Move and win roundup: Week of November 8, 2021

Campaign compiles a new 'Move and win roundup' as each week progresses.  This edition will cover November 8 through 12, 2021.  Catch up on past people moves and business wins.

Singapore-based content studio Distillery has promoted Simon Hearn, who moved from Australia to join the company at the start of 2020, to managing director to continue leading the team in APAC. Guilet Libby has also been promoted to creative director, after joining the studio from Dentsu in 2020. New hires include Sofianna Ng as head of Editorial, hired from Google and Ashley Patterson has been appointed as senior producer. Distillery also disclosed Czarina Miko Cabuyadao was promoted to customer reference director earlier this year. 

Following the launch of Explore, a new space on Tinder where members can meet people through interactive and hyper-local experiences, the company has created a new VP of Content role that will be filled by Jaime Freedman, a long-time creative executive who most recently served as SVP at NBCUniversal. 

Ants Digital, a marketing agency based out of Gurugram, India has appointed Faisal Haq as its chief operating officer.  Haq comes with over 21 years of experience and has joined Ants after working for WATConsult-Dentsu International for over 6.5 years in the capacity of EVP Operations and Business Development. 

Viral Pitch, an influencer marketing, research, and analysis platform has bagged the influencer marketing mandate for Unocoin, a crypto exchange platform in India. Viral Pitch will be offering new-age influencer marketing services to the brand. Viral Pitch will help the crypto brand in breaking myths around cryptocurrency and digital investments. 

Kirsty Muddle has been appointed CEO of Dentsu ANZ’s creative arm. She will run the creative businesses across Australia and New Zealand, which includes agency brands BWM Isobar, DentsuMB and Dentsu’s PR agencies. Muddle spent the last 11 years as founding partner of Cummins&Partners. In her new role effective 2022, she will build on Dentsu’s current capabilities in the local market, furthering the group’s transformation efforts across CXM, media and sport via a simplified brand model and go-to market strategy. Muddle’s hire coincides with the conclusion of the BWM earn-out which has already seen co-founder Rob Belgiovane step away from the business last year. 

Independent creative agency Keep Left has appointed Mike Doman to the newly created role of general manager, creative and content. Doman’s responsibilities include strategic planning, digital, social, content and creative. He will be responsible for the growth of Keep Left’s creative offering under ECD Blair Kimber’s leadership on key clients such as ANZ, Openpay and Charter Hall. Doman returns to Australia following three years at Proximity Worldwide in Germany, where he helped shape the agency’s digital, experience, media, social and technology teams while overseeing a client portfolio including Porsche, Amazon and Unilever. Prior to this, he spent six-years at CHE Proximity in Melbourne in a mix of strategic and creative roles.

CNN International has promoted Sarita Harilela to director of coverage for APAC. She has been at the network for 17 years, most recently as executive producer based in Hong Kong. Nicola Careem has also been appointed director of coverage. She joins CNN after 19 years with the BBC, most recently as South Asia bureau chief. Meanwhile, Irene Nasser, who spent the last five years at Al Jazeera English in Doha, joins the APAC team as a senior news editor. And Alex Stambaugh has accepted a new role as a senior news editor. She has been with at the company for five years, most recently as a senior content producer for CNN’s International Newsource.

Gay Games Hong Kong (GGHK) and DDB Group Hong Kong are partnering to promote the 11th Gay Games to be held in Hong Kong in November 2023. The Games released a campaign teaser video this week. 

VMLY&R Sydney and Melbourne has promoted Kieran Moroney to creative director. Moroney, who has been with the agency for six years, has worked on some of the agency’s high-profile works including the Gold Lion-winning ‘Future Without Change’ campaign for Monash University and the ‘Lost in Translation’ campaign for Defence Force Recruiting that bagged a Grand Prix at Spikes Asia. The agency has also hired three of this year’s Top Ten Award School graduates. Taylor Aranki joins as art director from Sydney agency 5 by 5, partnering with existing writer Tatsuki Kamekawa. Meanwhile, fellow Top Ten graduates Charlie Dejean and Andrew Bao join as junior creative team members. 

Iris Singapore has appointed Bettina Feng as head of integrated content production. Feng, who has 19 years of experience, joins from DDB Singapore with a remit to further augment the agency’s production capabilities with a focus on new formats, digital assets and social media. The agency also named Priya Kalidas as business director. She joins from Ogilvy Singapore and will lead Samsung’s regional business at Iris. Both Feng and Kalidas will report to managing director Andy Cairns. The agency also appointed Jenny Berryman who joins the creative team. She will report to ECD Ed Cheong. 

MullenLowe Lintas Group has launched a  content business unit under the Lintas C:EX (Lintas Creative Executions) brand. The unit, called Lintas C:EX Entertainment, will create content and IP cutting across genres, languages and formats. Yogesh Manwani will lead the unit as president. He is a seasoned media and entertainment specialist with experience at Star, ZEE5, and most recently, Applause Entertainment as head of revenue and marketing.

