Marketing Manager — Dubai, UAE

Read the business.Then grow it.

I lead multi-brand marketing across strategy, performance media, SEO and content, customer journeys, and cross-functional execution — with 10+ years of experience across the UAE and GCC.

Portrait of Ali Abedo

Subject / 01

Ali AbedoMarketing Manager
Years in marketing across the UAE, GCC and international remote teams
10+
Years in marketing across the UAE, GCC and international remote teams
Brands led across KASROAD Group
5
Brands led across KASROAD Group
Marketing team members, working alongside a 10-person customer service team
13
Marketing team members, working alongside a 10-person customer service team
Monthly media budgets managed across the portfolio
$25–50K
Monthly media budgets managed across the portfolio
Marketing StrategyPerformance MarketingSEO & ContentCRM & EmailConversion UXTeam LeadershipFintech Growth
KASROADKazawalletNon-VoIPSwapforlessKasCardsMintsTechVoiceILLAFTrainS.E.T
02

Case Files.

Classified: open for review

Building the marketing function from zero

Marketing Manager · 2023 — Present

01 — The Challenge

KASROAD Group managed five digital brands without an established marketing department, operating model, or unified reporting structure. The challenge was to build the function itself while supporting brands with different audiences, products, and growth priorities.

02 — The Strategy

  • Built the marketing department, roles, workflows, and review processes from the ground up.
  • Structured a 13-person specialist team across social media, content, blogs, design, video, YouTube, and community management.
  • Created a shared operating model for five brands while preserving a distinct strategy for each business.
  • Connected Marketing with Product, UX, Development, Management, and a cross-functional customer-service operation.

03 — The Impact

Marketing function built from zero
0→1
Marketing function built from zero
Group brands managed
5
Group brands managed
Marketing team members
13
Marketing team members

03

The Evidence.

Campaign videos and posters from brand and agency work — produced with in-house designers and video editors. Pick a file.

My role — Campaign concept, messaging and creative direction

04

The Method.

Three steps, in this order. Every case file above followed them.

01READ FIRST
The Read

Diagnose before you prescribe.

Before anything else — read the business. What's the real gap? Who's the real customer? What problem are we actually solving? Most marketing fails here, before a single ad runs.

02THEN PLAN
Strategy

Plan from the gap, not the trend.

Once the diagnosis is clear, build a plan aligned to the business goal — not to industry trends, not to what competitors are doing, not to whatever channel is fashionable this quarter.

03SHIP LAST
Channels

Creative with context, not a starting point.

Then — and only then — choose the channels and build the creative. Meta, Google, email, SEO: they're delivery mechanisms for a strategy, not a substitute for one.

Four disciplines.

Each one comes with an opinion — flip the cards

05

AI Transformation.

Human judgment kept in the loop

Embedding AI across the marketing operating system.

I lead practical AI transformation across research, strategy, content operations, creative production, reporting, customer-service enablement, and internal knowledge workflows. The goal is not AI for its own sake — it is faster decision-making, more consistent execution, and better use of the team's time, with human judgment and brand governance kept in the loop.

  • 01

    Research & Decision Support

    Using AI to accelerate market scanning, audience synthesis, competitive analysis, and strategic preparation.

  • 02

    Content & Creative Operations

    Building structured workflows for ideation, briefing, localization, production support, and quality control.

  • 03

    Reporting & Marketing Operations

    Reducing repetitive work across reporting, documentation, planning, and internal handoffs.

  • 04

    Customer-Service Enablement

    Connecting approved knowledge, recurring questions, and escalation rules to faster and more consistent support workflows.

06

Career Journey.

Roles, scope, and progression across in-house leadership, agency marketing, digital products, and multi-market teams.

  1. /01Jan 2023 — Present

    Marketing Manager — KASROAD Group

    Dubai, UAE · Kazawallet, Non-VoIP, Swapforless, KasCards

    Promoted:Blog ManagerDigital Marketing ManagerMarketing Manager

  2. /02Mar 2024 — Nov 2024

    Marketing and Media Manager — TechVoice

    Saudi Arabia · Part-time, remote · Regional consumer-tech campaigns, +25% engagement

  3. /03Sep 2022 — Aug 2023

    Social Media Marketing Specialist — ILLAFTrain

    United Kingdom · Part-time, remote · +25% improvement in platform KPIs

  4. /04Jan 2020 — Dec 2022

    Senior Social Media Marketing Specialist — Mints Creative Agency

    Syria & UAE · 10+ clients · Employee of the Month, twice

  5. /05Aug 2016 — Dec 2019

    Marketing Manager — S.E.T

    Syria · 35+ events with 95%+ satisfaction · Unified brand and tone of voice

07

Selected Brand Experience.

A selection of brands I have led, managed, or supported across in-house and agency roles.

Group PortfolioThe five KASROAD Group brands I lead marketing for.

  • KASROAD UAE
  • Kazawallet
  • Non-VoIP
  • Swapforless
  • KasCards

Agency & Client WorkBrands managed or supported through agency and specialist roles.

  • Mints
  • Golden Proxy
  • Max Care Medical Center
  • Eiad Shahien Clinic
  • Civil Eng. Yasser Ali Habeeb
  • Zwaadeh
  • Afak Center
  • NTC — Nasma Trading Co.
  • PP Request
  • Atheii
  • diigima
  • DO IT WITH HEART

Previous RolesBrands and organizations connected to previous full-time, part-time, or remote positions.

  • TechVoice
  • ILLAFTrain
  • S.E.T
08

The Subject.

About Ali

Ali Abedo
Marketing Manager · KASROAD GroupDubai

I read the business before building the marketing around it.

My work connects business priorities, audience insight, positioning, acquisition, content, product experience, and team execution. I focus on creating marketing systems that can produce measurable growth — not disconnected campaigns or short-term activity.

Languages
Arabic (native) · English (professional)
Education
B.Sc. Civil Engineering, Tishreen University
Certifications
Media Buyer Diploma (IMFND) · Fundamentals of Digital Marketing (Google) · SEO (UC Davis)

Toolkit

  • Google Ads
  • Meta Ads
  • TikTok Ads
  • Snapchat Ads
  • GA4
  • Google Tag Manager
  • Search Console
  • SendGrid
  • WordPress
  • Monday.com
  • Notion