McCann bolsters team for Cathay

Halbroth, whose move comes four months after M&C lost the British Airways account, will work alongside ECDCarol Lam in the newly- created role of senior creative director, managing global branding efforts for Cathay Pacific, Marco Polo Club and Asia Miles, covering relationship marketing and digital solutions. His appointment marks an important shift at the agency to integrate its communication offering for the carrier, following the roll out of the 'Move' branding platform in November last year. The Hong Kong airline -- which carried record passenger and cargo loads in 2005 on the back of continued investment in aircraft and network expansion -- broke the 'Born to move' campaign to showcase its brand personality beyond that of a reliable airline for business travellers. According to Vince Viola, senior vice-president Asia-Pacific and managing director, McCann, the agency's Cathay team will take on a total of 12 new staff -- from account management to creative and media talent -- by the end of next month. "(Thierry's position) is a newly-created role as part of our total integrated offering for the client. Rather than have a digital unit or below-the-line unit/CRM company, Cathay and McCann have created one centralised team to cover all integration," said Viola. "Instead of handing work over to digital or DM, it is now about thinking of the best solution -- whether that's TV or DM -- and executing it. In the CX team, we also have media embedded in the team as opposed to the other way around, to keep the creative and media product hand-in- hand." Meanwhile, at M&C, Glenn Bartlett has been named integrated services director to replace Halbroth. The appointment sees Bartlett return to Hong Kong from his most recent stint as executive creative director at McCann Tokyo's MRM division, where he led the integrated business.