Move and win roundup: Week of February 1, 2021

Campaign compiles a new 'Move and win roundup' as each week progresses.  This edition will cover February 1 through 5, 2021.  Catch up on past people moves and business wins.

Effie Asia Pacific launched the Effie Asia Pacific Council, a 20-member group that will steer the APAC Effie Awards and propel new APAC Effie initiatives. The Council will be chaired by Chris Reitermann, CEO of Ogilvy Asia and Greater China. The full Effie Asia Pacific Council lineup is as follows:

• Chris Reitermann, CEO, Ogilvy Asia & Greater China (Chairman)
• Ashish Bhasin, CEO APAC and Chairman India, Dentsu International (Awards Chairman 2021)
• Akira Mitsumasu, VP Global Marketing, Japan Airlines
• Alex Lubar, President, McCann Worldgroup Asia Pacific
• Ali Abbas, Business Head of Dairy, Nestlé Vietnam
• Angela Bassichetti, Head of Creative Shop APAC, Facebook
• Anupriya Acharya, CEO, Publicis Groupe South Asia
• Christina Lu, Head of Marketing, Ali Express
• Daphne Kuah, Vice President, Procter & Gamble
• David Porter, VP Global Media, APAC & Africa, Unilever
• Erica Kerner, SVP & Head of Marketing Strategy & Partnerships, Commercial, ONE Championship
• Fern Canning, Managing Director, Edelman Australia
• Karl Cluck, Head of APAC Agency, TikTok
• Lisa Ransom, Group Retail Marketing and Operations Director, The Dairy Farm Company
• Margot B Torres, Managing Director, McDonald’s Philippines
• Pully Chau, Group Chairman, Cheil Greater China
• Rupen Desai, CMO, Dole Foods; Founder, TS/28
• Simon Kahn, CMO APAC, Google
• Tony Harradine, CEO APAC, Omnicom Media Group
• Vishnu Mohan, Chairman, Vivendi Committee, India & South East Asia

Digital transformation consultancy Capgemini Invent has named Sebastian Troen as vice president, of Brand & Experience (B&E) for Southeast Asia. Troen brings with him over 20 years’ experience in the digital space and has worked extensively across Asia with roles at Avanade/Accenture and most recently leading Sapient’s digital business transformation efforts across SEA. In this role, Troen will launch and lead the B&E capability unit for SEA, positioning Invent and the B&E offer to build a significant pipeline, working with major alliance partners; Adobe, Salesforce and Microsoft, targeting blue chip clients across the region. In parallel the role will be to build and accelerate the team with top tier talent. 

Chinese digital agency SparkX appointed Emma Jiang as CEO and hired senior 4A agency executives Raymond Wang and Richard Zhang to join its management team. Jiang has cross border ecommerce experience managing teams in China, Europe and the US, including a previous role at Global Market Group. She will lead the business, supporting clients with their strategies to grow their brands internationally and maximise their ecommerce potential. Zhang joins from his role as MD of Initiative China, while Wang joins from Omnicom Media Group, China where he was the lead of the programmatic division and also the leader of OMG Marketplace, handling inbound and outbound business. SparkX was formed in 2018 by Jun Yuan, ex-OMG China Accuen lead and Annalect New York director, and Tony Wang, formerly from WPP and lead of marketing sciences at PHD USA. The agency now has over 300 people in Shenzhen, Beijing, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Hong Kong, Singapore, New York and Seoul.

Raeon International appointed PHD Hong Kong to take on its brand planning and digital responsibilities. The overseas property specialist recently partnered with PHD on an upcoming branding campaign, leaing to this new appointment to handle its digital performance.

Digital performance marketing agency Tug won SEO campaign work with Thailand comparison website EasyCompare. Tug won the EasyCompare contract off the back of successful digital marketing work across EasyCompare's parent company, including with brands Compare the Market and Budget Direct. Under its remit, Tug will deliver multi-lingual SEO, targeting Thai and English comparison searches for EasyCompare.

