The Middle East’s largest marketing innovation summit, Vibe Marketing Tech Fest, will take place on April 23-24, 2025, in Dubai. This two-day summit will spotlight the most transformative trends shaping the future of martech, ad tech, AI, consumer psychology, and more. 

Attendees can expect programming that offers a guide to navigating an increasingly complex landscape for marketers and brand leaders. Experts will take the stage to share solutions, offer advice via their experiences, and showcase the work that went behind successful campaigns. 

How can marketers keep up with constantly evolving technologies? Richard Shotton, Founder of Astroten, a behavioral science consultancy and author of The Choice Factory and The Illusion of Choice, will deliver the keynote on how human decision-making remains remarkably constant in an evolving technology landscape in his session titled The Enduring Power of Behavioural Science. “Behavioral science can help with almost any challenge. It’s the study of decision-making, and what could be more relevant to marketing? Customers are continually making decisions: Should I buy this? Should I click here? Should I sign up? Understanding what actually drives these decisions is key to shaping them,” said Shotton.

A panel of experts takes on the long-debated question of how to strike a balance between performance and brand building. Alexis Jean Baptiste – Chief Data & Analytics Officer at L’Oréal, Alyza Beg – Group Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group, and Sevgi Gur – Chief Marketing Officer at Property Finder join Sharad VK – Marketing Director at Century Financial in conversation. 

Retention is a global marketing priority and a conversation that lends itself to discourse on both sides: what makes customers leave, and what helps them stay loyal to a brand. Omais Waiz – Performance Marketing Director at MultiBank Group, shares how to reduce churn and create habit-forming apps that integrate with users’ lives, Marwen Ben Messaoud – Head of Growth Middle East, Africa and South Asia at Spotify, will talk about what makes the brand’s subscription strategy a hit with 252M+ premium subscribers globally as of 2024. Aleksandar Derbogosijan – Creative Director & Brand Architect at InstaShop, discusses how to deliver sustained engagement via behavior-driven content and personalization strategies. 

How can marketers prepare for the GenAI revolution? Tune in to the panel discussion, which will see James Dutton – Chief Product Officer at UM MENAT, Haris Khan – Vice President of Growth at Rain, Nandakumar Vijayan – Global Director, Marketing & Communications at LuLu Group International, Roxana Nicolescu – Vice President of Brand Marketing & Social Media at Wego in conversation with Khadija Huseynova – Director of Communications and Content at Global Hotel Alliance. 

The 2025 program also delves into current themes like the decline of consumer trust, especially in the privacy-first era. Matthew Horobin – Associate Director of Customer Experience at Modon Holdings will explore how to eliminate bias from customer feedback and get users to opt-in to sharing data to create richer experiences. “A key dynamic that will shape the consumer market and brandscape in 2025 will be trust. In a world where the truth is an increasingly flexible and subjective concept, consumers will look for anchor experiences and interactions they can depend on. Meanwhile, the customer’s willingness to share in return will be hesitant as they worry about how these truths will be treated by the brand or business in question,” said Horobin.

This year’s VMF agenda showcases brands that are leaders in their verticals. Rishi Gupta – Regional Director: Middle East & Africa at Nothing, shares his brand’s disruptive story of taking on mobile industry giants. Olena Lemeshko – Vice President, Brand & Customer Experience at Starbucks MENA, Alshaya Group will address a big priority for brands as they design brand experiences that appeal to Gen Z. 

Technology partners Adjust, Braze, Emplifi, Kochava, Sitecore, and The Trade Desk join as Gold sponsors, and Adwake, Bloomreach, Lemnisk, and Epsilon join as Silver sponsors to support the summit. 

Attendance at the Vibe Marketing Tech Fest is by invitation only. Delegates can register here to receive their exclusive invite.