Danny Tan has joined Grayling as managing director in Singapore and will manage just under 20 staff. In his new role, Tan will be partnering with marketers and communicators across Asia and globally to deliver integrated communications support. He will report to Sarah Scholefield, global CEO of Grayling. Some recent client wins for the agency include Converse and The Lego Group. Tan was previously senior vice president at OPRG, and prior to that, had stints at MSL and Burson-Marstellar.

Sherawaye Hagger has joined Unilever as head of PR and communications for its skin cleansing and oral care brands. She was previously a director at Bud Communications, and prior to that, head of the consumer practice at Hill+Knowlton Strategies.

Redhill has named Umesh Nair as deputy managing director; he will lead the agency’s technology practice and oversee its operations in Malaysia. Before joining Redhill, he was managing partner at MSL Malaysia and prior to that, head of reputation at Edelman Malaysia. The agency also announced that Charu Srivastava and Pavan Sahu have been promoted to deputy managing directors. Srivastava, who joined the firm in 2019 as director, will lead the government, public and corporate sector. She has led the attainment of many clients including Singapore’s Ministry of Law, Australia's Victorian Government Trade and Investment, and Singapore Business Federation. Meanwhile, Sahu will continue to lead growth in India and Indonesia, working with clients inclusing Danone, Truecaller, Crayon, Builder.ai, and GudangAda.

The Mavericks India has won the integrated PR mandate for grocery delivery app Zepto. The mandate includes strategic media outreach, social media strategy and management for the brand, in addition to integrated PR campaign planning and execution. 

Grey Hong Kong announced four promotions. Duffy Lau, business partner and director of integration, has been named general manager. Owen Smith, head of strategy, is moving up to chief strategy officer. And both Winky To, business partner on the HSBC team, and Desmond Li, business partner on the Hong Kong Tourism Board team, are promoted to regional business partner. Lau joined Grey in 2014 as an associate account director and has worked with multiple client brands and led business growth, especially in China. He has added several new brands to the roster including Pantene, Olay, Whisper, Tampax, Braun, Gillette, Downy and Tide. Smith joined Grey in 2017 as head of strategy, where he has raised the profile and the value of the group’s strategic capabilities and helped fuel growth for Grey HK’s key clients, such as HSBC, HKTB and P&G, across the region. To joined Grey Shanghai in 2014 as business director before moving to Grey Hong Kong. Li joined in 2017 as a senior account director and later led both the Hong Kong Tourism Board and Marriott International teams.

GroupM Australia has made two senior appointments. Sean Bone joins as general manager, Commerce, while Adam Peruch joins as head of Investment Intelligence. Bone most recently was at Diageo in Australia as head of ecommerce & Customer Marketing. He will lead GroupM’s growing Commerce division. Peruch, formerly MediaCom Group investment director, brings a wealth of media investment experience, with 20+ years on both agency and publisher side. 

Matt Benning has been appointed as head of Digital & Performance at Woolworths@Dentsu. Prior to joining, Benning spent close to 15 years at WPP with notable roles over this period as media lead on Vodafone for Wavemaker and later AKQA Media as Sydney head of Digital. 

Corporate affairs agency Bastion Reputation has added to its team of senior leaders with experienced corporate and agency practitioner Jim Carden joining as principal consultant, Campaigns and Digital Reputation. Carden has worked across business, government and not-for-profit sectors in Australia and overseas. Along with stints in two major strategic communication agencies, Carden has led corporate work for brands including Qantas Airways, NBN Co, BHP, Brisbane Airport Corporation and Transport for Victoria.

SoCheers, a full-service advertising agency, has hired two new members to its leadership team with Jaideep Thackeray and Randal Gomes. They joined the ranks as creative head of Design and head of Business Development, respectively. Thackeray comes creative experience with prominent agencies like JWT, Ogilvy, Contract Advertising and Rickshaw Communications.  Gomes led the strategy and business development team at MindShift Interactive before SoCheers.

BMF has strengthened its planning department welcoming three new hires: Anna Bollinger as head of Planning, Jessica Sutanto as senior strategic planner and Benjamin Yap as junior planner.
Bollinger has over 14 years of experience, having started her career at BMF as a grad, then moved on to DDB and then The Special Group. Sutanto began her career in account management in customer and data agency, Track and moved over to DDB. Yap has worked in multiple social content roles at Red Engine, Ogilvy PR and most recently at BMF’s sister agency, Orchard. 

Performance agency Alley Group have been appointed by Lark Distilling to manage digital marketing, as the whisky brand expands its ecommerce presence. Alley, which were appointed following a competitive pitch, will manage performance marketing for Lark, including Facebook, Google and YouTube, as part of its strategy to grow the direct-to-consumer channel locally and internationally.

