(This article was first published on LinkedIn by EI Advisory's Tony Jarvis here)

The UAE Financial Services Marketing Leaders' Summit 2025, organised by Financial Marketing Insights (FMI), hosted at HSBC Dubai and supported by Reuters, the World Media Group, the Chartered Institute of Marketing and EI Advisory, brought together over 60 leading financial marketing experts together to share ideas and debate best practice. Here one of our speakers and sponsors, EI Advisory's Tony Jarvis, shares some of his key takeaways from the event.

The Financial Services Marketing Leaders’ Summit, UAE Edition launched on 29 April! Another smash hit in the global series. Congratulations to Jacob Howard, FCIM and Financial Marketing Insights on an amazing job. Thanks to Aimee Peters, FCIM and the HSBC Team for hosting. Do you like a conference soundbite? Here’s a baker’s dozen from Dubai

(pictured above - Reuters' Arif Durrani on the 'Future of Content')

• Native Content represented $100Bn in global media revenue in 2020. It’s set to surpass $500bn in 2025. We're all publishing content now. Yours better be good.

• Consensus in the region on that? The way forward is to not make the story about you. Support and elevate the profession of the audience you’re serving.  Co-curate content with clients and ecosystem partners. Focus on what is your audience trying to achieve and how did we help by working together? What were the lessons and surprises along the way? Loved the honesty in this part of the discussion: “Even our own people weren’t reading it.”

• Media brands are being pushed to target campaigns at the account and job-title level. Marketers simply expect you to deliver this now, especially where you have first party data from events and other digital activities.

(pictured above, the panel on Marketing Strategy featuring Shaima Abdulrahman Al Awadhi, Head of Marketing - Wholesale Banking, Emirates NBD, Zeina Kawas, Head of Marketing, Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB) & Private Bank MEA, Standard Chartered and Valérie Chraim, Head of Marketing and Comms - GCC, Allianz Trade in the Middle East, moderated by Mina Tezcan, Head of Strategic Partnerships, Financial Marketing Insights)

• The metric of the moment for ROI on events marketing is Return on Relationship: If you’re building a scorecard, this ought to be front and centre.

• Where marketing can show real contribution to deal flow, CMOs are using this to demand a % of the deal value to be put into next year’s budget. Bold and beautiful.

• Marketing KPIs are largely focused on growth, securing new revenue and new client acquisition. Two challenges of the moment here are a) clarity of attribution between sales and marketing and b) how to better quantify marketing’s contribution to client retention.

• LinkedIn buzz is the only non-revenue indicator more than a few senior banking business stakeholders in the region pay attention to. How’s your buzz?

(pictured above, Simon Clegg CBE and Aimee Peters, Regional Head of Brand, Partnerships and Wholesale Marketing, MENAT, HSBC)

• Sports Sponsorship all about the long-term view. Coca Cola began its sports journey 1928, and as a quarterly results-driven firm, confirms some of its sports sponsorships in 12-year commitments. Interesting backdrop, when we often see marketers struggling with bi-annual commitments.

• Horses for courses: Understanding your aspirational client exec interests inside and outside work – at real scale – is becoming a reality. Empathising, driving affinity and those magic moments through your sports / arts / culture / diversity etc engagements is the next trick.

• Creating genuine exclusivity and scarcity in marketing is hard to achieve – a great and often overlooked goal.

(pictured above, the Editors' View panel with Gregg Carlstrom, Middle East Correspondent, The Economist, and Maha El Dahan, Gulf Bureau Chief, Reuters, moderated by Jamie Credland, Chief Executive, World Media Group)

• The geo-political situation in the region has meant even quarterly planning cycles are too slow. Many are re-planning every 2 months or less and all are aligned on a renewed desire to promote the GCC as a whole

• Trump is coming to the region in 2 weeks. The Middle East is balancing excitement at being The President’s first state visit in his second term as well as in his first term, with trying not to feel like region is being viewed as an ATM.

(pictured above, Georges Yaryura, SVP Marketing, Corporate and Investment Banking, Mashreq and
Isha Chander, Executive Director, Head of Growth & Transformation, MEA, J.P. Morgan Payments, JPMorgan Chase & Co., moderated by Tony Jarvis, Global Managing Director, EI Advisory)

• Account Based Marketing is happening, and growing in the region. The most successful are launching by stealth and only pointing to programs when the quick wins and champions in the business are secured.

(pictured above, the Different Perspectives session with Origination Global's John Saunders in conversation with Roslyn Casey Shaw, Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer, Casey Wishart & Partners)

• We think often about Event measurement from a marketing perspective. From an attendee perspective – we attend events to share & learn, to meet & network and to experience & immerse. Certainly achieved with this event, and the entire global series from Financial Marketing Insights.

(pictured above, the inspiring closing key note with Amina Taher, CMO of Wio Bank being interviewed by Chris Hughes)

Great Summit, and great attendees - thank you all!