Campaign’s Media Faces to Watch 2020 – Joud Boksmati, Senior media manager, Spark Foundry MENA

Campaign’s Media Faces to Watch 2020 – Joud Boksmati, Senior media manager, Spark Foundry MENA (Dubai office)

Age: 29

Wesam Ayyash, media director, Spark Foundry MENA: Working with Joud for the past four years is like being on a TV show, specifically The Office. We always seem to find ourselves the craziest of situations and are able to turn them into an adventure that is worthy of TV. I have witnessed Joud take on a range of challenges – from development of creative media innovations that have transformed our strategies into pieces of art to his recent success in transforming the Louvre Abu Dhabi site into a full-fledged performance platform with the help of his magnificent team. His mind is a wonderland and we are blessed to have him with us to enjoy the ride.

Career highlights

In a post-Covid world my highlight is having a job. In simpler times I would say it would have to be working with the team on the Emirates NBD pitch a couple of years ago. That was the first real pitch I was involved in and it really pushed the boundary in every sense, for a client whose standards were already high. The content of the presentation was beyond a traditional media scope and what the client ever expected. We developed complete concepts for creative direction, augmented reality, and campaign-launching chat bots. Looking back, that was when I felt truly lucky to be working with my current team – quite the milestone moment.

Guiding principles

Originality and light-heartedness, the sense fulfilment you get when you create something that’s outside of the norm, and share a good laugh while doing it, is unlike any other. I’ve been lucky to have great managers: Pauline Rady, Wesam Ayyash, and Victoria Loesch.

Dream job

Difficult to say, but it would probably be to be involved in the gaming or videogame industry in some capacity – it’s not the most mature in this market but may be in the near future, given its popularity.

Side hustle

Improv. I got into it rather recently after always having an interest and it’s been one of the best decisions I’ve made and has been really helpful in my career. For two hours every week I rid myself of any remaining semblance of maturity and adulthood (there wasn’t much).

 

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