Move and win roundup: Week of May 24, 2021

Campaign compiles a new 'Move and win roundup' as each week progresses.  This edition will cover May 24 through 28, 2021.  Catch up on past people moves and business wins.

Zipmex, a digital and crypto assets exchange headquartered in Singapore, will partner with The Secret Little Agency (TSLA) to grow its brand globally and regionally. TSLA’s design practice will take charge of brand strategy, positioning and design duties, whilst the shop works to launch the new brand regionally across Southeast Asia and Australia. Zipmex claims it is one of the only crypto exchanges in the APAC region that is operating in a regulatory-compliant manner across four countries: Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, and Australia.

SugarBox, a content distribution network  has appointed Naarayan TV as vice president - marketing. With 16 years of experience, his last stint was at PayPal, where he headed marketing for India and later moved on to lead merchant acquisition for international markets. Pooja Trehan has joined as associate director, marketing, essentially leading communications for the brand. She comes with over 16 years of experience in the field of Communications, most recently as founder of her own venture PRestaurants. 

Inskin Media, which specialises in multi-screen, high impact digital brand advertising, has made two senior appointments in its Singapore office as it continues its global expansion. MJ Chua has been appointed as sales director, Asia. Formerly regional sales lead at Grab, he is an experienced sales and partnerships leader. Meanwhile, Trina Lim has been appointed as senior commercial manager, Asia. Most recently senior account manager at independent advertising platform, she boasts a decade of experience in the marketing industry.

Moove Media, ComfortDelGro’s Out-Of-Home (OOH) arm, has just won a bid to take over the advertising space of the buses in the Bulim and Sembawang-Yishun bus package which has been awarded to Tower Transit Singapore (TTS). The contract, which begins on 1 June 2021 is for a period of three years with an option to extend it by another two. This is the second one that it had won, having been appointed the advertising agency for Go-Ahead Singapore in 2016. Moove also handles advertising for ComfortDelGro’s 75%-owned scheduled bus company, SBS Transit presently.

Green Park Content (GPC), has helped Unilever Beauty and Personal Care to launch BeautyHub.PH content hub to champion a new age of inclusive beauty and body diversity. BeautyHub.PH is Unilever Philippines’ contribution to Unilever’s global commitment to positive beauty. BeautyHub.PH is a new online publication that aims to become a one-stop destination for all beauty advice and inspiration for people of all colours, shapes, and sizes. The online destination seeks to redefine beauty standards and celebrate body diversity by shining light on skin tone, age group, hair needs, and body types. 

MoPub, a division of Twitter that provides monetisation solutions for mobile app publishers and developers around the globe, has appointed Eileen Keng as its head of publisher partnerships for the Greater China region. Based in Twitter's Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore, Keng will develop and implement the regional growth strategy for MoPub and cultivate strong relationships with some of the largest mobile gaming publishers across the region. Keng previously led APAC supply at Chartboost, and prior to that, she was the head of programmatic supply APAC at Fyber. Meanwhile, Boram Ku, who led MoPub Greater China Region on an interim basis, will fully dedicate herself into a new role as head of Korea and South APAC.

BBC Global News has selected Taboola as its exclusive content recommendations provider. Under the deal, the adtech firm will integrate its Taboola Feed, which provides readers with personalised content recommendations, below articles on BBC.com. The deal covers all markets outside the UK, where the publisher is commercially funded. Its aim is to drive revenue while keeping UX and the integrity of the brand intact, as well as to grow engagement and audiences across the site.

Active Super, which was recently rebranded from Local Government Super after 24 years, has appointed Sydney-based independent creative agency Slik as its strategic and creative lead agency following a competitive pitch. Slik will help Active Super navigate a digital business transformation over the next three years, bringing its new brand to market with a clear brand strategy and integrated launch campaign.

Zolo, Australia's first tech-cycling company, has appointed Agnes Media as it looks to scale by helping businesses meet their sustainability objectives. Agnes, which was engaged without a pitch, will manage performance media and digital marketing for Zolo across B2B channels to drive greater brand awareness and engagement with mid to enterprise-level organisations.

Ian Gough, previously MD at Digitas in Australia, is moving to a global WPP role based in London. Gough, who was named to Campaign Asia-Pacific's 40 Under 40 for 2020 last November, will be joining WPP as new business director within the marketing and growth team, together with Laurent Ezekiel, chief marketing and growth officer. (Full story)

Digitas Australia appointed Rebecca Zemunik as managing director, replacing Ian Gough (see above). Zemunik begins in her new role in July, arriving after four years with Publicis Sapient, most recently as senior director of business development and alliances.