Spritzer Malaysia appointed Kingdom Digital as its social-media agency for a period of a year. The agency will be responsible in managing Spritzer’s Facebook page, which includes developing content strategies and producing relevant creative. The agency will also be managing digital campaigns for the brand. The client wants to strengthen its brand awareness as well as top-of-mind recall among Malaysians when it comes to deciding on natural mineral water. The agency’s work for Spritzer commenced in January.

Wattpad Brand Partnerships has brought on Culture Group as partnership agency of record. The agency will offer content-based opportunities for brands to connect with Wattpad’s Gen-Z audience. The partnership will allow Wattpad Brand Partnerships to expand its presence and profile among brands and marketing leaders in Southeast Asia, offering advertisers more opportunities to tap into Wattpad Influencers, original stories, and Southeast Asia fan communities for brand campaigns and activations. Wattpad boasts a global community of over 90 million, including more than 22 million users in Asia-Pacific countries. Wattpad recently announced that it will be acquired by Naver, South Korea’s internet conglomerate.

Integral Ad Science (IAS), a provider of digital ad verification solutions, has made three senior appointments in Australia and New Zealand to accelerate the company’s growth in the region. IAS has named Jessica Miles as country manager, Brandon Coleman as commercial lead, and Chanel Barta as head of Customer Success in the region.  Miles joined IAS in 2017 as the sales director of Australia and New Zealand. In her new role as Country Manager ANZ, she will lead the regional business, reporting directly to Laura Quigley, SVP APAC. Coleman will be responsible for shaping the local business development strategy. Prior to IAS, he was operations manager at NewsCorp leading the GroupM account and then got promoted to National advertising product specialist, driving video advertising revenue nationally.  Barta, who joined IAS in 2015, will lead a team driving efficiency and outcomes for buy-side and sell-side partners. She previously held roles in technical client services. Before joining IAS, she worked with ninemsn as a campaign manager.

Ogilvy Indonesia has been appointed as the integrated ATL and digital (including social) agency for Pizza Hut Indonesia, following a competitive, multi-agency pitch. The appointment will see Ogilvy drive strategic communications efforts across both the restaurant and delivery business. The engagement which kicked off in December, will see new campaign launches early 2021.

Uniplan has promoted Gordon Wang from general manager to managing director of its Beijing office. Utilising his experience of over 15 years in the industry, Wang will drive the Beijing-based Uniplan's business. In addition, Hui Ping Pek joins Uniplan on February 1st as the chief finance officer based in Shanghai. Hui Ping has more than 25 years of experience in media and agency businesses.

Evolve Digitas has won the digital mandate for GMR Aerocity. The mandate includes digital creative strategy and social media. Evolve Digitas will assist GMR Aerocity in developing a distinct positioning, building brand awareness and be responsible for brand communication, social media marketing management, digital engagement and digital strategy. The account will be serviced from Evolve DigitasDelhi NCR office in India.

After a four-way agency pitch, The Australian Institute of Company Directors has appointed Havas Media to develop the media and digital plans for the AICD brand and performance campaigns. The acccount moves from Initiative. 

Integrated Centre for Consultancy (ICCPL), an Indian PR firm, has bagged the account of Jivo Wellness. With this the PR firm would now be responsible to manage the media & communication strategies for the wellness brand.

RedComm, an independent digital agency in Indonesia, has unveiled its new logo as it enters 20 years of existence. Redcomm’s evolution started from being a conventional agency to becoming the country’s leading integrated digital agency and is now evolving to an agency that fuses creativity with AI data and technology and this logo relfects this shift. For two decades, RedComm has initiated and handled campaigns for more than 500 brands. 

AI marketing platform EternityX opened an office in Sydney, which will be overseen by Richard Andrew, managing director of Southeast Asia and Australia, and led locally by Luke Busell, director ANZ. EternityX also appointed Tony Skvarc as sales director ANZ. The new office will focus on connecting brands and consumers through cross-border, cross-culture e-commerce and service offering initiatives, such as advanced education, between China and Australia, the company said. Headquartered in Hong Kong, EternityX has offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, New York, Singapore and now Australia. Clients include Richemont Group, LVMH, Hilton, L'Oréal, P&G, and HSBC. The company’s platform helps agencies and brands effectively reach hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers through partners such as iQiyi, Xiaohongshu, Douyin, WeChat and Bilibili.

