Move and win roundup: Week of February 5, 2024

Camilla Gleditsch has been promoted to head of agency communications at BBDO Asia. She was previously the PR and corporate communications manager of the APAC region. She has been with the agency for two years and will remain in Shanghai.

After seven years, Parminder Singh, Mediacorp’s chief commercial and digital officer, will leave his post. Before Mediacorp, he was managing director for Twitter in Asia, spent six years at Google and had stints at IBM and Apple.

Software-as-a-service company Freshworks has added Abe Smith to its executive leadership team as chief of global field operations to continue its sales growth upmarket into the enterprise. Smith was most recently head of international at Zoom, and before that, president of Cision, group vice president at Oracle and senior director of sales at Cisco/WebEx.

Health supplement company LAC Global has partnered with Precious Communications and Kobe, marking a significant milestone in the brand's progression. Moving into its second year of partnership, Precious Communications will take charge of strategic public relations, press office management, content development and media relations across Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Simultaneously, Kobe, specialising in influencer marketing, will amplify LAC Global’s brand influence through outcome-driven influencer partnerships across TikTok and Instagram, seamlessly aligning with the brand’s target audience.

The Mars Agency has acquired The In Group, New Zealand’s top brand activation agency, broadening its Australasian operations. The In Group’s founder and managing director Chris Coffey will continue leading local activity in her current role. Coffey launched The In Group 16 years ago and has established itself as New Zealand’s leading agency for creating and executing brand experiences that delight consumers and drive brand results. The list of top clients includes Woolworths, Nestlé, and Clorox.

 

Langham Hospitality Group (LHG) has appointed Lawrence Ng as senior vice president of sales and marketing to succeed Shane Pateman, who has moved to the position of managing director of the Langham Huntington, Pasadena, and regional vice president of operations of North America. Ng will be based in Hong Kong and will report directly to Bob van den Oord, CEO of Langham Hospitality Group. Before joining Longham, Ng worked for over 20 years at Marriott International. He was most recently vice president of sales and marketing for Greater China.  

 

Monash University has re-appointed VML as its creative services partner and will also expand its relationship with WPP to include paid media planning and buying and social strategy following a competitive pitch process. Effective from January 2024, the strengthened partnership will be led by VML, which will oversee creative, paid media and social scopes of work through a newly formed Team IMPACT integrated model powered by WPP. Specialist capability will be provided by GroupM, Wavemaker and Hill+Knowlton.

 

Ooh Media has appointed Andrew Every to the newly created role of chief strategy and transformation officer. Having served three years as the NRL’s executive general manager of strategy and transformation of Ooh Media, Every has previously worked as an executive leader in Telstra’s Media business. He is familiar with the OOH industry as he worked with Adshel as one of his key clients for ten years when he was at PwC.

 

Meriton Suites, Australia’s largest owner-operator of apartment-style hotel suites, has appointed digital consultancy G Squared to lead digital strategy, paid media and search engine optimisation following a pitch win. G Squared was selected based on a full-funnel digital strategy to deliver a substantial performance uplift with an integrated approach, leveraging paid and organic tactics based on market and business needs.

 

WiredCo. has appointed Joe Stuart as its new creative lead. Stuart has ten years of experience across M&C Saatchi and Octagon in London and NZ-based agency EightyOne, working with international brands such as Expedia, Jim Beam, Hyundai, and Cisco.

 

Former Tatcha CMO Kylene Campos has announced via a LinkedIn post that she’s left the company and joined Kenvue as vice president of Skin Health & Beauty for Asia-Pacific. Campos was with Tatcha for over two years. A senior leader in the consumer beauty and healthcare industries, prior to her most recent roles, Campos worked with P&G for over 21 years and held key senior roles in the region, including vice president of hair care in Japan/Korea and global operations leader and chief marketing officer for SK-II. 

AS Watson Group has appointed Freda Ng as the managing director of ParknShop (Hong Kong & Macau), succeeding Norman Yum, who has made the decision to retire. He will remain on as a business advisor. Ng joined AS Watson Group (ASW) in 2010 in a business planning role and came onboard ParknShop as chief operating officer in 2023. Prior to her appointment, she was the chief digital officer of Watsons International and the chief customer & digital officer of Watsons Hong Kong.

 

Crown Resorts, one of Australia’s leading entertainment groups, has appointed Initiative as its media agency of record after a highly competitive media review, effective immediately. Initiative’s remit covers full funnel media strategy, planning and buying, including performance and digital. Crown’s business will be managed out of Initiative Melbourne, leaning heavily into Sydney’s strategy and planning capabilities.  

Publicis Groupe ANZ has appointed Davy Rennie as CEO of digital agency, Digitas Australia, and digital commerce company, Balance, effective from March. Current Digitas CEO Adrian Farouk will depart after working 11 years with the agency. Meanwhile, James Horne has departed as Balance CEO, after co-founding the company 16 years ago. Balance was acquired by Publicis Groupe in 2021. With more than 20 years’ of experience in digital transformation, product innovation, CRM and experience design, Rennie joins Publicis Groupe after more than six years as national managing director of digital agency Tribal DDB. He was also previously at Deloitte Digital as customer experience strategy and design director.

