Key takeaways
- Great marketing starts with a clear objective, an understanding of the audience, and a well-defined strategy
- Successful campaigns connect consumer insights with creative execution
- Analysing marketing requires looking beyond aesthetics and virality to understand the objectives behind a campaign
- AI can accelerate marketing execution, but strategic judgement and human understanding remain essential
- Becoming a better marketer starts with questioning the marketing we see every day
We’re Surrounded by Marketing, but How Much Do We Actually Understand?
Think about the last time you came across a marketing campaign that caught your attention, whether it was a catchy advertisement you couldn’t stop watching or the brand collaboration that appeared EVERYWHERE on your social media feed.
One example that comes to mind is Dubai’s now-famous chocolate phenomenon, where what started as a pistachio chocolate bar ended up becoming a viral sensation, all from a TikTok video that went viral.
But what made people so interested? Was it the unusual combination of flavours, the curiosity because it wasn’t available everywhere, or an entirely different thing? There’s a lot more to learn from a product like this than just recognising that it went viral, which brings me to something I find particularly interesting about marketing: the WHY behind what we see.
1. The Difference Between Doing Marketing and Understanding Marketing
We encounter marketing almost everywhere, with brands launching products, following trends, experimenting with different formats, collaborating with influencers, and finding new ways to reach their audiences. It’s easy to recognise these activities because they’re the visible part of marketing. But understanding why a brand chooses to do something requires a different way of thinking.
Consider the difference between creating an Instagram post and understanding why Instagram is the right platform for a particular audience. One is an executional activity; the other requires strategic thinking. The same applies to jumping on a trending sound, launching an influencer collaboration or organising a brand activation. Each decision should have a purpose that connects to the bigger picture.
This is something I believe marketers should pay more attention to. A campaign can be visually impressive, entertaining or even viral, but those qualities alone don’t tell us whether it achieved what the brand intended.
To understand marketing, we need to look beyond the creative and start questioning the decisions that brought it to life.
2. Strategy: The Thinking Behind Every Successful Campaign
So, what actually makes a marketing strategy? At its core, marketing strategy provides direction. It connects what a business wants to achieve with the people it wants to reach and the approach it takes to communicate with them.
Before deciding what a campaign should look like, marketers need to understand a few fundamental things.
- The objective: What does the business want to achieve? Is the focus on increasing brand awareness, introducing a new product, generating leads, strengthening customer loyalty or driving sales?
- The audience: Who are we trying to reach? Understanding an audience involves looking beyond basic demographics and considering their behaviours, interests, needs and motivations.
- The insight: What do we understand about our audience that can influence our approach? A meaningful consumer insight can uncover an unmet need, a purchasing barrier or a behaviour that a brand can respond to.
- The positioning: What makes the brand relevant and different? The campaign should reflect the identity, values and place the brand wants to occupy in the minds of consumers.
- The execution: How can we communicate the message effectively? This is where creative concepts, platforms, collaborations and other marketing activities come into play.
- The measurement: How will we know whether the campaign worked? The metrics we choose should connect to the original objective.
These considerations help distinguish between strategy and tactics. Choosing Instagram as a marketing channel is a tactical decision, but understanding why Instagram is suitable for a particular audience, message and objective is strategic thinking.
3. When Brand Strategy Becomes Creative Execution
One campaign I particularly enjoyed exploring was The Ordinary’s Markup Marché, which showed how a brand can turn its positioning into a creative experience. The Ordinary is known for building an identity around ingredient transparency and scientific formulations; rather than just saying their values, the brand decided to challenge the beauty industry’s marketing practices in a more unconventional way.
In May 2026, The Ordinary introduced a supermarket-style experience across six cities, where every day grocery items were presented as extravagant beauty products. Whether it was an ordinary avocado that was $305.50 or a banana that somehow became an “All-Natural Magical Energy-Boosting Bar”, the concept was simple: take every day products, introduce exaggerated beauty-style descriptions and packaging, and demonstrate how marketing language can influence our perception of value.
A campaign doesn’t need to be complicated to be effective.
But what makes this campaign particularly interesting from a strategic perspective?
- First, brand positioning. The campaign directly connects to The Ordinary’s existing identity. The brand has consistently emphasised ingredient transparency and challenged unnecessary complexity in skincare marketing. The Markup Marché gave consumers another way to experience that philosophy.
- Second, consumer psychology. The activation encouraged people to question how language, packaging and perceived exclusivity can influence purchasing decisions. Would we really consider an ordinary avocado worth hundreds of dollars simply because it had been given an impressive name and presented differently?
- Third, creative execution. The brand took an abstract marketing discussion and transformed it into something tangible. Instead of asking consumers to read another advertisement about inflated beauty pricing, it created an experience that allowed them to see the concept for themselves.
A campaign doesn’t need to be complicated to be effective. Sometimes the strongest ideas come from taking something a brand already believes in and finding an interesting way to communicate it. The lesson here is that creative execution becomes much more meaningful when it has a clear strategic foundation.
4. From Consumer Insights to Campaigns That Drive Action
While The Ordinary demonstrates how brand positioning can influence creative direction, GymNation offers another interesting example of how consumer research can translate into measurable marketing activity.
