WHAT RUNNING AN AI-ENABLED CAMPAIGN TAUGHT US ABOUT MARKETING IN A REAL CITY LIKE DUBAI

By Khaled Nuseibeh, Hala CEO

Artificial intelligence has quickly become part of the marketing conversation. New tools promise faster production, lower costs and endless variations of creative output. But for companies operating in real-world services, the technology itself is not the most important question. The real question is whether it helps communicate what actually happens on the ground.

In mobility, that distinction matters. When someone books a taxi, the experience is defined by whether the car arrives when it is supposed to. If it does not, no campaign can compensate for that. That reality shaped how we approached Count on Hala, a recent campaign designed to support new user acquisition while reflecting how the service operates across Dubai every day.

Hala runs hundreds of campaigns each year across different customer segments. In a fast-moving, highly competitive market like Dubai, speed and adaptability are essential. Artificial intelligence provides companies with a way to move faster, scale creative output and respond to changing market dynamics without losing clarity or relevance.

The campaign used AI across the creative execution, generating visuals, layouts and voiceovers for content deployed across out-of-home screens and targeted digital channels. However, the strategic direction, messaging framework and approvals remained firmly with our team.

Rather than positioning AI as the centre of the campaign, we focused on communicating measurable operational insights such as pickup speed, fleet scale and reliability. Messages such as “90% of taxi pickups in under five minutes” or “Meeting in 20 minutes? Taxi in 3” translated everyday service performance into clear, relatable moments.

Early campaign indicators reinforce the impact of this approach. In the first month following the launch, Hala recorded a 27.8% uplift in bookings, 19.2% increase in new users, and a click-through rate approximately 5x higher than previous campaigns, reflecting stronger engagement with the campaign messaging and visuals.

AI allowed these insights to be translated into creative assets quickly across multiple formats. But the technology itself was not the story. Running the campaign highlighted several practical lessons about how AI fits into busy marketing teams today.

1. Build campaigns around operational performance, not creative concepts

AI will amplify whatever information it is given. If the underlying service is inconsistent, the campaign will expose that quickly. For this campaign, the creative concept began with operational data, pickup speeds, fleet capacity and everyday travel scenarios across Dubai. These insights formed the foundation of the messaging rather than an abstract creative idea. In sectors such as mobility and transport logistics or aviation, marketing cannot exist separately from operations. Customers experience the service within minutes of seeing the campaign. If the message and the experience do not match, a brand’s credibility will quickly disappear.

2. Use AI to produce campaigns faster without changing the strategy

The campaign began with a simple idea: reliability. In a city like Dubai, where people are constantly on the move, everyday convenience matters. Artificial intelligence helped the team turn that idea into campaign content much faster than traditional production would allow. Instead of coordinating multiple shoots, locations and long approval timelines, operational insights could be turned into clear messages quickly. Lines such as “Meeting in 20 minutes? Taxi in 3” could appear across digital screens, social media and billboards within hours rather than weeks. The team still defined the message, tone and brand standards, while AI helped speed up how quickly those ideas could be produced and shared across the city.

3. AI creative for billboards and outdoor advertising still needs technical expertise

One common misconception about AI-generated creative is that it removes complexity from production. In reality, it often introduces new challenges. Early AI-generated visuals worked well for digital placements but were not always suitable for large-format outdoor advertising. When scaled for outdoor displays, some images were grainy and lacked the resolution required for high-visibility formats.

Achieving the required quality meant using several paid subscription tools and refining outputs across multiple stages. AI can accelerate creative exploration, but production expertise remains essential to ensure the final output meets the standards expected of large-scale advertising.

4. AI marketing still requires strict legal oversight and brand governance

The faster content can be produced, the more important governance becomes. Before launching the campaign, strict internal guidelines were established around how AI could be used. These covered cultural sensitivity, representation and compliance with UAE advertising standards.

All platforms used were vetted to ensure appropriate commercial usage rights, and every output was reviewed in collaboration with legal teams before publication. Regardless of which tools are used, the brand remains responsible for everything that appears in a campaign.

5. AI allows marketing teams to focus on insight-led storytelling rather than asset production

The most noticeable shift from the campaign was internal. Traditionally, marketing teams spend significant time producing individual creative assets. AI changes where that time is spent, instead of focusing on manual production, the team concentrated on identifying the insights that matter most to our customers; people who are moving around the city, whether its short journeys or tight schedules, their need is for reliable transport in everyday situations.

Artificial intelligence then made it easier to translate those insights into multiple creative executions across different formats. For a platform operating in a competitive market and running campaigns across multiple audiences throughout the year, that shift can make a meaningful difference.

In almost every sector, AI is already moving from experimentation into everyday systems across the region. Airlines use it to manage disruption. Logistics companies use it to anticipate congestion. Governments use it to plan infrastructure and transport networks.

Marketing will inevitably follow a similar path. AI will not replace traditional production or human creativity. Photography, filmed content and real-world storytelling remain essential, particularly when authenticity and emotional connection to your customer matters.

While we continue to embrace AI within our creative processes, it has not and cannot replace the creative agencies we work with. Human intervention, intuition, and creativity remain at the core of everything we do.

What AI can do is remove some of the friction in how campaigns are produced, allowing teams to respond faster while maintaining accuracy. Dubai is often described as a testbed for new technologies. In reality, the city simply demands that systems work under pressure, across different languages, cultures and moments of high demand. If an AI-enabled campaign can operate effectively in that environment, it is likely to work anywhere.

For companies exploring AI in marketing, the lesson is straightforward: focus on operational reality first. Technology should support how the business performs, not distract from it.