RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA // Rayyan Aoun is an Emmy®-winning Chief Creative Officer at BigTime Creative Shop, the agency he helped shape from the ground up into the 4th ranked independent agency in the world, according to both WARC and The Drum.

Since co-founding BigTime Creative Shop in late 2023, Aoun has driven one of the fastest and most celebrated creative rises the industry has seen. Under his leadership, the agency became the first from the MENA region to win an Emmy®, earned the title of Independent Entertainment Agency of the Year at Cannes Lions 2025, Independent Agency of the Year at Dubai Lynx 2025, and swept Regional Independent Agency of the Year honours at LIA, Adfest, The One Club, and CLIO. BigTime was also named Independent Agency of the Year at Campaign AOY, recognised as the fastest-growing agency in MENA by Effie 2024, and ranked No. 1 across both APAC and MENA — all within the span of two years.

The agency’s boundary-pushing work attracted major global media coverage from outlets including The Guardian, GQ, Hypebeast, and The Sun, while simultaneously drawing in a wave of new clients and delivering significant top-line growth.

Aoun’s journey to this point is rooted in the MENA region’s creative fabric. Originally from Lebanon and a graduate of Graphic Design at the American University of Beirut, he began his career in 2005 at J. Walter Thompson Dubai before rising to Executive Creative Director at Wunderman Thompson Riyadh in 2015, where he transformed the office into Saudi Arabia’s most awarded agency, putting Saudi creativity on the global map. During that tenure, he made history twice over: securing Saudi Arabia’s first Grand Prix at Dubai Lynx in 2015 and at Cannes Lions in 2023, amassing more than 180 awards across global shows.

With BigTime now ranked among the world’s top independent agencies, Aoun shows no signs of stopping, and neither does the region he’s helped put on the map.