Move and win roundup: Week of March 16, 2020

Creative adtech startup Ad-Lib Digital appointed Jessica Phan, formerly planning director at Essence in charge of Google and YouTube, as head of client services for APAC, based in Singapore. She will report to Rupert Privett, head of APAC. Phan spent six years with Essence, where she helped manage the growth of staff from 10 to 700 and built teams and client relationships in Japan, Australia, India and Southeast Asia. Ad-Lib, a marketing technology SaaS platform, closed a US$6 million round of funding at the end of 2019, and has been open in Singapore since December 2018, with clients including DBS, Grab, STB, HSBC, Nestlé, Unilever, J&J and Dyson.

BBDO Korea promoted Kyunghee Lee to general manager. She will lead and manage cross-disciplinary teams servicing multinational accounts, play a key role in the agency’s management team and continue to lead the agency's largest client in the market. Lee started her advertising career at FCB in 2000 and joined BBDO Korea in 2010. In the past decade she has worked with major accounts including AmorePacific brands (such as Sulwhasoo and innisfree), Mars, Visa, MetLife, ExxonMobil and FedEx.

Superunion Hong Kong appointed Stella Lee as senior client director and Tim Brown as creative director. Lee was formerly business director for global markets at OMD APAC. She will lead business development in Hong Kong and South China. Brown joins from Prophet, where he was executive creative director. He will lead the local creative team and drive the agency’s South China agenda, using upstream creativity to transform fintech, automotive and platform brands. Both will report to Superunion Asia CEO Benedict Gordon.

Dentsu Public Relations promoted Masahiro Makiguchi to president and CEO effective immediately. Makiguchi was named an MD on the board of Dentsu Public Relations in January. He replaces longtime Dentsu executive Kazunori Azeyanagi, who came to Dentsu PR from the larger Dentsu network in February 2016. Makiguchi also began his Dentsu tenure with the parent company, which he joined in 1980. He has led other units and previously was MD of the corporate communications division.

Dan Brown joined VMLY&R Melbourne as senior strategist. He joins from McCann and will be responsible for delivering brand strategy across DFR and clients including Australian Unity and the Department of Transport.  Brown’s hire is the latest in a string of appointments made since Strategy Director Ken Chan joined VMLY&R Melbourne last March, and is part of a push to grow the department based on the evolving needs of the agency’s clients.  

WPP AUNZ’s PR unit OPR has named Graham White to helm the newly created role of COO, and Jacquie Potter as MD of Howorth, OPR's specialist B2B and tech arm. White has been with OPR for two decades and led Howorth for the past 15 years. Meanwhile, Potter has spent close to 14 years with the agency, which includes two years of leading the Melbourne office. She will continue to serve as OPR’s chief growth officer on top of her new role. The healthcare team has also appointed Samantha Gale to the role of associate director, based in the Melbourne office.

Itochu and AKQA have tied up to provide digital transformation services to the Japanese market. This pact incorporates research, user experience, design and technical services across the Japanese market, focussing on primarily Japanese businesses. This alliance combines AKQA's business transformation capabilities and Itochu's 100+ year track record in the Japanese market, the companies said.

iQOO, a premium smartphone brand, has appointed Lowe Lintas to help launch the 5G capable iQOO smartphone. Lowe Lintas has developed its launch communication and is helping the brand build quality and performance credentials using relevant digital video content. IQOO’s latest campaign conceived by Lowe Lintas is already live. The account is being handled out of the agency’s Mumbai office.

Korean ginseng brand Cheong Kwan Jang appointed Protocol to handle its creative duties in Singapore as of March 1 following a pitch in January. The client cited the agency's strength in creative concepts, storytelling, content creation and digital marketing strategy as reasons for the decision.

Jim Gall, currently CEO of Clemenger Group New Zealand, has been appointed the CEO of Clemenger BBDO Melbourne Group. He will also remain chairman of Clemenger Group New Zealand. The current CEO of Clemenger BBDO Melbourne Group, Gayle While, is returning to the UK after four years with the agency. Gall has been with the business since 2013 when it acquired an agency he founded, Redhanded Communications. The Melbourne group has advertising, digital consulting, web development, e-commerce, martech, production and activation units.  

Flashtalking, an independent ad server, appointed Chloe Rees as account director in Singapore and Kazuhiro Higuchi as campaign manager in Japan. Rees joins from Dentsu Aegis Network, where she was partnerships and commercial director for APAC. Higuchi has 17 years of digital marketing expertise including previous roles at Signal Digital and Kenshoo Japan.