 

McCann Erickson Japan Inc. has appointed Charlotte Auyeung as head of strategy, leading their strategic planning team effective February 1, 2024. Auyeung was born and raised in Hong Kong and has lived in Japan for 20 years since 2004. Auyeung is a trilingual (Chinese, English, Japanese) and multicultural marketing communications professional. She has over 20 years of account management and strategic planning experience at global advertising agencies, including McCann and Leo Burnett in Hong Kong, Beacon Communications, Naked Communications and TBWA/Hakuhodo in Tokyo, where she led the strategies for brands such as P&G, The Coca-Cola Company, McDonald's, IKEA, Airbnb, H&M and more.

 

Dentsu Creative India has announced the expansion of its mandate with TTK Healthcare, a prominent healthcare products company. The account will be serviced from the agency's Mumbai office. Dentsu Creative has been working with Skore and Eva and is now taking on one more brand—MsChief. The agency will provide end-to-end social media and performance media solutions for the three brands. The scope of work includes managing social media platforms and planning and buying media strategically.

Elliot & Co (Prospr Consulting Pte. Ltd.), public relations consultancy, has appointed Mayda Jutahkiti as its new managing director for Singapore, and Jayeeta Mazumder as its new account director. In their new roles, Jutahkiti will spearhead the strategic direction, growth and overall success of Elliot & Co. Singapore. Mazumder will work alongside Jutahkiti to oversee the client portfolio and lead a team of PR and Editorial experts. Jutahkiti has spent 20 years in various capacities, helming the team at her previous agencies at Rice Communications and The Hoffman Agency as General Manager. Mazumder brings 15 years of PR & media experience. Before joining Elliot & Co, she worked at Southeast Asia VC, Monk’s Hill Ventures.

Carma, global media intelligence firm, has elevated Sabrina Azmi as research solutions director for the Asia-Pacific region. Azmi will report to Carma Asia's managing director, Andrew Nicholls. Her primary focus is to support the clients and consulting teams as a subject matter expert in research solutions. She joined Carma Asia in 2019 and most recently led the client services function across Asia-Pacific. 

Media agency Initiative has appointed Steph O'Donnell as head of investment in Melbourne. O’Donnell has also been appointed to the agency’s Melbourne’s senior leadership team. Reporting directly to chief partnerships and investment officer Paige Wheaton, O’Donnell’s immediate remit is to craft and lead the market’s investment product across the entire ecosystem, leveraging the agency’s strengths and products to create client value. Previously, the Victorian group investment director at Carat, O’Donnell has 10 years of experience in media investment, having held senior roles at Spark Foundry across Sydney and Melbourne.

Consumer intelligence company NielsenIQ’s Pacific Managing Director, Megan Treston, will transition to a regional role as APAC consumer panel service (CPS) product lead. Treston assumes the role with a wealth of experience in the Consumer Panel space, backed by a rich 25-year history at NIQ and within the industry. In her new remit, Treston will focus on investments and innovations in the areas such as omnishopper. Pete Sheridan has been promoted as NIQ’s new managing director, Pacific, taking over from Treston. Sheridan will oversee NIQ’s combined FMCG, tech and durables businesses across the Pacific. In the last three years, Sheridan ventured into the technology startup landscape within the agriculture sector. He then joined NIQ at the close of 2023.

Ilana Sanborn, the former head of Kantar Marketplace in Asia-Pacific, has left Singapore to lead Kantar Marketplace in a similar role in North America. Based in Texas, Sanborn will be responsible for the commercialisation and execution of a go-to-market strategy for the Kantar Marketplace platform in North America. She has been with the company for over seven years and worked in Melbourne, Australia, before Singapore.

Weber Shandwick has appointed Claudia Hong as executive vice president of corporate affairs for South Korea. In this role, Hong will be pivotal in shaping and driving corporate and public affairs strategies aligned with organisational goals in the dynamic South Korean market. Reporting to Elizabeth Bae, managing director of Weber Shandwick Korea, Hong will work closely with the team to advise key multinational corporation (MNC) clients, both Korean and foreign, on communication strategies and reputation management. She will work closely with clients to provide strategic counsel to the C-Suite, holistically looking at a company’s stakeholder audiences to shape effective corporate messaging. 

Sandpiper Health, a strategic communications, public affairs, and research group, has announced the appointment of Eddie Morton and Vincent Pung as deputy leads. Before joining Sandpiper, Morton led communications and advocacy for Australia’s member-owned health fund industry. Based in Beijing, Pung has played a critical role in the growth of Sandpiper’s health practice across Asia-Pacific over the past five years. Pung’s client experience covers pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and healthcare organisations. Both will report to the managing director of Sandpiper Health, Robert Magyar.