In September 2025 Debbie Ellison, EMEA CEO of the global digital marketing agency Croud, was in Dubai with a simple piece of news. After three years in the city, Croud was making it the anchor for its work across the Middle East and North Africa, and planned to grow its headcount here by at least half over the following year.
There are two ways to tell a story like that. You can issue a release, hope the trade titles pick it up, and move on. Or you can put the person who made the decision in front of the people who need to hear it.
We did the second. On 11 September Debbie sat down with Emirates News on Dubai One. The next morning she was live in studio on Dubai Eye's Business Breakfast for close to seven minutes, explaining why a firm with a network of 3,000 specialists worldwide had chosen Dubai over anywhere else in the region.
Two days. One television interview, one live radio conversation. Neither came from a mass distribution. Both came from a story with something real in it, a hiring commitment rather than a ribbon cutting, and a leader willing to stand behind it in her own voice.
For me, this is the part international firms most often miss when they arrive in the UAE. The market runs on relationships, and broadcast here still carries enormous trust. Business owners listen to the morning shows on the drive in. Decision makers notice who turns up in person and who sends a statement. A CEO on air, taking questions, says more about commitment to the region than any number of pages on a website.
It also takes discipline. The headcount figure, the timeline and the reason for choosing Dubai all had to be nailed down before anyone went near a microphone, because live radio gives you no second take.
So if your business is planning its next move into the Gulf, start with the question we asked with Croud. Who does this story belong to, and are they ready to tell it?