Move and win roundup: Week of July 21, 2025

Rogier Bikker, managing director of Monks Greater China, has announced his departure from the agency and his return to Amsterdam, The Netherlands, after more than a decade and a half in China. In a LinkedIn post, Bikker wrote: “To everyone who’s been part of my journey in China—you’ve made it special. Thank you.” Bikker first moved to Shanghai 16 years ago and quickly established himself as a prominent figure in the region’s creative and digital marketing landscape. He founded independent agencies Energise and Brand New China before co-founding Tomorrow in 2015, where he served as CEO. When S4 Capital acquired Tomorrow in 2021 as part of its global expansion, the agency was integrated into MediaMonks—now rebranded as Monks as of 2024. Following the acquisition, Bikker was appointed to lead Monks' operations across Greater China. He was recognised as one of Campaign Asia-Pacific’s 40 Under 40 in 2022 for his contributions to the region’s creative industry.

No announcement has yet been made regarding his next professional move.

PHD has won the Virgin Active media business in Singapore and Thailand, effective from 1 July, following a competitive pitch process involving three other agencies. PHD will deliver full-funnel media strategy, planning, buying, and performance management across all media, including digital, social, search, offline media, and data analytics. PHD will also support market-specific activations and audience planning in collaboration with Virgin Active's in-house teams.

DDB Group Singapore has expanded its planning department with the addition of senior strategist Daniel Huang. In his new role, Huang will work alongside chief strategy officer Subodh Deshpande. With experience working in Shanghai, London, and Hong Kong, Huang collaborated with Unilever to help Dove effectively combat misconceptions about beauty across multiple cultures worldwide.  Huang was most recently associate strategy director at Ogilvy Hong Kong. Huang’s appointment coincides with the launch of DDB’s Feels Barometer – a global tool designed to measure, decode, and harness human feelings at scale.

Evgenia Papageorgiou has left The Coca-Cola Company as its regional director of marketing, emerging brands. Papageorgiou joined The Coca-Cola Company almost nine years ago.Started as South Pacific senior  brand manager from Sdyney, and then moved Malaysia and Singapore after various promotions. She was promoted to the current role, leaing brand growth and innovation across Southeast Asia and South Pacific since early 2024. Before The Coca-Cola Company, she served as brand manager at Wrigley Australia & New Zealand also worked for Mondelēz and Cadbury in Europe.

MullenLowe Singapore has appointed Terence Leong as regional Unilever creative lead, where he will steer the creative vision for Unilever brands across the Asia Pacific region, from the agency’s Singapore hub. With over 25 years in the industry, Leong has held the role of executive creative director at TBWA Media Arts Lab Southeast Asia, AKQA Tokyo, and RGA Shanghai, and served as the creative lead on Nike Greater China at Wieden + Kennedy Shanghai. He has won numerous awards across Cannes Lions, Spikes, Clio, Lotuses and more. 

Biopharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca has nabbed Rikki Jones as its new head of communications, International & EUCA, according to a LinkedIn post by Jones. Jones was previously the president of GCI Health APAC and CEO of Burson Group Singapore. Before that, she worked for Cohn & Wolfe, Lilly, Edelman and Weber Shandwick in the UK and Australia. 

Vodafone Australia has named Howatson+Company its new creative agency of record, effective immediately, following a competitive pitch process led by Trinity P3 and TPG Telecom’s procurement team. The agency is understood to have prevailed over five rivals, including incumbent Saatchi & Saatchi, part of Publicis Groupe. The move comes as Vodafone’s parent company, TPG Telecom, undergoes a marketing leadership shake-up. Rebecca Darley, formerly with Domain Group, joined as CMO earlier this year, succeeding long-serving marketer John Casey.

Brand and design consultancy Elmwood within the MSQ Group has appointed Juan Tan as creative director for China. Based in Shanghai, Tan will lead the local creative team and join the China leadership team, reporting to managing director Angeline Kong. Tan brings more than two decades of experience across corporate branding, spatial design and brand activation. He was most recently creative director at Dragon Rouge, where he spent six years.

