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Day 1 at VMF: Brand as a Performance-Multiplier

By Anushka Pandit

Feauture image VMF

In case you missed it, VMF packed quite a punch with debates, demos and disruptive stories of change. Here is a quick look.

The 16th edition of the Vibe Marketing Tech Fest is underway in Dubai. Watch this space as the VMF team shares highlights from the summit. 

It’s an exciting time to be a marketer—which was just the vibe on day one of the Vibe Marketing Technology Fest in Dubai. KPIs are changing, the marketing-AI duo is now a tag team, and marketers are jumping into the wilderness that is human psychology to craft and shape their ad campaigns.

Held at the Hilton Dubai Palm Jumeirah, UAE, the conference was packed with marketing professionals, C-suites, decision-makers, and thought leaders.

In case you missed it, here’s a quick recap of the conversations;

The Growth Dilemma: Immediate ROI vs. Future Success

Marketers today are stuck between generating ROI on the one hand and building brand reputation on the other. In the meantime, budget constraints aren’t going anywhere. With tight budgets and tighter timelines, how can marketers choose between investing in present growth for the business and fuelling long-term returns? They should not—they should balance both, or risk falling flat. 

In the panel discussion Performance vs. Brand Building: How to Strike the Right Balance, experts Alyza Beg, Group Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group, Haris Javed, Global Director of Marketing – Careem Rides at Careem, Sevgi Gur, Chief Marketing Officer at Property Finder, and Sharad VK,  Marketing Director at Century Financial took the stage to offer insights into overcoming the short term vs. long term hurdle and driving sustainable marketing success.

“The moment we start building a brand like a performance-multiplier and not a cost centre—even if that means stepping away from traditional metrics—you will get leadership buy-in,” said Javed, emphasising how this helps step away from having to choose between short and long term growth goals. 

Beg said this is “not a dichotomy,” but about striking a balance between both. “If you have a good long-term vision, short-term goals will give us better impact. The key things to keep in mind are brand strategy, product differentiation, anticipating your audience’s needs opposed to simply being reactive, and letting data be the decision-driver,” she added.

“Something we often underestimate the importance of is ‘what does the brand stand for?’ Before measuring anything, you must ask yourself how your brand is different from competitors. What’s difficult is then sticking to this definition in the long-term,” said Gur. “Then you measure whether customers are seeing what you want them to see—this value makes you a brand, without which you are just a product,” she added.

Marketers Must Think Like Behavioural Scientists

Marketers study all kinds of customers and observe a range of behaviours, some of which make sense, and some simply don’t. What helps marketers get meaning out of irrational behaviour is the science of human behaviour. By tapping into how people actually think, feel, and decide—not how they say they do—marketers can design smarter campaigns that subtly steer choices and boost conversions.

In fact, simple nudges can boost conversion rates by up to 15%. Richard Shotton, Best-Selling Author & Behavioral Marketing Expert and Founder at

Astroten, presented an awakening keynote on The Enduring Power of Behavioural Science, taking the attendees through the wonders behavioural insights can bring to campaigns.

“When people make decisions, they don’t make them as individuals—they are deeply influenced by what others are doing. So our core task as a marketer is – whatever product you want to sell or behaviour you want to encourage, you make it look like it’s popular – it will become more appealing,” said Shotton.

In his  interactive session, Hacking the Human Mind: How to Give Your Marketing a Behavioural Science Superboost, Shotton also delved into the behavioural biases that shape consumer behaviour, and how marketers can apply these insights to drive real engagement. 

Shotton expanded on behavioural science, saying that “it is the study of how people actually behave and what actually influences them, rather than what they claim influences them,” which are two very different things, he added.

The Marketer-AI Tag Team

AI has become the pocket tool for marketers,  but the concern remains: marketers fear losing the human touch in their campaigns and other customer-facing communications, and rightly so. Customers tend to abandon brands whose communication feels unauthentic or robotic. The human vs. machine debate is active in all marketing boardrooms. 

In the panel discussion, How Can Marketers Prepare for the GenAI Revolution? Experts Haris Khan, Vice President – Growth at Rain, James Dutton, Chief Product Officer at UM MENAT, Nandakumar Vijayan, Global Director, Marketing & Communications at LuLu Group International, Roxana Nicolescu, Vice President of Brand Marketing & Social Media at Wego, and Khadija Huseynova, Director of Communications and Content at Global Hotel Alliance addressed the challenges facing most marketers today—making the most of AI while maintaining a balance between creativity and automation. 

“In 2025, the marketers’ biggest challenge is fighting the battle against bland AI-powered marketing where brands fight to escape the trap of cookie cutter algorithms where weak prompts lead to weak ideas,” said Dutton.

