Adam Issa has more than 15 years behind him, where he has built brands, teams and growth engines across Australian hospitality. Currently CMO at El Jannah, he has constructed marketing functions for the QSR from the ground up across brand, performance, CRM, loyalty, culinary, digital and new store growth.
He has plenty of experience backing him to turn El Jannah into a QSR juggernaut. Before joining El Jannah, Issa was the head of marketing at Seagrass Boutique Hospitality, leading marketing across Italian Street Kitchen, Ribs & Burgers, The Meat & Wine Co, 6 Head, Five Guys Australia and Hunter & Barrel.
Now into our second season of B&T’s CMOs To Watch, presented by Zenith, Kent joins the ranks of visionary marketing leaders redefining the playbook. This series celebrates those who balance bold ideas with business impact and have a whole lot of fun along the way.
We sat down with Issa to discuss how the quick growth has poised a challenge for the business, how cost of living is impacting his business and the importance of understanding attention rather than impressions.
B&T: Let’s get to know you… What three things would you take to a desert island?
Adam Issa: Depends what we’re doing. Are we trying to get off the island, or build something on it? Two completely different briefs.
If it’s survive and escape, then a knife, a flint, and a mirror to signal with. Sharp tools, fire, and a way to be found.
If it’s stay and build, a knife, a notebook, and true Lebanese coffee. Something to work with, somewhere to write down my thoughts, and a small piece of home to make the rest of it bearable.
B&T: What is your passion outside of work? If you weren’t a CMO, what would you be doing?
AI: Making things with my hands. An artist, a baker, someone renovating old spaces and making them better than they were. I’ve always been drawn to that kind of work, where you start with something rough and finish with something that wasn’t there before. I’m not built to sit still, and I’ve never been good at working on something I don’t believe in.
B&T: What was your favourite campaign of all time?
AI: Cadbury ‘Gorilla’. A man in a gorilla suit playing Phil Collins on the drums. No product shot until the last frame. It shouldn’t have worked. It became one of the most talked-about ads of the decade.
The other one is closer to home, the old Cottee’s Cordial ad. “My dad picks the fruit that goes into Cottee’s.” A kid, a line, a brand promise wrapped in something you actually feel. Thirty seconds of work that’s outlived most of what I’ve watched since.
Trust the audience to feel something. Most brands talk too much and trust too little.
B&T: Now let’s talk shop. What is your brand’s top priority for the next 12 months?
AI: Reminding people why El Jannah is El Jannah. We’ve grown fast, opened a lot of stores, and the brand has had to stretch to keep up. The next twelve months are about tightening the centre. Every store, every product, every piece of communication carrying the same Lebanese soul the brand was built on; confident, generous, a little rebellious, and unapologetically itself.
B&T: What channel is exciting you the most and how do you split your marketing budgets between long/short and channels mix?
AI: Real captured moments, content that draws on the culture of the brand rather than performing for the camera. The best work we do feels like something you walked in on, not something you were sold. That’s where audiences are actually leaning in.
The split runs roughly 60/40 long to short. Brand has to do the heavy lifting in a category where everyone discounts. Within performance, digital platforms are still the workhorses, yet there is a re-emergence of traditional media as more consumers want to feel a sense of tangible connection. The discipline is resisting the temptation to over-rotate into short-term, give creative the breathing space it needs. Long-term brand equity doesn’t show up in last-click attribution. It shows up in perceived value, abundance and being unique yet true to the brand core.
B&T: What is the biggest challenge you currently face in the marketplace?
AI: Cost of living. It’s hitting our customer harder than the headlines suggest, and it’s reshaping how people make food decisions; frequency, basket size, daypart. The challenge isn’t to discount our way through it. It’s to stay honest, real food while being genuinely good value. Those two things aren’t the same, and most brands collapse one into the other under pressure. We’re trying not to.
B&T: What are you most excited about in the marketplace?
AI: The death of the safe ad. Audiences have stopped rewarding polished, focus-grouped, say-nothing work. They want point of view. They want brands with opinions. They want the work to feel like it came from a real human, not a committee, something that makes you feel like you’re part of the friends group, not the target market.
Real moments, real truth, real people. For a brand like ours, loud, proud, culturally specific. The brands willing to be themselves are winning. Everyone else is wallpaper.
B&T: Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?
AI: Still building. Whether it’s El Jannah at three times the size or something I haven’t started yet, I’ll be working on something I can put my name on and defend. I’m chasing the next problem worth solving.
B&T: Speaking hypothetically what’s one brand, product or category you’d like to sink your teeth into right now as a marketer?
AI: DoorDash. They’ve got a real chance to embed themselves into Australian culture in a way the category hasn’t seen yet.
“Let’s DoorDash it” should become the kind of phrase people use without thinking, built into how Aussies talk about food, mates, and a night in. That kind of cultural ownership isn’t bought, it’s built. And right now the lane is wide open.
It’s the same kind of thinking we apply at El Jannah, building a brand that becomes part of people’s rituals, conversations and shared moments, not just another food option.
B&T: Zenith believe there is untapped media potential we need to uncover. What is your prediction for media this year?
AI: The next twelve months will sort the brands that understand attention from the ones still buying impressions. Reach is cheap. Attention is expensive. Most media plans haven’t caught up.
Creator-led, culturally specific content keeps eating share from traditional formats. Not because it’s cheaper, because it’s the only place audiences are actually leaning in. The brands that figure out how to show up in those spaces without sanitising themselves will own the next cycle. The ones that try to control the message will keep paying more for less.
