Arabic-first AI marketing platform Adly has released new data highlighting how businesses across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) approach digital advertising, revealing significant differences between regional campaign strategies and conventional English-language marketing practices.
The analysis covers advertisements created on Adly’s platform between February and October 2026 across the GCC, Levant, and North Africa. Its findings suggest that Gulf businesses frequently use English-language brand names while communicating with customers primarily in Arabic, often adopting premium brand positioning rather than conventional promotional messaging.
The findings offer insights for international advertisers, agencies, and marketing technology providers seeking to localize campaigns for Middle Eastern audiences. They also highlight the importance of regional language preferences, cultural context, and consumer behavior when developing advertising strategies.
Arabic Dominates Gulf Advertising Despite English Brand Names
One of Adly’s most notable findings concerns the difference between brand identity and advertising language.
According to the company’s analysis, 43% of Gulf businesses on its platform use brand names written in English letters. However, 92% of advertisements created by those businesses were in Arabic.
The trend was particularly pronounced in the UAE, where 94% of advertisements analyzed were created in Arabic, despite the country’s reputation as an internationally oriented business market.
For global advertisers, this distinction challenges the assumption that English-language branding should automatically translate into English-language campaign execution.
Instead, the findings suggest that businesses can maintain international brand identities while adapting their advertising communication to local audience preferences.
This has implications for campaign localization, creative production, audience segmentation, and multilingual advertising workflows.
Premium Positioning Shapes Gulf Advertising Creative
Adly also identified a stronger preference for luxury-oriented language and positioning across Gulf markets.
Approximately one in five Gulf businesses used luxury-related words such as “luxurious” and “refined” in their advertisements, compared with around one in seven businesses in the Levant.
The difference also appeared in brand voice selection. Around 17% of Gulf businesses selected a luxury brand voice, compared with 5% in North Africa.
These findings indicate that premium positioning plays a notable role in the advertising strategies represented in Adly’s Gulf dataset.
For advertisers entering the region, this could influence creative development, messaging frameworks, visual identity, and product positioning. Campaigns designed around discount-led messaging may require adaptation to reflect local expectations and brand positioning.
However, the findings describe advertising patterns among Adly platform users rather than establishing universal consumer preferences across the region.
Free Delivery and Number Formatting Reveal Local Differences
Another finding concerns promotional messaging.
Fewer than one in 200 Gulf businesses mentioned free delivery in their advertisements. This contrasts with the prominence of free-shipping offers in many English-language e-commerce advertising strategies.
The result suggests that advertisers should not automatically transfer promotional tactics from Western markets into Gulf campaigns without evaluating local relevance.
Adly also found that approximately nine in ten Gulf businesses using numbers in their advertisements preferred Western digits (123) over Arabic-Indic digits.
This distinction provides another practical consideration for multilingual creative production, particularly when developing pricing messages, promotional graphics, and digital advertisements.
Together, the findings highlight how language, tone, promotional hooks, and formatting can influence regional advertising execution.
Market Landscape: AI Marketing Platforms Adapt to Regional Context
The announcement reflects a broader opportunity for AI-powered marketing platforms to move beyond generic content generation toward region-specific advertising workflows.
Traditional campaign localization often involves translating existing creative assets into another language. However, effective localization requires more than linguistic conversion. It also involves adapting brand voice, messaging, promotional strategies, and cultural references.
Adly’s Arabic-first positioning addresses this challenge by using regional advertising patterns to inform campaign creation.
For agencies and international brands, such capabilities could support more localized creative production and reduce reliance on English-first campaign templates.
Still, the platform’s findings should be interpreted within their research limitations. The dataset consists of Adly users rather than a randomized sample of businesses across the Middle East and North Africa. The company also notes that word matching is approximate.
Strategic Outlook: Regional Intelligence Becomes an AI Marketing Differentiator
Adly’s findings underline the commercial importance of localized advertising intelligence as brands expand across multilingual markets.
For advertisers, the opportunity lies in developing campaigns that reflect how audiences communicate and respond within specific regional environments. Agencies could use these insights to inform creative briefs, language selection, and campaign positioning.
For marketing technology providers, the announcement demonstrates how specialized AI platforms can differentiate themselves through regional language capabilities and market-specific intelligence.
The next challenge will be translating these observed advertising patterns into measurable improvements in campaign engagement, conversions, and customer acquisition.
As AI increasingly influences advertising production and optimization, platforms that understand regional marketing behavior may offer an alternative to generic automation built around English-language assumptions.
Top Insights
- Arabic-first advertising: 92% of advertisements created by Gulf businesses with English-letter brand names were in Arabic.
- UAE language preference: 94% of advertisements analyzed in the UAE were created in Arabic.
- Luxury positioning: 17% of Gulf businesses selected a luxury brand voice, compared with 5% in North Africa.
- Different promotional hooks: Fewer than one in 200 Gulf businesses mentioned free delivery.
- Number formatting: Approximately 90% of Gulf businesses using numbers preferred Western digits over Arabic-Indic digits.
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