Move and win roundup: Week of August 1, 2022

Tokyo-based marketing agency, Relativ, has hired Ogilvy Japan's business director, Ulrike Stolze, as the head of client experience and excellence. The newly created role will require Stolze to oversee the agency's partnership and program management teams. She will report to Christina Adriani, Relativ’s newly appointed managing partner.

Wunderman Thompson Hong Kong has appointed Wilson Ang as ECD and Anant Deboor as head of strategy. Ang returns to the network after having previously served as group creative director at JWT. In the past 20 years, he has worked on Hong Kong and regional accounts including AIA, Disneyland, HSBC, IKEA, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble and Samsung. Deboor too returns to the network after spending more than a decade at the agency in the past. He previously worked client-side as global head of strategic marketing, an independent board-level marketing strategy consultant, as well as an agency-side business leader and planner.

Dentsu Hong Kong has promoted Nathan Petralia to managing director of Merkle, the agency’s recently launched CXM service line. In his new role, Petralia will be accountable for Merkle’s operation and yield a competitive advantage for the agency network as an integrated service provider (creative, media, CXM) and drive strategic growth for the CXM business in the market. Petralia first joined Isobar Commerce Hong Kong in 2018, and stepped up to general manager when the group launched Merkle Hong Kong last year. 

Kinesso, IPG’s connected intelligence company, has promoted Clay Gill to CEO of Kinesso Australia. As part of his new remit, Gill will retain his Matterkind leadership role while adding responsibility for Kinesso Australia’s data and technology solutions. As part of the new Matterkind/Kinesso leadership team, Michael Whiteside, who was previously head of the Melbourne and Perth offices, is now national MD of Matterkind. Meanwhile, Kim Kho, who was previously UM’s director of biddable media for the Australian government, takes on a new role as national head of trading. And finally, Georgina Fox, who was previously head of operations at GroupM’s Finecast, has been appointed as national head of strategic investment and partnerships.

AppsFlyer has promoted Nico Marco to SEAPAC marketing director. He will be tasked to bolster AppsFlyer’s brand reputation in the region, conceptualise marketing strategies, and enhance demand generation efforts for the company. In his previous role, he was the senior communications lead for APAC. In his new role, he will report directly to Ronen Mense, president and managing director of AppsFlyer APAC.

Hill+Knowlton Strategies (H+K) has appointed Adeline Lee as general manager in Singapore. In this newly created role, Lee will focus on driving growth and overseeing all aspects of the business operations and talent development. She brings over two decades of consultancy and in-house experience in communications and joins from ADK Connect where she was hired to establish the PR and content team. Prior to that, Lee was the founder and owner of SG Story, a local boutique agency that specialised in audience engagement, content development and path-to-purchase marketing. In her new role, she will report to Justin Then, CEO of H+K Singapore and Lumos H+K Malaysia.

Ogilvy has hired John Davenport and Woon Hoh as chief creative officers for its Hong Kong and Indonesia offices respectively. They will both be responsible for driving Ogilvy’s creative agenda, delivering innovative solutions at the intersection of Ogilvy’s core capabilities, as well as developing new talent. Hoh has worked Darcy, BBDO, McCann, JWT and Hakihodo. Prior to taking up the role as chief creative officer of Hakuhodo Asean, he was was ECD of Hakuhodo Indonesia. Meanwhile, is one of South Africa’s most awarded creatives as a co-founder of Ireland / Davenport. He joins this role from Havas South Africa, where he was responsible for all creative output at the agency.

Peter Fraser, seasoned Australian corporate affairs, community engagement, and government communications leader has joined Edelman Global Advisory as senior advisor and head of the Australia unit of this newly established public affairs and government relations arm of the communications firm.

Marketing agency Team Lewis promotes Jennifer Greatrex to managing director of its Australia business. Greatrex joined the agency a year ago as client engagement director, responsible for driving growth, awareness, and client value in the region. She takes over from Steven Reilly who hands over leadership after six years with the agency and will be leaving to pursue an in-house role with Colonial First State as director of external communications.