PR and advocacy firm SPAG appointed Farah Zuber as business director for its newly launched operation in Malaysia. Zuber has more than 10 years of experience in integrated communications and reputation building. She was previously with Edelman Malaysia as an associate director. Zuber will work with Priyanka Bajpai, SPAG regional head, to grow its footprint in Malaysia. The company said it is also planning to broaden its footprint to Vietnam and Taiwan.

WPP AUNZ agency OPR promoted John Harding-Easson to head of social, and appointed Cody Desmond to the newly created role of culture editor with the company's consumer brand marketing arm, Pulse. Harding-Easson will work across a broad range of clients such as KFC, BCG, Tourism Australia, American Express as well as some of the agency’s public sector clients. Desmond most recently headed up content strategy for Menulog at Connecting Plots, and has led social editorial efforts on Netflix ANZ at We Are Social. Prior to that he was with Bolster, where he handled Red Bull's music account and the agency's electronic music portfolio.

Rakuten Advertising appointed Cyprus Malinao as senior client development manager, based in Singapore. After expanding its affiliate marketing business into Asia in 2017, the company is now gearing up to launch ad inventory in its owned-and-operated media properties: Rakuten Viber and Rakuten Viki. Malinao has 10 years of experience, having managed brands such as Disney, Unilever and L’Oreal in the Philippines and Singapore while working at Amobee, Grapeshot (Oracle Data Cloud) and Factual (Foursquare).

The Monkeys appointed Tara Ford as chief creative officer in Sydney. She previously held the same position with DDB. She will replace The Monkey’s co-founder Justin Drape, whose departure was announced Janaury 21, and work with group CCO and co-founder Scott Nowell. Ford joined DDB as an ECD in 2017 and was promoted to CCO in September 2019. She worked on clients including Westpac, Volkswagen and McDonalds. Ant Keogh is the CCO in The Monkeys’ Melbourne office.

AnyMind Group appointed Nguyen Thi Ha My as country manager in Vietnam, Ryuji Takemoto as managing director of product development, and Wing Lee as country manager for Taiwan. Ha My joined AnyMind Group in 2018 as head of integrated business in Vietnam. She previously held roles at Happiness Saigon, Daybreak Digital, Dream Incubator and Customer Smile JSC. The company has more than 140 employees across two offices in Ho Chi Minh City and one in Hanoi. Takemoto was formerly head of product development and is responsible for leading the product development team in Tokyo, Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City, which works across the AnyTag, AnyCreator, AnyFactory, AnyLogi, AnyManager and AnyDigital platforms. Lee joins from Dotmore Media where she spent close to a decade, most recently as vice general manager. She will oversee operations across AnyMind's offerings in influencer marketing, cloud manufacturing, ecommerce, logistics, media monetization and advertising.

Prophet appointed Cecilia Huang, formerly SVP of brand commerce consultancy at Isobar China, as a partner in its Shanghai office. She has more than 20 years of experience in brand consulting, digital marketing, retailing and big data analytics. Her previous companies include Interbrand China and a home furnishing retailer in China. 

FCB India won the integrated communication mandate of India’s Lakme and Elle 18 cosmetic brands following a multi-agency pitch. The agency will provide 360-degree communication strategies that are adaptive and relevant to the current market conditions as the brand charts its course for the next phase of growth. Both brands belong to the parent company HUL.

Full-service independent Apparent promoted Michelle Turchini to be its first executive creative director and Louise Acret to creative director. Turchini joined four years ago and was promoted to creative director in 2018 from the role of creative group head of design and UX. She has past experience with JWT and Havas. Acret  has been with the agency for two years and has experience at Present Company, Adhesive and 303 Mullen Lowe.