Virgin Australia has appointed independent creative agency Special as its brand strategy and creative partner, to further shape the airline’s brand, experience, advertising and communications.

Wunderman Thompson Singapore appointed Jaimesha Patel as managing partner, client services, and Mark Teal as head of growth. Both roles are newly created and will report to CEO Nimesh Desai. Patel will lead the account team to drive growth for local clients as well as lead the Johnson & Johnson’s account regionally. She previously led the regional hub for Rapp, Omnicom's digital experience, CRM and creative consultancy brand. Teal will lead growth in the agency’s martech category through new business and partnerships. He was previously head of business development for the Asean region at Digitas and GM at Mezzo Labs, a startup data analytics consultancy.

Musawah, a global movement for equality and justice in the Muslim family, appointed Ogilvy Malaysia to lead its end-to-end global research and communications strategy, hubbed out of Malaysia. Launched in 2009, the organisation has a five-year plan to amplify the voice of its global network of activists and accelerate their impact on issues such as discriminatory family laws and practices within Islam. Ogilvy Malaysia will be tasked with extensive market research to provide a rich understanding of Muslim women across the Southeast Asia, South Asia, Middle East and North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa regions. The appointment began November 1 with global audience research spanning 2021 and 2022. Communications and action steps will progressively roll out thereafter.

Special Group has added eight new creatives in four teams across both its Melbourne and Sydney offices. The new hires are Adam Ferrie and Peter Cvetkovski as associate creative directors and creative teams Janice Ko and Shaun MacFarlane, Lewis Aramayo and Simon Dalla Pozza, and Cat Williams and Jess Roberts. Ferrie and Cvetkovski join from Saatchi & Saatchi Melbourne, where they created the award-winning ‘Donation Dollar’ campaign. Ko has worked at VMLY&R, Clemenger BBDO and DT and recently won a Gold Cannes Lion for Monash University’s ‘A Future Without Changing’. Copywriter MacFarlane joins from DDB Melbourne. Aramayo and Dalla Pozza were previously with Ogilvy for five years.  Roberts and Williams have spent the last two years freelancing for agencies including M&C Saatchi and Clemenger BBDO.

Sling & Stone announced it is working with East Imperial in Australia and New Zealand. The agency will be helping to launch new East Imperial products and creating partnerships local distilleries. The brand produces and markets a line of branded premium mixers sold throughout APAC, US and EMEA.

Digital agency First Page Digital Singapore, owned by Australian Nick Bell and led by GM Shane Liuw, has joined global digital agency group Superist. The group includes Appscore (Australia), Chili (Brazil, Panama, Mexico), CODI Agency (Australia) First Page (Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore), Lisnic (Australia), Primal (Malaysia and Thailand), Removify (Australia) and USEO (Middle East). As well as launching its new 'superbrand', Superist is also offering its own NFTs and is accepting cryptocurrency for client payments. As part of the launch, Superist has released nine NFTs on OpenSea, each depicting a key leader in the global group and including one hour of each leader's time. The concept is that the NFT will appreciate in value as the group achieves more success.

Offline editor Michael ‘Hooli’ Houlahan joined the Heckler Singapore roster. He has over 25 years of experience and has worked with brands including Heineken, McDonalds, Grab, Olay, KFC, Doordash, 711, Latitude, Mazda, Jaguar, Chrysler and Renault.

Evolve Digitas won the integrated ecommerce mandate for Oxyglow Herbals, an Indian manufacturer of natural beauty products. The account will be managed by agency’s NCR office and the mandate encompasses ecommerce content operations including product listings, marketplace management and more.

Video programmatic advertising platform Unruly has appointed Grant Bingham as vice president of international media business development. The ad tech veteran and former head of publisher services at AOL will now lead all media partnerships in Unruly’s international markets across the APAC and EMEA regions. Bingham has thirteen years of experience in media and advertising across Europe and Asia Pacific, having launched and led the programmatic strategy for companies such as AOL, Nine Entertainment Co, Seven West Media and, most recently, Are Media Pty in London. Based in Sydney, Bingham will report to Unruly’s chief strategy officer Kenneth Suh.

Mindshare Australia has been appointed to handle Jenny Craig’s digital media business, an expanded remit that comes just 3 months after winning the weight loss brand’s traditional media planning and buying in July. Mindshare will now take on the full media planning and buying for Jenny Craig, including offline, TV and full digital media buying including, performance media (SEM, Social, Programmatic), and owned media through SEO.

General Hotel Management (GHM), manager of The Chedi Hotels & Resorts, has appointed GHC Asia as their global PR lead. GHC Asia’s remit covers GHM’s key source markets comprising Greater China and Southeast Asia as well as the Middle East, United States of America and United Kingdom. Through its offices in Singapore and China, GHC Asia will provide strategic counsel on transcontinental media outreach, content development and brand communications in partnership with a network of other agencies, including GHC Asia’s partners.