Independent insights consultancy Fiftyfive5 has hired Phil Steggals as head of consulting, APAC. Previously, Steggals was the managing director of Kadence, Singapore for 11 years where he worked for a wide range of clients, including Bloomberg, Samsung, Panasonic, and Changi Airport, across APAC markets. 

AEON Credit Service has appointed Dentsu Malaysia. The agency will be responsible for brand value creation, brand positioning, launching the refreshed brand, and developing market penetration programs for AEON Credit in addition with developing AEON Credit’s digital platform for wider brand awareness.

Grey Tokyo elevates Rui Nago in the role of chief strategy officer, effective immediately. Nago joned Grey in 2010 and since then has been responsible for developing the brand, creative, and overall communication strategies across many of Grey Tokyo’s global clients.

Esports and Web3 company, Ampverse, is officially partnering with Red Bull for Thai esports team, Bacon Time. With this announcement, Red Bull joins other brands like KFC, Razer, Foodpanda, Manly and Ampverse-owned D2C creator merch store, Cuteboy, as official partners for Bacon Time in 2022.

Following a competitive pitch, Swinburne University of Technology has appointed Mediabrands Content Studio–Mediabrands’ data-driven content practice–as the university’s creative production agency. Work will commence immediately, with the first creative products already in market.

After five years as chairman and CEO of Havas Group Australia and New Zealand, Anthony Freedman will be stepping down later this year, as he looks to “embark on a new chapter”. This brings an end to his relationship with both agencies he founded, Host/Havas in 2000, and One Green Bean in 2007. Havas will not hire a direct replacement for Freedman, instead each of the three CEOs, Laura Aldington, Havas Creative Group (Host/Havas and h/commerce), Virginia Hyland, Havas Media Group and Simone Gupta, Havas PR Collective (Red Havas, OGB, Organic) will now report directly to their global network CEOs.

Edelman makes four key leadership appointments across its corporate, brand and technology offerings:

1. Angela Hui has been elevated to head of corporate for Hong Kong and Taiwan. Hui will build on the firm’s crisis and issues management practice, oversee the implementation of global best practice and continuous innovation in the digital space.
2. Simon Chan is the new head of technology for the Greater Bay Area. Chan will partner with Edelman’s APAC tech sector lead, John Kerr, to oversee the development of a regional Centre of Excellence based out of Hong Kong and provide Web 3.0 and metaverse solutions to clients.
3. Sofia Yip is now the head of brand across Hong Kong and Taiwan.
4. Oliver Davis has joined from Ogilvy as creative director across Hong Kong and Taiwan, bringing over nine years' experience in creative, including campaigns for Pizza Hut, Huawei and Coca-Cola.

Dentsu International has appointed Danny Bass as chief executive officer of its media business across the ANZ, overseeing Carat, iProspect, and Dentsu X. Bass brings more than 20 years’ experience in digital media to Dentsu, most recently as director of Snap and formerly CEO of IPG Mediabrands Australia. 

Fyllo, the data-driven marketing and regulatory solutions platform, is expanding its footprint in the region with the appointment of Robert Woolfrey as managing director, APAC. Woolfrey will report to Fyllo's chief commercial officer, Jeff Ragovin.

Tiffana Pun Richards has joined Dentsu Creative China as its chief strategy officer. Richards will report to Keita Ishikawa, China CEO of Dentsu Creative. Richards was chief strategy officer for Serviceplan China.

FutureBrand Australia has appointed Jill Hale to the newly-created role of strategy director.
Hale joins FutureBrand from The Contenders, where she was a senior strategist. 

India's Vadilal Industries, an ice cream brand, has appointed Mullen Lintas Delhi as its creative agency for a global brand campaign. The agency will strategise and execute the brand’s communication for its international markets — across USA, Canada, Australia, UK, Europe, Singapore, Persian Gulf countries, amongst others.

Harley-Davidson Australia & New Zealand has appointed Thrive PR as its PR and social media agency. Activities will include consumer and business media relations and events alongside content creation and digital strategy to enhance Harley-Davidson’s social engagement and awareness. Thrive will also take over influencer relations and Harley-Davidson’s bike experience program.