The godfather

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One of the most powerful figures in media, Joseph Ghossoub, president of the International Advertising Association and founder of The Holding Group reveals how he plays the publicity power game and what he really thinks of the competition.

He may be top dog in the cut-throat world of Middle East advertising - but Joseph Ghossoub insists he wants nothing more than to be friends with his arch business rivals.

"We're business rivals not enemies. Why should we fight? Personally I make sure that we remain friends at all times," he says, revealing that he regularly invites the competition to enjoy a "friendly" round of golf.

"But," he adds, with a steely glint in his eye, "nobody wants to play because they are not as good as me."

Ghossoub has an iron grip over the Middle East media industry, controlling the advertising, media, marketing and public relations activities of over 260 clients in 14 countries across the region.

The Holding Group (THG), which he founded in 1997 employs over 1200 employees in 57 offices spanning the Middle East and North Africa and the companies under the THG umbrella include Team Young & Rubicam, Intermarkets Advertising, Asda'a Public Relations, Wunderman and Mediaedge:cia.

He is also chairman and world president of the International Advertising Association and was recently awarded the Dubai Lynx Advertising Person of the Year Award at the Dubai International Advertising Festival.

So it's fair to say that when it comes to the media - what Joseph Ghossoub says goes. And he has plenty to say about the current state of the creative advertising work in the region - particularly that produced for real estate companies.

While Ghossoub says one of the advertising campaigns he is most proud of is the one his own company created for real estate giant Emaar's Downtown Burj Dubai development, he has no praise for the work produced for smaller developers - accusing them of failing to develop strong brand identities.

"For the majority of the real estate businesses, I would say the creativity levels are not medium but mediocre.

"Today very few of the real estate companies in the market have worked on their branding the way the major players have," He goes on to say.

"At the end of the day you must be able to provide customers with an offering and a brand they can relate to. And few have achieved that.

"Every company is giving the same message and they are all singing the same song.

"There are 100 developers doing the same thing."

He says the mistake being made by many real estate developers is to focus their advertising too strongly on the projects themselves rather than on their own brand names.

"Unfortunately some of the newer players in the market, including some quite big players, have not paid as much attention to their brand as they have paid to their projects.

"But with a project you launch it, you sell it and then it goes away.

"Once it is finished all that remains is the company name and it is important in advertising to highlight that."

Ghossoub views echo those of Kevin Roberts, worldwide CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi, who in an interview with CEO earlier this year singled out real estate advertising in the region for criticism, commenting "just look at all the money that is spent on real estate and then look at all the work and it all just looks the same. It just cracks me up."

He does not however, agree with Roberts' general criticism of creative advertising work in the region, which he described as "absolute cr*p," claiming "They haven't embraced the internet mobile technology and they are producing work that on the whole looks like it has come from 1995".

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