Move and win roundup: Publicis One, Google, Vodafone, Flamingo, more

PEOPLE MOVES

Publicis One’s creative agency Saatchi & Saatchi Arachnid appointed Wong Sen Kiat and Ng Tech Yew as creative director and creative director of art and design, respectively. Wong previously led the Digi creative team at NagaDDB, having also worked at Leo Burnett, BBDO, Publicis and JWT. Ng was most recently creative group head at McCann Worldgroup Kuala Lumpur, while also working at Wieden + Kennedy Shanghai and Agenda Kuala Lumpur.

m2m Sydney hired Tarryn Blackwood and Dan O’Brien for head of social and head of digital roles, respectively, replacing the outgoing Emma Glazier and Dan Hills. Blackwood was previously senior account director at Mondelez, while O’Brien was GAD for Frontier Australia. Also, James Parry is appointed as business director, a role newly created after two business wins: Sony Pictures Releasing and Destination Canada. Parry was most recently executive director at OMD International in London.

JWT Melbourne appointed Georgia Bruton in a newly created role heading the agency’s shopper marketing department. Bruton previously worked at National MD in a similar role, and will be expected to lead the agency’s in-house shopper teams and deliver solutions for their main client Treasury Wine Estates.

The St. Regis Singapore appointed Cassie Chew as its new director of marketing communications. With over a decade of experience in hospitality and communications, Chew boasts stints at The Patina, Capitol Singapore Fairmont Raffles Hotels International, Goodwood Park Hotel, Meritus Hotels & Resorts, and Treetops Executive Residences.

Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific appointed Jay Trinidad as SVP and GM of Northeast Asia. Based in Tokyo, Trinidad will report to Arthur Bastings, president and MD of Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific. He takes over the Japan business from Louis Boswell, who will now head Discovery’s Southeast Asia operations. Hee-Man Lee, the country manager for Korea, and his team, will be folded into Trinidad’s group.

Insight and strategy consultancy Flamingo Singapore named Jeremy Sy its new CEO, replacing the outgoing Emma Gage, who has relocated to Flamingo Shanghai. Sy joins from The Futures Company where he was head of consulting for APAC, having previously worked at JWT Shanghai, TBWA and Oglivy Manila.

Adknowledge Asia appointed Neeraj Bansal as country head for India to expand the company’s presence in the market. He will take the lead in growing the sales and operations teams to hit Adknowledge’s goal of reaching 10 percent of Facebook and YouTube ad sales in Asia. Bansal will report to Singapore-based chief revenue officer Damien Lavin.

Havas Worldwide Singapore appointed Allanjit Singh as head of social for Havas Creative Group and MD of the group’s PR brand Havas Siren in Singapore. He was most recently digital director for Singapore at Golin.

Google Hong Kong named Leonie Valentine as managing director, sales & operations, effective 1 August. Valentine was most recently director of customer experience for APAC at Google, and before joining Google, was executive vice president, customer service & operations, at CSL Limited.

Digital Luxury Group, a digital agency dedicated to luxury and premium brands, promoted Pablo Mauron from general manager to partner and managing director of its Shanghai-based operation. 

Lenovo’s head of global engagement marketing, Lawrence Yu (于智博), has left the company that he joined in November 2010. Replacing him is Quinn O’ Brien, currently vice president for Lenovo’s worldwide branding.

Chinese mobile DSP company Domob hired Evan Xu (许宇杰) as vice president of business. Xu has 10 years of experience in the field of advertising and marketing. Previously, he served a similar role as vice president of business in ReachMax, focusing on East China operations.

Madhouse promoted two senior executives with immediate effect: former vice president of national sales Charlie Ruan (阮长俊) to president and former senior marketing director Wendy Wang (王莹) to vice president.

Yang Cao (曹陽), formerly general manager of Asia-Pacific operations at xAd, has been given two positions at Yirendai (宜人贷), an online consumer finance company in China: chief operating officer and chief technology officer.

IPG Mediabrands Hong Kong hired Kasper Aakerlund as its new CEO, replacing Lilian Leong who moved on to memes website 9gag as global COO. Aakerlund, who will start work mid-September, was COO and CDIO of GroupM Vietnam and Indonesia.

Adams Fan (范耀威) founded an independent agency and named it F5. Prior to that, he clocked 18 months as executive creative director at DDB Shanghai. His 14 years of work experience before DDB Shanghai was spent at Ogilvy and Leagas Delaney.

Allen Liu took on a new role as online marketing director for Dodoca, a Chinese company that provides mobile social marketing software. From August 2012 to June 2016, he was media trading director at Chinapex.

BUSINESS WINS

Vizeum Singapore was appointed as the media agency on record for FWD Singapore, the insurance arm of Pacific Century Group.

Vodafone Australia moved its media planning and buying from Bohemia, which held the account for the past four years, to fellow WPP AUNZ company, GroupM. The brand’s Australia media will be managed by GroupM's ‘Team Red’, a bespoke unit that already handles Vodafone in all other global markets.  

Iris Worldwide expanded its relationship with Chang Beer and is set to launch a series of global activation initiatives for the Thai brand. Having worked with Chang Beer from its Sydney and Bangkok offices since 2014, Iris will now work with the brands global activation team to develop new participation platforms. The agency’s first campaign will be 'Chang Sensory Trails’; a "multi-sensorial playground" built to create new memories around iconic Thai flavours. The festival will run in Singapore, the US and the UK, with its first stop in Singapore on 20 August.

PHD Singapore retained Mount Faber Leisure Group’s media business, having held the account since 2014. PHD will continue to work in media strategy, planning, buying, and harnessing digital platforms for the mainstay in the Singapore leisure landscape.

Australian PR boutique Magnum & Co won audio electronics brand Harman following a competitive pitch. The agency will provide support in media relations, influencer marketing, content creation and social media strategy.

Sony Interactive Entertainment Hong Kong Ltd (Singapore Branch) has appointed TBWA\Singapore to handle its PlayStation 4 (PS4) regional brand campaign, after a competitive pitch. The Southeast Asia-wide campaign, scheduled to launch later this year, will seek to boost PlayStation’s brand awareness, and appeal to new users by showcasing the PS4’s wealth of gaming and entertainment capabilities.

OTHER DEALS

LeSports HK, exclusive broadcaster of the English Premier League from 2016/17 to 2018/19, and Now TV, Hong Kong’s largest pay-TV provider, have appointed LeEco as the exclusive TV advertising agent for their Premier League co-branded channels. Advertisements and sponsorships will be broadcast through both platforms.

Media OutReach, a full-service newswire in APAC, opened a second office in Singapore. It also formed an exclusive news content partnership with AsiaOne, a news portal owned by Singapore Press Holdings.