Ad Campaigns
Something Special signs Courtney Boyett to script global sales success
MUMBAI: When a company’s called Something Special, you expect its hires to be nothing short of headline-worthy. True to form, the Seoul-based format agency has brought on Courtney Boyett as senior manager of global sales, adding a bilingual edge and a globe-trotting flair to its international ambitions. Boyett steps into the role after a stint at Kiwi Vine, where she spearheaded business development in webtoon localisation and edited stories for global audiences. A fluent speaker of both English and Korean, she began her career as a translator and researcher, giving her a strong cultural bridge that fits neatly into the DNA of a format specialist.
Armed with a business degree from Alabama’s Troy University and time at Inha University in Seoul, Boyett has lived across the U.S. and Korea while racking up stamps from extensive travels, an experience that may come in handy as she takes Something Special’s formats to markets worldwide.
True to form president and executive producer Jin Woo Hwang couldn’t hide his enthusiasm: “Courtney will no doubt deliver great results with her sparkling personality and expertise. After my recent MENA trip, our sales arm is primed for expansion.”
True to form co-founder EVP & head of content Insoon Kim, echoed the sentiment: “When I first met Courtney at Hong Kong Filmart, I was immediately impressed by her professionalism and bright character.”
For Boyett, the feeling is mutual. “I’m excited to work with Insoon, Jin and the team at Something Special and look forward to sharing their innovative formats with the content world at several markets,” she said.
With Asia’s format exports booming and Something Special sharpening its global push, Boyett’s appointment is both timely and telling: this is a format house with no intention of staying local.
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.