What’s Now, What’s Next: Navigating the Martech Maze

From best habits for creating sticky apps to crafting the perfect omnichannel strategy, Vibe Marketing Technology presented a bucket of sessions rounding up the “in-trend” of the martech landscape.

Rishi Gupta, Regional Director – Middle East & Africa at Nothing took the stage to talk about how Nothing redefined visual branding using bold design, immersive content, and a distinct aesthetic to capture global audiences. “There is a fine line between a good and a great product – which lies at the intersection of human warmth and technical warmth,” said Rishi. 

Delving into visual branding, he added, “Our product launch last year was for a product designed by a community. From marketing and packaging to visual content like product design and colour—everything was designed by the community, which we then developed and commercialised,” explaining how an open and transparent culture with envisioning community as team members has aided Nothing’s growth.

Omais Waiz, Performance Marketing Director at MultiBank Group spoke about nurturing long-term app retention, and driving consistent revenue from mobile apps. 

Explaining that ‘trigger’ is the entry point to habitual behaviour, Waiz said, “When you create content, context is important. For example, when you are hungry and a food app gives you a push notification at that time.” Actions, he continued, should require minimal effort. “If the app knows the customer’s preference, the customer can easily continue their journey by landing on the relevant page from the ad.” 

Shedding light on the creative conundrum, Will Snow, Associate Director Digital Technologies at Yum! Brands examined whether AI serves as a powerful tool to augment creative expression or challenges the irreplaceable role of human imagination. 

Breaking down the basics of prompt engineering for AI models, Snow said the ideal prompt should consist of “a subject, a scene, composition, lighting, style, and an angle.” Displaying a prompt and the generated result, he said, “It’s not what I wanted—that’s the thing with AI–it won’t always give you exactly what you want. Often, you need a creative artist to help you. That’s why humans are still doing 80% of the thinking, the doing, the steering—AI is the tool.”

With another prompt that did generate a satisfying result in the form of a brand product ad, he said that it was achieved “without a camera and a crew, and just an idea and AI—but it still needed storytelling and brand essence.”

In a tech talk on navigating the future of media, Yasmine Al Turk, Advanced DOOH & Digital Supply Lead at GroupM Nexus, Joshua Mathias, Head of Media & Digital Middle East & Africa at Huawei Consumer Business Group, and Ashnee Thacker, Associate Account Director at The Trade Desk shared key insights on how brands can harness the power of multiple touchpoints, integrating online and offline media seamlessly to achieve measurable success.

Martech Innovation on Display

Beyond the big ideas and trend forecasts, tech talks at the conference offered a glimpse into how brands are putting martech to work in the real world.  With less theory and more proof, these brands highlighted how the right mix of technology and creativity can turn bold strategies into measurable success.

Heba Al Nabulsi, Account Technology Strategist at Emplifi  emphasised in her session that traditional social media metrics don’t tell the full story, and that a unified approach to analytics is essential. Another session with a focus on AI was presented by Orlando Beakbane, Principal Customer Success Manager, Enterprise at Braze, who expressed that in the age of AI, what truly stands out is humanity in action!

Sanjay Raturi, Sales Lead EMEA at AppsFlyer equipped the attendees with fresh ideas and hands-on strategies to elevate their app’s performance. Leaning into channel integration, Charles F Manning, Chief Executive Officer & President at Kochava, delved into the powerful convergence of mobile, connected TV (CTV), and digital out-of-home (DOOH) media, revealing how these channels can work in harmony to deliver a seamless and impactful customer experience. 

“We no longer live in a one-device-to-one-user world. Consumers have multiple connected devices across mobile, tablet, CTV, web, and beyond. To fully understand the user journey and path to purchase/conversion, you need a cross-platform measurement strategy,” said Manning.

Speaking of driving growth, Riyad Khalil, Director – Middle East and North Africa at Adjust, explored data-driven approaches to enhance engagement, optimise campaigns, and drive measurable success in a competitive landscape. 

“The biggest shift we’re witnessing is the move toward privacy-first marketing while maintaining performance efficiency,” said Khalil. 

“As regulatory changes evolve and user expectations around data privacy grow, marketers need to rethink attribution, measurement, and engagement strategies. At Adjust, we’re pioneering privacy-centric measurement solutions, leveraging SKAN, Privacy Sandbox, and AI-driven insights to ensure advertisers can make informed decisions without compromising user privacy. Our focus is on incrementality measurement and predictive analytics, helping brands drive sustainable growth in the next generation of attribution and analytics,” he added.

Come back tomorrow for more. Day 2 of VMF will celebrate brands like Spotify, Kia, Storytel, Landmark Group, Careem, Alshaya Group, and more by learning about work behind the scenes that drives their winning campaigns. To see the full agenda, click here.

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