Move and win roundup: Week of October 14, 2019

Havas Media Singapore has been appointed as the media agency of record for dairy company FrieslandCampina Singapore. Havas Media will be responsible for all media planning and buying as well as support the brand’s digital performance strategy. The agency was awarded the business after a pitch process and the appointment is for an initial duration of two years.

Diageo has appointed Azmar Sukandar as head of communications and society for Asia-Pacific. Prior to this, Sukandar was director of strategic communications and marketing, APAC, for The Nature Conservancy (TNC), a global environmental non-profit. Before that, she headed the APAC communications function for the Financial Times as well as Time and Fortune magazines as well as worked with Microsoft's MSN division. She is currently based in Hong Kong and will move to Singapore, Diageo's APAC headquarters, in December.

Lion & Lion Digital Group has appointed Cheelip Ong as its regional chief creative officer, responsible for developing internal creative capabilities and building stronger brand awareness. Ong has held chief creative roles MullenLowe in Shanghai, at leading Chinese independent agency 180.ai in Shanghai and Beijing and more recently at Wunderman Singapore. Ong was a jury member of the inaugural Creative e-Commerce category at Cannes Lions 2018 and was named to Campaign's Greater China Digital A-List in 2018. 

Brand and agency creative production and sourcing firm Tag has appointed Stephen Douglas as APAC head of operations, responsible for driving operational efficiencies and delivering bespoke client solutions. Originally from the UK, Douglas has over 25 years of international experience in Europe, North America and Asia, including seven years in China. Prior to joining Tag, Douglas held senior positions at Prodigious (a Publicis Company), eg+ Worldwide (an Omnicom company) and E-GRAPHICS (a TBWA company). 

Marketing intelligence company MiQ has appointed Jason Scott in the newly created role of CEO, ANZ to expand the business across media, analytics and technology, beginning mid-October. Scott comes to MiQ having held senior management positions at Microsoft including general manager of advertising for Asia, and general manager of global agency business, based in Seattle. Scott has also held general management and commercial lead roles at ninemsn, and various agency groups including Havas. His most recent role in Australia was as the CEO of Allure Media.

Creation studio Chimney Group has merged with California-based content distribution and media firm Vigor to be called Chimney Vigor Group (CVG) with full implementation by March 2020. CVG will employ nearly 500 people with offices in the USA, Europe and APAC. The news comes as Chimney Australia announced new creative project work including swimming pool chemical manufacturer HyClor, independent growers’ market Supabarn, hospitality group Typsy, bike retailer 99 Bikes, animal health company Zoetis and a motorshow launch of Hyundai's '45' all electric concept car in partnership with Innocean. 

Kantar appointed Doreen Wang as country leader in China. She will continue in her role as global head of BrandZ alongside her new responsibilities. The company credits Wang with building the BrandZ brand valuation practice into the world’s leading brand-measurement platform and expanding it into 17 countries over the past five years. Wang, who grew up in Beijing, will return there in January to take up the new appointment. She was office head for Millward Brown in Beijing before moving to the US in 2014.

TCP-TBWA Indonesia appointed Gavin Simpson as chief creative officer with immediate effect. Simpson worked for Ogilvy for 20 years in Malaysia, Hong Kong and the Philippines, and has also had stints at Naga DDB, Y&R Malaysia and Leo Burnett Indonesia.

Mobile customer-experience company Geronimo has opened in Melbourne and appointed John McKoy, the former global chief revenue officer for Exponential, as commercial director. The company aims to expand to new domestic and international markets over the next 18 months and the Melbourne opening follows the recent acquisition of data science and analytics company Data Hatch.

Balcony Media Group is now representing Asian destination management and tour operator Trails of Indochina (Trails), which anchors an organization that also includes Heritage Line river cruises, Indotrek adventure travel and Ancient Hue homes.