Ashley Bock isn’t just steering marketing efforts for Advanced Inhalation Rituals (AIR) across the Americas. He’s helping reframe an entire category. In a space where ritual meets reinvention, Bock’s work is quietly reshaping how hookah is positioned, perceived, and enjoyed in modern markets.
As Marketing Director for AIR Americas, he plays a key role in turning strategy into cultural relevance. At a time when AIR is outpacing its competitors at three times the growth rate, Bock’s influence is evident in how seamlessly the brand blends heritage with innovation.
For Bock, marketing in this sector isn’t about pushing a product but about creating experiences that reflect the shifting habits and identities of diverse consumers. That principle has guided his work throughout a career that spans five continents and a wide range of industries, from healthcare to hygiene to home care. At AIR, it forms the core of a strategy that consistently aligns product development with nuanced local insights.
Before taking the helm in the Americas, Bock was based in Dubai, helping shape AIR’s global marketing framework. That role sharpened his expertise in developing campaigns that travel well across borders — no small feat when operating in over 100 countries. His global fluency now informs every decision, from product positioning in Latin America to campaign execution across the U.S. and Canada.
One of AIR’s boldest moves in recent years, the launch of OOKA, has become a case study in that strategy. A sleek, pod-based hookah device with advanced heating and a minimalist aesthetic, OOKA offers a cleaner, more convenient experience designed to resonate with today’s lifestyle-conscious consumer. In the Americas, Bock helped adapt the brand narrative to match regional tastes and expectations, ensuring that the product landed with relevance, not just availability.
That ability to localize innovation is part of what makes AIR’s momentum so difficult to match. With a portfolio that includes legacy brands like Al Fakher, the leading name in hookah worldwide, alongside e-commerce platforms like Hookah-Shisha and a growing range of OOKA pod flavors, AIR is positioned as a cultural force.
As the $19 billion global hookah market edges toward $22 billion by 2026, AIR is expanding its lead. It currently holds a commanding 47% of the global market, a footprint that owes just as much to its marketing engine as it does to its product suite.
At the center of that engine, Bock continues to bring together consumer data, regional nuance, and bold creative thinking. His work reflects a larger vision: building rituals that feel as modern as they are rooted, as personal as they are global.
In a category long driven by tradition, that’s no small shift. But for AIR, and for Bock, it’s exactly the point.