Lintas Live (formerly GolinOpinion) has bagged the PR and advocacy building mandate for Tata AIG General Insurance. The PR agency will develop the PR and corporate communications framework for Tata AIG to strengthen its position in the general insurance space.

Sandpiper Communications appointed Genevieve Chow as director and Hetty Musfirah as account director in Singapore. Chow joins following 14 years with Burson-Marsteller, where she worked in Hong Kong, Myanmar and Singapore. Immediately prior to joining Sandpiper, she led the international media campaign for a party primary candidate in Taiwan's 2020 presidential election. Musfirah has 14 years of experience in communications, public affairs, and journalism in Singapore and Southeast Asia. She is a former communications advisor at Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry and also served as assistant press secretary with the Prime Minister’s Office.

Wavemaker retained media responsibilities for L'Oréal in India, where the agency has been the media AOR for L’Oréal since 2010. The win follows a multi-agency pitch. The mandate includes online and traditional media duties. Wavemaker will be responsible for handling all media services, comprising strategy, communications planning, integrated media approach, content/creative and digital services, investment and buying for all the company's brands across the hair, skin and makeup categories.

Western Australia's Curtin University appointed independent media agency Match & Wood to manage its domestic media following a competitive tender. The agency, which has offices in both Perth and Melbourne, will handle media strategy, planning, buying and data analytics across all channels within Australia. Longreach Media and Carat previously shared media duties. The university continues working with Sydney-based Global Rev Gen for all international media planning and buying. Curtin is Western Australia’s largest university, with more than 56,000 students.

South Asia ecommerce player Daraz announced its sponsorship of both the Bangladesh and Sri Lankan national cricket teams. The dual sponsorship made the brand the shirt sponsor of both sides as the One-Day International series kicked off over the weekend in Dhaka. Daraz will feature on the playing shirts of the Sri Lanka men’s team for all international cricket matches this year, while its partnership with Bangladesh will extend to 2023.  

MBLM (pronounced Emblem), which bills itself as 'the Brand Intimacy Agency' and says it focuses on building ultimate brand relationships using emotional science, opened its first APAC office, in Seoul. The team is being led by managing director Nelson Hur, who has over 20 years of experience including with Cheil Worldwide and Samsung. The agency also has offices in the US, Mexico, Canada and the UAE. 

Following a pitch, Tonic Worldwide won the integrated digital mandate for Pure Nutrition in India. The agency will be managing the social media, paid media, website development and SEO for the brand.

Hivestack, a provider of programmatic digital out-of-home advertising, has appointed Aileen Ku as general manager, China, based in Shanghai. Reporting to Troy Yang, managing director, North Asia, Ku will be responsible for driving revenue, growth and strategy focused on channeling incremental advertising dollars into China and also helping Chinese brands to activate on DOOH screens all over the world. Ku brings to Hivestack over two decades of digital advertising experience and Hivestack from RTBAsia, the advertising verification service provider, where she held the position of chief growth officer leading the sales operation of its advertising tracking and verification business unit. Ku’s appointment follows Hivestack’s entry into China in January 2021 with the hiring of Troy Yang, formerly senior vice president North Asia for The Trade Desk.

Tier One Entertainment, an esports and gaming entertainment company in The Philippines, has partnered with GroupM. to accelerate both the growth of the firm and the gaming entertainment industry as a whole. Through this partnership, the touchpoints between brands and gaming talents becomes more streamlined, Tier One stated, which then allows more mainstream brands to understand and leverage the commercial power of esports and gaming. This partnership comes as Tier One looks to expand to more countries and GroupM will be instrumental in mirroring this model in other countries across the region. 

Pico Far East Holdings, a brand activation company, has won several contracts across a wide spectrum of exposition activation services for the upcoming World Expo in Dubai. To date, the firm is servicing some 20 pavilions, including national pavilions for Algeria, Brazil, Czech Republic, Malaysia, Malta and the UK, the SAIC Motor booth at China Pavilion, and a number of corporate and thematic pavilions. As well as overlay, carpark and wayfinding packages, the Group is also providing interior fit-out services for the temporary structure at the Dubai Exhibition Centre and for the retail outlets across the three thematic districts at the Expo site.