Fintech and Web3 company Finoverse has hired Sai Roshini Daswani as its new head of marketing. Daswani was previously corporate communications manager at Hong Kong's luxury mall K11 and, prior to that, spent over a decade at Sinclair Communications, where she last served as APAC director of client strategy before moving in-house in 2023.

Digital marketing firm NP Digital has won Club Med’s media business for the East, South Asia, and Pacific (ESAP) region. This is a multi-year retainer led by the agency's Singapore office, in which NP Digital will be tasked with end-to-end performance marketing and developing a data-driven media strategy for the target audience, as well as accelerating growth in Vietnam, India, and the Philippines.

The Wall Street Journal has appointed Jason Douglas as the new Tokyo bureau chief. Douglas will oversee a team based in Tokyo and drive the Journal's coverage in the market. Prior to arriving in Japan, Douglas reported on economics in Asia from the Journal's Singapore bureau. He started his career at newspapers in Northern Ireland and joined Dow Jones as a newswires reporter in 2007. He takes over from Peter Landers, who now serves as the Asia business, finance and economics editor based in Singapore. 

Independent marketing consultancy IMA B2B has appointed Simon Gaffney to the role of creative director. His career includes leadership roles on major accounts such as British Airways, Guinness, MasterCard, Toyota, Qantas, R.M. Williams and the Big Four banks. He is a Cannes Gold Lion winner and has also received Effie, ADMA and Caples Awards for work that blends creativity with commercial effectiveness.

Paul Bradbury has stepped down from TBWA, according to Australian trades. Bradbury has been with the Omnicom creative agency for nearly 20 years. The major leadership shuffle coincides with the launch of the new Oceania structure under Omnicom Advertising Group. Meanwhile, Nick Garrett has returned as CEO of Omnicom Oceania, and he will oversee creative, media, PR, and production across Australia and New Zealand. Campaign Asia-Pacific has reached out to the agency for an official statement but has not received a response at the time of publication. 

Garrett will report directly to global CEO John Wren and is leading what Omnicom calls a “pilot model” for tighter regional integration, effectively collapsing silos across its agency groups. Bradbury had led TBWA ANZ for over a decade, delivering strong results and major wins including the $100 million Telstra account, Australian Defence Force and Kraft Heinz. Meanwhile, TBWA recently hired Lucio Ribeiro as its first chief AI and innovation officer and launched ‘Rise’, a new service built to help brands stay visible in AI-powered search.

CMO Shubhranshu Singh has stepped down from Tata Motors after a four-year stint leading the brand and marketing function for its commercial vehicles business. Singh is credited with driving a sizeable transformation, modernising the brand, sharpening its digital strategy and retuning how Tata’s CV division connects with customers. Before Tata, Singh was global head of marketing at Royal Enfield, where he helped scale the brand globally. His two-decade career also includes leadership roles at Star TV, Diageo, Visa, and Unilever. No word yet on his next move, Campaign has contacted him for the same. 

The Association for Data-Driven Marketing and Advertising (ADMA) has announced a new Advisory Committee featuring top CMOs and experts from Optus, NAB, Woolworths, MECCA, Zip Co, and Deloitte. The group brings deep expertise in marketing, digital, and business leadership. This follows the appointments of David Morgan as Chair, Steve Brennen as Deputy Chair, and Tom Goodwin as ADMA’s first international member.

Lowe Lintas has won the creative mandate for Tuborg, a popular, youthful and scale beer brand in India, part of the Carlsberg Group, following a competitive multi-agency pitch. The mandate, led by the Lowe Lintas Gurgaon office, includes creative strategy and integrated communication across platforms. The agency will bring a strong understanding of lifestyle and youth brands to the partnership. 

MBCS, the full-service creative arm of IPG Mediabrands, has appointed Matt Holmes as head of creative strategy and ideation in Australia. Holmes will be responsible for content, activations, influencer activity, experiential, and partnerships. Before joining MBCS, he served a brief stint at Emotive as head of earned creative and PR. Prior to that, he was co-founder, director and ECD of Poem. Holmes started his early career in London and then relocated to Australia.