Mark Haycock M+C Saatchi Group Middle East Head of Strategy MENA on the group’s Cultural Trends report 2025

Cultural Power is one huge umbrella, how did team manage to gather and edit such a wide scope of information for the report?

Culture is ever-evolving, difficult to define and we can fail to spot the shifts if we don’t take time to step back and look at the bigger picture. At M+C Saatchi we’re designing a process to create and develop the Cultural Power that brands have. Every brief we tackle is already backed by a cultural insight, we’re investing more in primary cultural research pieces and we’re now in the process of creating a proprietary AI-powered tool we’re calling the Cultural Power Index.

Whilst the tool itself digests over 1 billion data points and signals, we augment it through a human lens by sifting through the biggest news stories, viral moments, and things that got us talking in the office. The goal of this report is to make sense of these as more than just trends, but shifts that are shaping how people think, behave, and shop in the GCC.

As clients go by, many rely on the trusted and tested refusing to acknowledge that the market is going at breakneck speed, how can you as head strategist include all these new elements in the campaigns for reluctant clients?

Clients aren’t as resistant to change as we sometimes assume. They just need the confidence that an emerging trend isn’t a passing fad but a meaningful shift in consumer behavior. Our role here is to demystify cultural movements and present them as opportunities versus risks.

The key is to make cultural insights part of the creative process - not just something we stumble upon, but a structured way of thinking. Whether it’s ensuring every brief includes a cultural truth, setting up active trend monitoring, or producing reports like this one, we’re creating a system that allows new thoughts to emerge naturally. Once you embed that thinking into the process, it’s not about convincing clients to try something new it becomes the clear next step.
 

Can you walk Communicate readers with the major findings of the report? And how eventually this will lead to newer and fresher creative and strategic campaigns?

A few insights really stood out. One of the biggest for me was Remixing Culture. What started as a quirky TikTok food trend - like pairing ice cream with olive oil or fruit roll-ups - became something much bigger. We saw this remixing instinct extend to content, with creators reinterpreting old ’90s shows through a local lens (like the hilarious "What if Friends were made in Kuwait?" video). The takeaway for us was that this generation isn’t just consuming culture or just creating it; they’re actively remixing it. That insight has led to discussions with clients about how they can invite consumers to remix and play with their brands and their ingredients.

Another lightbulb moment was Instant Everything. I still remember moving to the region in 2012 and bragging to friends back home that I could get McDonald's delivered to my doorstep. Fast forward a decade, and 30-minute delivery expectations aren’t just a luxury; they’re the norm. What started as a climate-driven convenience has fundamentally rewired consumer expectations across all categories. Now, we’re working with brands to create products designed specifically for platforms like Noon, ensuring they can land in customers’ hands at record speed.

In a region where 65% of the population is under the age of 30, how do you feel the cultural shift is happening, and are youth really leading with perspectives which were not to older generations?

Saudi Arabia is the best example of this transformation playing out in real time. What’s happening there isn’t just change - it’s reinvention at a speed we’ve never seen before. Young people are no longer waiting for permission; they’ve been given the keys to the kingdom to pro-actively rewrite the nation’s narrative, shaping everything from business to entertainment to gaming.

But there’s nuance: not all young people feel the same way. While many are embracing change, others feel the pace is too fast. Last year, we ran research that highlighted how significant pockets of Gen Z still hold traditional values. That’s why it’s dangerous to make sweeping generalisations. Instead of targeting "youth," we need to help our clients to pinpoint the specific mindsets they want to engage with and tailor and target their stories accordingly.

One of the issues of the Arab region is that many advertisers still think there is an old guard that is stopping them from coming up with ultra-creative campaigns, but the question is, are audiences ready for such changes?

Audiences aren’t just ready; they’re waiting with baited breath for something fresh. The real challenge isn’t whether they’ll embrace new ideas - it’s cutting through the noise to get their attention in the first place. People in the region spend 72% of their waking hours consuming media, whether it’s on their phones, reading billboards, or on gaming platforms. With that much content fighting for their eyeballs, creativity isn’t just about what we say - it’s about how we get them to notice us in the first place.

Take our Aquaventure campaign with David Hasselhoff. Instead of rolling out a traditional celebrity-led ad, we leaked behind-the-scenes footage to local digital publications, sparking speculation. We even announced his role as a lifeguard on LinkedIn before officially unveiling the campaign. By playing with media norms and expectations, we created something that didn’t just get seen - it got people commenting.

Internally, we’re pushing ourselves to ask, “Where wouldn’t this brand show up?” and “What’s the opposite of what’s expected?” That kind of thinking is leading to some of the most exciting campaigns we have lined up for 2025. Watch this space.

Final thought…

As an industry we need to be conscious of the difference between a trend and a cultural insight. Trends are often short-lived fads, whilst cultural insights are more long-term shifts impacting the way we interact with the world around us. With so much change and growth happening in this part of the world, brands who find a way to harness their Cultural Power are the ones who will unlock that growth.