Lintas Live , part of MullenLowe Lintas Group, won the social-media marketing mandate for Turespaña in India. The Tourism Office of Spain for India is the official government organization that represents Tourism Spain globally. Lintas Live will be responsible for management of the entire virtual community around Turespaña’s social media accounts in India, including content development, crisis management and online reputation management.     

OLX Autos, the automobile business of OLX India, appointed Lowe Lintas as its agency. The agency's scope primarily includes delivering offline and digital communication for the brand. 

Eastwest Public Relations was appointed by the UAE Water Aid Foundation (Suqia UAE) to lead communication activities across Southeast Asia for the third cycle of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Water Award. The agency will drive awareness for the award by offering strategy and planning and through media relations, content creation, digital services and events across the Southeast Asia market.

GRD - The Superior Protein, from Zydus Nutriva, a division of Zydus Healthcare, awarded digital and performance duties to Chimp&z. The scope of work for the full-service digital marketing agency includes social media management, performance marketing, and website handling.

Dentsu Asia Pacific appointed Rachel Ooi as APAC chief growth officer for its CXM (customer experience management) service line. She joins from Accenture, where she was managing director and industry X.0 lead (growth markets), based in Singapore. The appointment is effective immediately, and Ooi will report to Zhengda (Z) Shen, CEO of CXM for Dentsu APAC, and Owen McCorry, global chief growth officer for CXM at Dentsu. Ooi will be responsible for bolstering CXM’s regional footprint through new business and organic growth, working with media and creative leads on integrated opportunities, the company said. She will also lead the regional rollout and implementation of the sales platform across all sales and account management functions. Prior to Accenture, Ooi was with General Electric (GE Digital). Dentsu said its CXM service line continues a rapid expansion via the Merkle brand, with nearly 4,000 people based in APAC.

Innocean Worldwide appointed Nicholas Kim as its first global chief strategy officer. He was previously chief strategy officer with Publicis Groupe in New York. He will supervise business development across the agency's 29 operations in 20 countries. A Korean American, Kim is a global strategist with 20 years of experience in brand, digital, media, design and investment consulting. He has also worked at West, Huge and Prophet and has worked with brands including Google, GE, Samsung Electronics, Unilever, Nike and HP. He is also a member of the advisory council for Harvard Business Review. 

VCCP Singapore has launched its B2B practices, VCCP Business, hiring Jerone Larson as its B2B practice lead. In this newly created role, Larson will take leadership of VCCP’s strategic, creative and delivery requirements for its range of global, regional and local B2B clients.  In doing so, she will tap the expertise of 150 professionals in 8 offices across APAC among VCCP partnership agencies like  StratAgile (digital production, data and marketing automation), Corporate Citizenship (sustainability consultancy) and Good Relations (public relations and internal communications) as well as VCCP. Prior to this, Larson led and managed end-to-end global brand and demand generation campaigns at Omnicom's Doremus in New York for B2B clients such as the Singapore EDB, Akamai Technologies, National Instruments and Shell. 

TrinityP3 Australia and New Zealand promoted Lydia Feely to general manager, appointed Kylie Sandercock as a finance consultant, hired Kate Guaran as a consultant, and appointed David Angell as business director in Melbourne. Feely has held a number of senior roles over 10 years with the firm. Sandercock was most recently finance director for a boutique hospitality group and has held senior finance roles at Publicis Media, OMD, Dentsu and Havas. She will be working with long-term TrinityP3 senior consultant Lyndon Brill on financial analysis for TrinityP3 projects. Guaran has client-side experience with Vegemite and Canon, as well as agency experience. Angell returns to Trinity P3 following a stint in Singapore as the COO at Havas.

PR and social agency One Green Bean added Airtasker, a community marketplace for jobs, to its client portfolio following a three-way pitch. The agency will support the brand's growth plans in Australia and New Zealand. One Green Bean's clients include Nike, Coca-Cola, Dyson, Amazon and Afterpay.