I’ve been watching B2B marketing in the UAE and Saudi Arabia evolve for years, but something fundamentally different is happening right now. Every UAE CMO surveyed believes AI will help them reach revenue targets this year (85 per cent in KSA agree). But here’s the paradox. When every brand can produce hundreds of pieces of content at the click of a button, competitive advantage doesn’t come from volume. It comes from credibility.
The brands breaking through in 2025 aren’t the ones with the biggest budgets. They are the ones using AI for speed and scale, while building credibility through authentic voices and real-time participation in conversations that matter. LinkedIn’s latest survey of 500 B2B marketers across the UAE and KSA confirms what the smartest regional leaders already know: the marketing power centre has shifted to trusted networks, and there’s no going back.
The network effect
Brand channels are no longer the primary source of truth. Networks are.
When professionals need advice at work, they turn first to their professional networks, ahead of family, friends, search engines, or any other tool. LinkedIn posts are up 41 per cent over three years as professionals increasingly look to their networks for daily guidance. If your brand isn’t present in those network conversations, you’re not present where decisions are actually being made.
Regional CMOs are leaning into this shift. Nearly all UAE and KSA CMOs are prioritising community-driven content from creators, experts, and employees over traditional promotional messaging. Employee voices matter just as much as customer and partner voices, with about half of marketers in both markets recognising employee power.
This becomes especially critical as buying committees get younger. Nearly every CMO in both UAE and KSA says trusted creators are now essential for earning credibility with younger buyers.
This brings us to the bigger question, if networks control the conversation, what role do brands actually play?
From broadcasting to belonging
The old playbook was about control: control the message, control the timing, control the distribution. The new playbook is about sparking dialogue and participation. CMOs are building brands that show up where conversations are already happening and meeting their audience where they are.
Nearly nine in ten marketers in UAE and KSA now say listening to ongoing conversations online is just as important as promoting brand messages. And the vast majority report that their most effective brand moments don’t come from broadcasting messages; they come from sparking conversations that drive engagement.
I saw this shift play out with RAKTDA’s Summer Unscripted campaign earlier this year. Instead of typical polished tourism footage, they deliberately embraced imperfection with unscripted moments and real people having messy, funny, authentic experiences. The campaign sparked a conversation about how people actually experience travel, and it resonated because it felt real.
And what I’ve seen in this campaign and others is the importance of video. Nearly nine in ten UAE marketers and even more in KSA say video is the “the new language of the internet”. They are also anticipating that video content marketing will be their biggest shift ahead.
Utilising video to create timely campaigns requires a different organisational muscle. Slow decision making is seen as preventing brands from inserting themselves into cultural moments. To win, brands need agility: using AI for speed while leading with credible human voices.
This is where the most sophisticated Middle East B2B marketers are pulling ahead. They’re using AI to scale production and identify opportunities. But when they engage, it’s real people driving the conversation: customer testimonials instead of AI-generated copy, employee expertise instead of automated messaging, and C-suite thought leadership enhanced by AI, not written by it. They’ve cracked the code: participation requires both speed and soul.
But credibility must drive measurable outcomes
CMOs know the future is about communities, conversations, and authentic voices enhanced by AI. But they’re being asked to justify marketing spend monthly to the C-suite and prove that long term brand building delivers short-term performance.
This is where a well-designed full-funnel strategy becomes essential. The top brands in the region are showing that you don’t have to choose between brand and performance. By treating awareness, consideration, and conversion as part of one connected recipe, they’re drastically improving lead volume, quality, and cost efficiency all at once. Video ads and thought leadership spark curiosity at the top. Retargeting and deeper resources nurture engaged prospects in the middle. Lead gen forms and precise targeting convert high-intent buyers at the bottom.
With B2B buying cycles only getting longer, 87 per cent of global B2B marketers say it’s getting harder to measure the long-term impact of their work. Traditional attribution models can miss the full picture, especially when influence is distributed across networks.
The smartest regional marketers are building measurement frameworks that capture impact across the entire funnel: brand lift and share of voice feeding into engagement quality and audience growth, ultimately driving qualified leads with lower CPL that map directly to revenue. Test, optimise, and serve up exactly what the C-suite wants to see
So, what does this actually look like in practice? Let me break it down.
The updated playbook for UAE and KSA B2B marketers
Rule 1: Communities over campaigns. Stop thinking in campaign cycles and start building ongoing conversations.
Rule 2: Speed meets soul. Use AI to move faster but ensure human voices lead every touchpoint.
Rule 3: Video is your native language. If you’re not speaking it fluently, you’re not being heard.
Rule 4: Real-time beats perfect timing. Join conversations as they happen rather than waiting for polished launches.
Your next great idea is…
We’re witnessing a fundamental restructuring of where power lives in B2B marketing. Brand channels are no longer the centre of gravity, networks are. Promotional messages no longer break through, authentic voices do. The brands that will define the next era are turning employees into advocates, customers into storytellers, and C-suite leaders into thought leaders.
Success in 2025 won’t be measured by campaign reach or content volume. It will be measured by the strength of the communities you build and the quality of conversations you spark. In the Middle East B2B landscape, participation is the new promotion.
And your next great idea? It’s probably already happening in the comments. You just need to show up and join the conversation.
By Jessica Machalani, Regional Head of LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, MENA