In September 2026, GymNation launched its In Case of Overpriced Membership, Break Glass activation across Dubai, Riyadh, Jeddah and Bahrain. The campaign featured emergency-style glass boxes containing complimentary three-day gym trial passes. Each installation included a QR code that allowed passers-by to claim their free trial.
What makes this campaign particularly interesting is the research behind the idea. Rather than simply publishing this finding or creating another advertisement promoting affordable memberships, GymNation turned the insight into an experience.
The campaign connected several important strategic decisions:
- Research: Identifying affordability as a barrier to gym membership.
- Consumer insight: Understanding that some people are interested in fitness but are discouraged by membership costs.
- Brand positioning: Reinforcing GymNation’s affordable fitness proposition.
- Creative execution: Using an emergency-style installation to communicate the message in a memorable way.
- Call to action: Making it easy for people to claim a free trial through a QR code.
- Measurement: Connecting the activation to trial claims and membership leads.
What I find most interesting here is that the creative idea came from understanding a genuine consumer barrier. Rather than finding any ordinary way to advertise their gym membership, it was about identifying a problem and finding a way to make the brand’s solution relevant.
This is the value of consumer insights: they help marketers make decisions based on what people actually need, rather than what a brand assumes they want.
5. The Art of Critically Analysing a Marketing Campaign
One thing I want to encourage more marketers to do is become curious about the campaigns they encounter every day. At The Why In Marketing, this is essentially the idea behind what we do. We explore campaigns, break down their creative decisions and look beyond what initially catches our attention.
But how can you actually analyse a marketing campaign? Here’s what we recommend looking at:
- What was the objective? Start by understanding what the brand wanted to achieve. Was it trying to increase awareness, generate sales, introduce a product or strengthen its brand positioning?
- Who was the audience? Consider who the campaign was designed for. Look at their interests, behaviours, needs and motivations. Understanding the audience helps explain why certain creative decisions were made.
- What was the consumer insight? Was there a particular behaviour, challenge or desire that inspired the campaign? Look for the observation that connects the audience to the brand’s idea.
- Why did this approach make sense for the brand? Consider the brand’s identity, values and positioning. Does the campaign reinforce what the brand wants to be known for?
- Why was this particular execution chosen? Look at the creative concept, platforms, timing, collaborations and customer experience. Could the brand have communicated the message differently? Why might it have chosen this approach?
- How would we measure success? Finally, consider what evidence would demonstrate that the campaign achieved its objective. Look beyond likes, views and shares to the metrics that actually matter to the business.
These questions can completely change the way we look at marketing. Critically analysing marketing is all about understanding the decisions behind a campaign and evaluating the relationship between the strategy and the outcome. And this is a skill that becomes increasingly valuable as the marketing industry evolves.
6. Why Strategic Thinking Matters More Than Ever in the Age of AI
Marketing is changing rapidly, and AI is playing a significant role in that transformation. Today, marketers can use AI to generate content ideas, write captions, create images, analyse information, research audiences and automate repetitive tasks.
According to HubSpot’s 2026 State of AI in Marketing Report, which surveyed 1,700+ marketers across several regions, around 98% of marketing teams are using AI in some way; these figures demonstrate just how integrated AI has become in marketing workflows, but also raises the question: When everyone has access to tools that make marketing execution faster, what will differentiate one marketer from another?
I believe an increasingly important differentiator is the ability to think strategically.
AI can assist with research, identify patterns, generate ideas and even develop campaign frameworks. It can be an incredibly useful tool throughout the marketing process. However, producing a recommendation and knowing whether that recommendation makes sense are two different things.
Consider a brand asking AI to generate 20 campaign ideas. It can easily generate a long list of creative concepts and ideas but someone will still need to evaluate whether those ideas reflect the brand’s identity, connect with its audience, address a genuine consumer need and support its business objectives. Then there’s also the question of differentiation. When more brands use similar tools to produce content, there is a risk that their communication starts to feel increasingly similar.
I don’t believe marketers should avoid AI, but we should understand how to use it effectively, experiment with it and embrace the opportunities it creates.
We also need to develop the skills that help us use these tools thoughtfully. The marketers who stand out will be those who can combine technology with curiosity, consumer understanding, creativity and strategic judgement.
7. Becoming a More Strategic Marketer
So, how can we become better at thinking strategically? I think it starts with developing a few simple habits.
- Become curious about the marketing you see. Don’t just save campaigns because they look good, and instead ask what the brand was trying to achieve and what might have inspired the idea.
- Look beyond the creative. Explore the audience, positioning, consumer insights and business objectives behind the execution.
- Question trends before following them. Just because a particular format is popular doesn’t mean it is right for every brand. Understand why it works before deciding to use it.
- Become comfortable with research and data. Learn how to find reliable information, interpret consumer behaviour and use evidence to support your decisions.
- Use AI as a thinking partner. Experiment with different tools, challenge their recommendations and use them to enhance your work rather than replacing your own judgement.
For me, becoming a better marketer isn’t just about learning more platforms or keeping up with every new marketing trend. It’s about developing the ability to understand why things happen, question what we see and make more informed decisions.
This is also the thinking behind The Why In Marketing. I want to create a space where marketers across the GCC can learn from one another, explore interesting campaigns and develop a deeper understanding of the industry.
Because the more we understand the thinking behind marketing, the better equipped we become to create it ourselves.
