Creating the Future of Marketing in MENA: Fahed Moubarak

Believing in the necessity of shedding light on the marketing gurus and their efforts in changing the marketing scene in the region, the Chief Marketing Officers magazine (CMOs) debuts a series of articles titled: “Creating the Future of Marketing in MENA”, highlighting the region-renowned marketing pioneers who have left a mark on the industry over the past years and we expect more from them in the future.

Let’s start with Fahed Moubarak.

Serial disrupter, Fahed Moubarak has been on the forefront of the ever-evolving Marketing landscape for over two decades. Backed by meticulous data and research, Fahed has been pioneering innovative technological advances in regional Marketing and Advertising across the Media, Real Estate and Entertainment sectors and beyond. His superpower is his innate ability to understand his audience and create localized value.

As an early participant on the MarTech scene, Fahed created the region’s first OOH measurement platform that was readily welcomed by the marketing community. He incorporated cutting-edge, location-intelligent insights to build an audience-based approach to buying and radically changed the way traditional OOH campaigns were being run. Bringing better access to better data, Fahed empowered brands and marketers alike to more closely connect with their consumers. On the back of extensive research and data from over 30 million unique users in the GCC, Fahed designed the proprietary software that was able to plan, measure and analyze static and digital OOH media campaigns – resulting in optimized spends, quicker conversion to sales and improved ROI.

Leveraging his expertise in advertising technology, analytics and data science, Fahed was also the driving force behind the region’s leading mobile advertising network – with over 1 billion monthly direct ad requests targeting over 22 million unique users. Creating a one-stop shop for brands to maximize their mobile marketing strategies across the MENA region, Fahed was instrumental in supporting global names to access local audiences.

More recently, Fahed has been stewarding the programmatic capabilities in the Arab world by ideating and launching an outcome-based solutions platform or marketplace enabling brands, advertisers and agencies to grow audience reach and new demand onboarding capabilities – primarily through interpreting data and operation metrics. This pioneering initiative is expected to uplift the region’s programmatic performance and access.

Harnessing the power of big data and technology has never been more important in creating the future of Marketing in this region – and Egypt, in particular, is a critical piece of that marketing map. With the largest online market in MENA coupled with the fact that the country is the defacto media hub of the Arab world, Egypt has phenomenal potential for growth that is as yet untapped by global actors. Marketers and brands interested in expanding their reach in the Middle East should ideally look to mining the plentiful geo-targeting opportunities available in Egypt – with its diverse socio-demographic profile across its many cities.

Tapping into big data at a local level allows marketers to engineer their strategies and playbooks to not only efficiently monetize their ads but also to create sustainable value by democratizing and ultra-personalizing their messaging.

Ushering in greater reliance on tech-augmented analytics, accurate measurement and localizing ad networks, Fahed has been spearheading MarTech capabilities in the region. His research-driven thought leadership and experience has been consistently providing sharper insights into effective identity marketing – and ultimately ensuring that proverbial bang for every buck spent!