Dubai, UAE – TBWA\RAAD hosted the inaugural edition of BETA, a new innovation event series designed to cut through the noise of the AI moment and equip brand leaders with the frameworks, tools, and thinking they need to compete in a rapidly shifting marketing landscape.

The curated half-day gathering brought together CMOs, CEOs, and senior marketers from across the region alongside speakers from TBWA\RAAD, Omnicom Advertising, Google, and Flywheel Commerce Network. The event explored five interconnected themes: AI and creativity, cultural strategy, YouTube effectiveness, connected marketing intelligence, and the future of commerce.

The name BETA is no accident. It is rooted in TBWA's foundational belief that the most resilient brands and agencies are never finished, always iterating, always reinventing, never too comfortable with the status quo to ask what comes next. "We say we are always in BETA", said Reda Raad, Group CEO of TBWA\RAAD. "That is not a metaphor. It is how we work. This event is an extension of that mindset, a space where we bring our clients into the process of thinking, questioning, and building what's next together. The brands that will win are the ones who treat today as a permanent prototype."

The morning opened with Noah Khan, Chief Innovation Officer at Omnicom Advertising CEE & AME, who delivered a sharp-edged assessment of where the AI landscape actually stands, beyond the hype cycles and vendor pitches. Khan's session drew on data showing that 83% of ad executives now deploy AI in the creative process, up from 60% just a year ago, and yet 95% of GenAI pilots in organizations have generated zero measurable P&L impact. His central argument: AI adoption is now table stakes, not a competitive advantage.

Catherine Bannister, Chief Strategy Officer, and Astha Sirpaul, Head of Strategy at TBWA\RAAD, presented TBWA Backslash's 2026 Edges, the agency network's annual cultural intelligence report tracking the global shifts reshaping human behaviour and brand opportunity. This year's overarching theme, Proof of Human, frames 2026 as a cultural inflection point: as AI becomes a deeply personal presence in daily life, with 73% of AI usage now comprising personal conversations, the world is searching for evidence of aliveness, authenticity, and genuine human effort. Each Edge was paired with concrete brand opportunities for clients across the region.

Ali Cheikhali, Creative Strategy and Innovation Lead at Google, opened with a striking figure: $47.8 billion in global media efficiency is lost every year by brands failing to tailor creative for digital environments. His session laid out the case for creative quality and variety as the primary growth lever in an “outcome-based marketing” era where platform algorithms handle media optimization seamlessly. Ali also presented the new AI-powered creative intelligence system, which integrates Google’s ABCD Framework code with Omnicom Advertising's Brave Bot to build creative work that actually performs on YouTube.

Rony Skaf, Head of Digital and Innovation at TBWA\RAAD, and Astha Sirpaul presented OMNI, Omnicom's proprietary intelligent growth platform, and the intelligence layer sitting at the heart of the agency's connected marketing offer. The session demonstrated OMNI's agentic workflow capabilities, its access to 40+ AI models, and its end-to-end architecture spanning strategy, creative, production, activation, and measurement.

The morning closed with Sulagna Kapoor, Senior Director at Flywheel Commerce Network, who mapped the convergence of media, retail, and performance marketing into what the industry is calling Connected Commerce. Kapoor presented case studies demonstrating how integrated full-funnel commerce strategies combining retail media, audience intelligence, digital shelf management, and AI-enabled optimisation are delivering measurable sales results.

But perhaps the most talked-about moment of the morning came from an unexpected presenter. Zaki, TBWA\RAAD's AI-powered robot, served as the event's host, guiding sessions, setting the tone, and closing the day with a performance that brought the house down.

"This event series reflects Omnicom Advertising's belief that new technologies should be accessible, actionable, and closely tied to business outcomes", said Noah Khan. "By creating a platform where marketers, innovators, and technology partners can exchange ideas and challenge conventional thinking, we give clients the knowledge and confidence to act, not just absorb."

BETA will return with future editions, bringing new perspectives and new voices to the ideas and capabilities defining the next era of brand building.

About TBWA\RAAD:

TBWA\RAAD was established in the United Arab Emirates in 2000 to develop and expand TBWA Worldwide’s presence across the Middle East and Africa. We are The Disruption® Company, a collective of creative minds with an unlimited creative canvas. We create brand platforms that defy convention and compete with culture. Thanks to our trademarked Disruption® methodology, we build the world’s strongest brands. Brands that own an unfair share of the future.

Named Best Place to Work in the World and in the Middle East by Campaign, one of the Middle East’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company Middle East in 2025, 2024, 2023 and 2022, one of the Best Workplaces for Women in the Middle East in 2024 by Fast Company Middle East, Adweek's 2024, 2022, 2021, and 2018 Global Agency of the Year and Ad Age’s A-List 2022 Network of the Year.

Our collective is made up of 11,000+ creative minds in over 40 countries with expertise across the total brand experience — from retail to social and digital, from B2B to experiential, from innovation to production, from design to content. Our regional clients include: Abu Dhabi Government Media Office, Adobe, Apple, AWR Rostomani Arabian Automobiles, Careem, Commercial Bank of Dubai, du, Essence, Etihad Rail, First Gulf Company, Gatorade, Henkel, Hilton, Infiniti, Johns Hopkins, KFC, Meta, Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi, NEOM, Nissan, Pfizer, Philips, Pladis, Qatar Museums. Follow us on Instagram and Linkedin and like us on Facebook.

TBWA\RAAD is part of Omnicom Advertising (NYSE: OMC).  

About Omnicom Advertising:

Omnicom is ranked #1 by Forrester in its Creative rankings thanks to the breadth and depth of Omnicom Advertising. As one of Omnicom's Connected Capabilities, it includes leading global networks; BBDO, McCann and TBWA, as well as some of the most successful creative boutiques in the world including Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, Lucky Generals, Deutsch and many more. The group includes innovation-leading agencies such digital experience engineers, dotdotdash, multicultural specialists such as Dieste and Alma, alongside content creator agencies such as AMV Native and McCann Content Studios. Its client portfolio represents all of the top 5, 8 out of the top 10, and almost two thirds of Interbrand’s 100 Best Global Brands in 2025 including Apple, McDonalds, Mastercard, Unilever, Nestlé and L'Oréal. 

Contact
Romy Abdelnour
Head of Communications, Middle East
Omnicom Advertising
romy.abdelnour@omc.com