Move and win roundup: Week of July 29, 2024

Landor has promoted Lulu Raghavan to the role of president, APAC. Raghavan was vice president of APAC, who has been with Landor for 23 years. Throughout her tenure, she has held various roles across several geographies (San Francisco, New York, London and Mumbai). She will remain based in Mumbai and report to Christian Schroeder, global president of Landor. 

Affinity, a full-service marketing agency, has appointed Emma Shepherd as communications director. Shepherd steps into the agency after over one year of working at marketing technology company, The Trade Desk, as its editorial content manager for the Asia Pacific region. Prior to that, she worked at  Mumbrella,3rdspace,  Are Media and Yahoo.

Advertising Council Australia (ACA), the peak body for Australia’s leading advertising agencies, has been appointed as the official representative of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in Australia. The strategic partnership will see ACA join an international network that sets benchmarks for creative excellence and innovation in advertising. ACA will play a key role in supporting local agencies and clients, nominating Jury members, organising the Young Lions competition, and hosting events and screenings of Lion-winning work throughout the year.

Mother has appointed three new creative directors in Shanghai. The trio represent different approaches to talent and take up their roles with immediate effect.

• Moon Qi has been promoted to creative director. She has been with Mother since 2021, and prior, had experience at Wieden+Kennedy and BBDO.
• Kim Liu has been promoted to creative director. With significant experience in domestic and international agencies, Liu joined Mother Shanghai in 2019.
• Abe Chuang has joined Mother as creative director. Prior to Mother, he was at Wieden + Kennedy Shanghai, AKQA Tokyo, RGA Tokyo and Droga5 New York.

Admatazz, a Mumbai-based digital agency that uses creative, media, and technology to solve marketing problems, has strengthened its digital strategy team.

• Janvi Kothari comes onboard as senior account strategist with six years of experience. Before joining Admatazz, Kothari was associated with Schbang.
• Zahadali Tinwala joins, bringing in six years of digital and marketing experience. He has worked with brands like BGauss Electric, JBCN Education, ICICI Bank, and more.
• Yashvi Shah has been promoted to senior account strategist. Shah was previously senior social media manager and started her career with Admatazz in 2022. 

Sixgun has announced its partnership with Yarra Valley Water. The Melbourne-based digital marketing agency will be working on a Google Analytics and data project for Yarra Valley Water, the largest of Melbourne’s three water corporations. The agency was selected by Yarra Valley Water based on their prior experience and detailed service offerings and client testimonials. 

Australia car subscription service, eCar Subscription, has appointed Seven Communications as its Australian PR agency of record. The agency will be responsible for increasing brand awareness and showcasing the benefits of a flexible car ownership model. The partnership will help eCar Subscription with its goals of evolving the way consumers view car ownership in a subscription-based society.

CX Lavender (CXL), customer experience agency, has been appointed by Victoria University to helm the educational institution’s Student Experience Innovation program. The new business will include delivery feasibility, field validation, journey mapping, business casing, quantitative and ethnographic research, modelling, and identifying commercial opportunities.

Independent creative agency The Hallway has announced their departure from Chinese-owned Ute and SUV manufacturer GWM after a pitch triggered by GWM's contractual policies. The Hallway's work, spanning masterbrand strategy to website redesign, significantly contributed to GWM becoming Australia's fastest-growing volume auto brand with multiple Top 10 sales results. Partners Simon Lee and Jules Hall thanked their team for their dedication and expressed a desire to form a new long-term partnership with another ambitious automotive company.

Dentsu has promoted Ganga Chirravuri to president of product and development in APAC and hired Matt Farrington as president of investment and trading in APAC. Chirravuri joined Dentsu in March 2023 and in his new role, will continue to drive the strategic development of Dentsu’s digital and data product portfolios. He will lead a team of engineers to build customisable solutions to client, brand, and market needs and drive incremental performance improvement of client ad dollars. Farrington will focus on developing media investment solutions that deliver outcomes for clients, build capabilities within Dentsu’s disciplines, and strengthen relationships with key partners.

Havas Media Australia has promoted Alastair Baker to the newly created role of chief planning officer. Baker was previously head of planning, where he championed developing innovative work that drove client growth. In his new role, Baker’s remit is to create the local client-centric approach and develop tools, processes and structures. Baker will focus on driving profitable growth for Havas’ clients in the short and long term to help brands achieve a competitive edge by delivering more significant numbers of returning high-value customers. 

In a post on LinkedIn, Andy Greenway, the former Dentsu executive creative director and a former chief creative officer at various Publicis creative agencies, has announced the launch of a new agency called The Tao of Advertising, a creative performance marketing agency focused on AI, insights and creative messaging within ads. Greenaway was most recently the CEO and CCO at Rumble Strategic Creative.

TFM Digital has hired Tim Harper-Russell as general manager to help drive a new chapter for the agency. Harper-Russell joins following six years as group business director at Wavemaker. In his new role, Harper-Russell will lead the day-to-day running of the agency as founder Taylor Fielding moves to a newly created CEO role.

Havas Host has appointed Sebastian Vizor as executive creative director. Vizor will oversee Havas Host's clients' creative direction, bringing his extensive experience to help drive the agency into new growth. With over two decades of career in the industry, he joins from The Royals, where he led the creative department after returning to Australia from Europe. During his time overseas, he worked in agencies including Sid Lee, B Reel, and 72andSunny.

Havana Club, Pernod Ricard’s rum brand, has appointed Nathalie Parte to replace Anne Martin as global marketing director. Parte joins from partnering company Pernod Ricard France, where she served as brand director across portfolios including Ricard, Ballantine’s, Jameson, Lillet and Suze. Prior to this, Parte spent nearly ten years at Martell, where she held various positions and notably managed the marketing strategy in key Cognac markets, including China, the US and Nigeria.

Thomas Woodgate has announced his departure after nearly four years working as head of content at Optus, a top telecommunications company in Australia. Woodgate shared the news in a LinkedIn post. Woodgate led the content strategy for Optus’ 2021-launched SubHub, a content subscription and membership hub for customers. Before joining Optus, he was an editor at TV Week and News Corp Australia.