of-Home (OOH).
Across Dubai’s Metro, its busiest malls, and its largest hypermarkets, Hypermedia’s network is no longer just playing ads. It’s aware of who is there, when they’re there, and how to make the moment relevant, all in real time, with privacy built into the core. What used to be a loop of pre-scheduled messages is now a living, breathing system, adjusting in milliseconds to the people in front of it.
For the first time, programmatic real-time, audience-triggered DOOH is giving cities a media-led nervous system. This AI-driven platform captures live audience patterns the instant they happen, feeds that intelligence into an automated exchange, and serves the most relevant creative in the exact moment it matters. It blends the precision of digital with the impact of physical space, transforming high-traffic locations into responsive, measurable and profitable assets.
Picture this: a station screen that knows the morning rush is peaking and swaps the generic loop for a coffee ad right when commuters are dragging their feet. A shopping mall display that catches the moment a parent with two kids strolls past and flashes a family holiday deal. A fashion launch hitting its audience not by luck, but by design. That’s not targeting, that’s timing. And timing is everything.
Here’s the real disruption: we’re not guessing. We’re not working off your search history or last week’s clicks. We’re responding to what’s actually happening, right here, right now.
This flips the whole concept of OOH. Instead of shouting at everyone in range, we’re having thousands of quiet, relevant conversations at once. And this isn’t just for brands. When media becomes responsive, cities themselves become more intelligent. A metro station that knows its passenger flow can ease congestion. A retail hub that understands shopper patterns can improve the customer journey.
We are, in real terms, wiring the city to sense and respond.
This is where Dubai’s vision matters. The city has never treated infrastructure as fixed. Roads, towers, transport, public spaces, they’re all in permanent evolution. Our media network is built into that same mindset. It’s not just part of the skyline; it’s part of the system that makes the city work.
Dubai has never been shy about reimagining its skyline. Now we’re reimagining its media lines.
Looking ahead, the line between ‘media network’ and ‘urban network’ will fade. What we call advertising today will merge with public information, retail experience and entertainment. The same screen that tells you about a movie release might guide you to the fastest Metro route home, and then switch to a dinner offer as you arrive at the station.
That’s not the far future. That’s the next upgrade.
Highlight of the last year
Since co-founding Hypermedia in 1999, Philip Matta has helped shape it into one of the UAE’s pioneering OOH digital media companies. Over the past year, he drove the transformation into the region’s first real-time programmatic DOOH network across Dubai Metro, malls, and hypermarkets, setting new standards for audience engagement. He also unveiled a new iconic media destination for luxury advertising at Palm Jumeirah and other key destinations across the UAE.
Rapid fire
What the industry needs to talk more about:
Real-time accountability.
What the industry needs to talk less about:
Vanity metrics.
If you could change one thing in the blink of an eye, you would …
More positivity.
What’s one thing about you that would surprise your team?
Precision, control, speed and coordination on track sharpens the senses and the mind.
What mobile application can you not live without?
WhatsApp.
What word / phrase do people remember you for using the most?
“Anything can be done/achieved with the right mindset.”
What’s one local / regional tradition that you love the most?
Progressiveness and respect.
If you could choose any two people, currently alive, in the world to share a meal with you, who would it be?
Elon Musk and Lewis Hamilton.
What’s your top word of advice for Gen Z and Gen Alpha?
Stay curious and think out of the box.
What’s your go-to comfort food?
Sushi.
What’s your favourite ad from the past 12 months?
Apple’s ‘Shot on iPhone’.
