Campaign’s PR Faces to Watch 2020 – Ziad Ashkar, Senior account executive, Gambit Communications
Age: 26
Jamal Al Mawed, founder and managing director, Gambit Communications: Ziad is one of those annoyingly quick-witted people with a vibrant personality and infectious enthusiasm, which makes him popular with clients, media and influencers. He is a great problem-solver, has a fantastic ‘make it happen’ attitude and is very technologically competent so he always has a technique or app that can make us more efficient. He’s sociable and well-connected too – I feel like he could easily be a ruthless Hollywood agent but he’s too nice for that. He still won’t reveal how he managed to get the @Ziad Instagram handle.
Career highlights
I graduated from the American University of Beirut with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing and kicked off my career agency-side in Beirut handling the Bacardi Group portfolio. One of my proudest achievements in that role was activating the first mobile bar for Dewar’s in the region, which popped up at venues across the country complete with barstools and a bartender. I’ve also done campaigns for clients such as Jaguar, Lamborghini, Philip Morris and Oralgen, and most recently spent time in the music industry (not singing!) managing local artists. I joined Gambit Communications earlier this year to work on the PR and influencers side of the business, working with clients like Fiat, Ram, The Ritz-Carlton and Bluewaters.
Guiding principles
“Under-promise and over-deliver”, a quote by one of my previous managers that’s stuck in my head and keeps on reminding me to always run that extra mile and exceed expectations.
Dream job
Calvin Klein underwear model. All jokes aside, I’ve always wanted to be a comedian/entertainer. There is nothing I enjoy more than making people laugh.
Side hustle
I love creating funny/interesting content and I’ve been able to collaborate with local celebrities and multinational brands to create viral videos many times in the past few years, which has brought me 10,000+ followers on Instagram. I hate to say it, but my side hustle might just be… as an influencer.
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