The subtle yet powerful shift in how we define creativity in strategic communications lies beyond bold ideas or eye-catching execution. True creativity, especially in complex markets like the Middle East, is about relevance, relationships, and resonance. It’s about understanding people before considering platforms, or even messages.

In this region, nuance matters more than noise. The smartest strategies are those that listen before they speak. Clients don’t just buy into a campaign, they buy into the thinking and the people behind it. Strategy and creativity are inseparable when trust and local understanding are the real measures of success.

The Middle East presents a unique strategic communications landscape. It’s shaped by cultural diversity, shifting government priorities, and national agendas moving at incredible speed. From Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 to the UAE’s global positioning as a hub for innovation and tourism, the pace of change is matched only by the need for strategic agility. In this environment, creative strategy must be both informed and adaptable. Campaigns succeed not because they shout the loudest, but because they speak the local language, figuratively and literally.

Take NEOM’s Made to Change campaign. On the surface, it introduced another ambitious megaproject. But beneath the striking visuals was a carefully constructed narrative, one that reframed development as human progress. It spoke to transformation, innovation, and the belief that Saudi Arabia’s future will be defined by possibility rather than geography. The campaign worked because it didn’t rely solely on spectacle. It understood its audience: global investors watching for credibility, and Saudis looking for pride and purpose.

Dubai Tourism’s Live Your Story campaign did something similar but from a different angle. It shifted the conversation from Dubai as a city of records to Dubai as a city of connection. Through insight-driven storytelling, showcasing local hosts, smaller neighbourhoods, and genuine experiences, it invited audiences to rediscover authenticity in a place often seen as hyper-modern. The result wasn’t louder marketing, but more human communication.

This is the kind of work that thrives in the Middle East: comms campaigns that are globally compelling but regionally true. The best creative ideas here are not imported, they’re local. They reflect the lived realities of diverse audiences, from policymakers to entrepreneurs, and from local communities to international investors.

One of the most resonant takeaways from the recent H/Advisors Strategy Summit in Madrid was that our role as strategic communicators is to blend insight with imagination, to translate complex ambitions into stories people can believe in. The future of our work will belong to those who can move fluently between the macro and the micro: between national vision and individual experience.

Ali Al-Hamadani, Account Director

H/Advisors Dubai

[email protected]