Ad Campaigns
IAA Chairman Joseph Ghossoub is Campaign’s “Man of the Year”
MUMBAI: The International Advertising Association (IAA) is pleased to announce that Chairman and World President Joseph Ghossoub has been selected “Man of the Year” by Campaign magazine’s Middle East edition.
The award was presented to Ghossoub in Dubai by the editors of Campaign for promoting the Middle East region’s advertising and media industry around the world. Campaign is an ITP publication and a regional outgrowth of Britain’s Campaign magazine.
“I know that I speak for the whole IAA network in congratulating Joe on receiving this great honor. We are always thrilled when our colleagues within the association receive such peer recognition,” said IAA Executive Director Michael Lee.
” Ghossoub is Chief Executive Officer of The Holding Group (THG), parent company of Team/Young & Rubicam, Intermarkets Advertising, ASDA’A public relations, mediaedge:cia and Wunderman. As one of the Middle East communication industry’s most prominent spokespersons, he has been involved in managing regional and global agencies for over two decades.
When asked to comment on Ghossoub’s contribution and dedication to the world of advertising, Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP stated, “We tend to associate awards and honors in the communications industry to specific creative work and products, design, packaging or even jingles, so it is always good to be reminded of the people behind it all. All of us within WPP are very proud that Joseph Ghossoub has been named Campaign’s “Man of the Year”. It is a great honor and truly well deserved.”
Ghossoub joined Team Advertising as Managing Partner and Chief Executive Officer in 1993. In 1997 he and his partners formed THG. Under his leadership, THG has grown to be one of the most successful Middle East communications groups, with offices throughout the Arabian Gulf, the Levant, North Africa and beyond.
Ghossoub took office as Chairman and World President of the IAA in March 2006, coinciding with the start of the 40th IAA World Congress in Dubai. During his term at the IAA, he has worked to open levels of communication across marketing disciplines encouraging the industry to work more closely together.
Previously, he was the President of the IAA United Arab Emirates (UAE) Chapter and in 1996 he joined the IAA World Board and IAA World Council. He was elected International Vice President and Area Director of IAA Middle East North Africa (MENA) in 2000.
Ghossoub also serves a number of business and educational institutions. He has presided over the Lebanese Business Council and is an advisory council member of the American University in Dubai. In 2003, Ghossoub was appointed as a board member of the Dubai Media Incorporation by the Government of Dubai and most recently he has worked to strengthen cultural ties between the countries of his birth and professional life through the establishment of the Emirati Lebanese Friendship Association.
Decorated with Lebanon’s highest civilian honor in 2004, Ghossoub is a Knight of the Order of the Cedar, in recognition of his achievements and services towards promoting regional and international understanding and cooperation. In May 2006 he was awarded the Presidency Shield of the Republic of Lebanon in recognition of his role as the Chairman and World President of the IAA.
NATIONAL: Amazon Ads has laid out a sharply tech-led vision for the advertising industry in 2026, arguing that artificial intelligence, streaming TV and creator partnerships will combine to turn brand building into a more precise, performance-driven business.
At the heart of the shift, the company says, is the fusion of AI with Amazon’s vast trove of shopping, browsing and streaming signals, allowing advertisers to move beyond blunt reach metrics to campaigns designed around real customer behaviour.
“The future of advertising is not about reaching more people, but the right people with messages that resonate,” said Amazon Ads India head and vice president Girish Prabhu. “By combining AI with deep customer insights, we help brands move from broadcasting campaigns to having meaningful conversations wherever audiences spend their time.”
One of the biggest changes, according to Amazon Ads, will be the collapse of the wall between media planning and creative development. Retail media, powered by first-party data, is increasingly shaping everything from brand discovery to final purchase, pushing marketers to design campaigns around audience insight rather than internal instinct.
AI is also moving from a support tool to a creative engine. Agentic AI, which automates and accelerates production, is expected to make high-quality creative accessible even to small businesses, compressing weeks of work into hours and giving challengers the ability to compete with larger brands on speed and scale.
Behind the scenes, AI-driven analytics will take on a bigger role in campaign optimisation, identifying patterns, spotting opportunities and recommending actions that would previously have required teams of analysts.
Streaming TV is another big battleground. With India’s video streaming audience now above 600 million and connected TV users at 129.2 million in 2025, advertisers are set to treat streaming not just as a branding channel but as a performance engine, measured increasingly by sales, sign-ups and bookings rather than just reach.
Finally, Amazon Ads sees creators and contextual advertising reshaping how brands tell stories. Creators will act less like influencers and more like long-term partners, while scene-aware ads on streaming platforms will allow brands to insert hyper-relevant offers into the flow of what viewers are watching.
Taken together, Amazon Ads argues, these shifts mark a move towards advertising that is both more human and more measurable, where AI handles the complexity, and creativity does the persuading.
