Digital user experience consultancy HeathWallace opened a new office in Melbourne, Australia, after establishing a presence in London, Hong Kong, Chicago and Cape Town. The move is part of the firm’s strategy to expand its digital user experience and design consulting capabilities to its clients down under.
Online interactive marketing provider Innity has launched two networks, Engage Him and Engage Her, for marketers to target different genders. The networks bring together local, regional and international sites catering specifically to the interests of modern, digitally-savvy men and women.
Reports have surfaced regarding Yahoo mulling over exiting its joint venture with Softbank, which currently holds a majority stake in Yahoo Japan. The move has the potential to free up an estimated US$8 billion to funnel into other markets including China, where Yahoo has a 40 per cent stake in Alibaba Group.
M&C Saatchi Malaysia unveiled its new digital arm in the country, M&C Saatchi-i, the latest addition to its regional stable that includes offices in Beijing and Mumbai. The team is led by digital head Bee Yin Low and creative director Neil Leslie, along with project managers, programmers, copywriters and web designers.
Digital, visual effects and post-production studio The Mill has teamed up with BBH Asia-Pacific to set up a post-production joint venture called The Mill@BBH. Operations are set to start in April within BBH’s premises, servicing BBH and its clients in the region.
Ogilvy has appointed Debby Chang to the newly created position of general manager for Neo@Ogilvy Shanghai. She joins the firm from Bremen Network but is an Ogilvy veteran where she held the position of media group head at Ogilvy & Mather and Mindshare in Taiwan from 1996 to 1999.
Google Japan is set to stage a live stream of the Spring and Summer Tokyo Girls Collection event, a major fashion festival, on 5 March. During and after the show, viewers will be able to purchase items from the collection directly through built-in e-commerce links on the site.
SinoTech Group, a Chinese interactive advertising agency, has forged ties with Swiss agency Label.ch. In the agreed setup, SinoTech will be the exclusive provider of digital marketing for Label.ch in China, while Label.ch will be SinoTech’s exclusive distributor of its social media intelligence techonology in Switzerland.
JWT and Media Contacts have picked up the creative and digital businesses, respectively, for Canon consumer electronics in the Philippines. The appointments come after a highly competitive pitch dating back to December 2010 that also involved Ace Saatchi & Saatchi, DDB and incumbent agency DentsuINDIO.
Bertelsmann Asia Invesment led a group of investors that provided funds to iClick Interactive Asia, an online performance marketing provider for Greater China and Southeast Asia. The investment will be used to support the regional expansion of iClick, as well as its research and development division in China.
Trend Micro, the internet content security firm, has named Fleishman-Hillard as its public relations agency of record in Singapore after a competitive pitch involving three other agencies. The PR agency will be responsible for managing Trend Micro’s corporate communications and media relations programmes for its consumer and enterprise businesses.
Pushkar Sane, chief digital officer at Starcom MediaVest for North and South Asia, announced his resignation after a five-year stint at the agency. However, he did not disclose where he is headed off to in the near future.
With the opening of a brand new office in Hong Kong, Adstream has brought in Christine Stark, founder and CEO of AsiaOnTime, to be its managing director. Adstream’s expansion is in response to the increased interest and investment of global brands and agencies in the Chinese media market.
Dentsu has been selected by Facebook in Japan to carry out the social network’s sales and marketing support to firms in the country. Dentsu will be responsible for providing advertisers with consultations on effective Facebook page development and offer new Facebook-based marketing strategies tied to ad placements in other mainstream media.
Damon Rielly has been appointed general manager of Catcha Digital in Malaysia, and will be heading the office in the country. He joins the firm after a stint at REA Group, a real estate advertising firm, where he was head of media sales and operations.
BBDO Proximity Singapore brought in four new digital creatives to its team. Richard Tan joins as interactive designer art director, Joanne Chow was named integrated copywriter, Jessica Novellia Ng comes in as interactive designer and Jeroel Leyble assumed the position of digital artist/ visualiser.
Appio Labs, a mobile app developer, has set up shop in Singapore to develop apps that are an integral part of its client’s business operations. This includes assisting companies in enhancing their connectivity in an increasingly mobile world, be it with their customers, employees, suppliers or with the public.
Publicis Modem opened a new office in Bangkok, Thailand and named Chatuphum Suthasarn as its managing director. The new operation is a full-service digital agency offering strategy, creative, analytics, user experience, multi-platform development, paid media, search, social media and eCRM services.
Hill & Knowlton announced two hires, with Loh Hui Yin named head of crisis communications and Adrian Heng as head of digital. Loh retains her role as senior director and help develop the firm’s suite of services for the corporate, finance, and property sectors, while Heng will lead the team in creating digital programmes focusing on creative engagement and brand evolution.
