Staff Reporters
Sep 4, 2023

Moves and wins roundup: Week of September 4, 2023

See the latest developments from FleishmanHillard, Purple, Koto, Clemenger BBDO, Morrow Sodali, WhiteGrey, VIOOH, The Singapore Tourism Board, We Are Social, Unilever, Mindshare, and others.

Campaign compiles a new 'Move and win roundup' as each week progresses. 
This edition will cover September 4 through September 8, 2023. 
Catch up on past people moves and business wins

FleishmanHillard has appointed Joanne Wong as president of its Asia-Pacific operations. Wong was previously with the agency for nearly two decades, last serving as its executive vice president, managing director—client service and head of business development for APAC. Wong returns to FleishmanHillard after serving as a senior managing director with FTI Consulting Strategic Communications. In her role, Wong will oversee the agency's operational excellence in nine countries across the APAC region. Her responsibilities will include developing and organising successful new-business efforts, managing the region for growth and profitability, developing high-functioning colleagues and teams, and leading with a focus on respect, collaboration and inclusion at the core of the business.
 
Purple, the integrated retail marketing and design agency, has appointed Caroline Colin as creative director. Colin has previously held positions at globally renowned brands and agencies, including luxury skincare label CEMÔY and Publicis Groupe. Meanwhile, Purple has also promoted Elssy Teo to general manager of its Singapore office. Teo joined the agency in 2018 as client director and became head of client services in 2021. The agency is continuing to expand its creative, production and client management teams, with a number of positions currently under recruitment in Singapore and beyond. 
 
Koto, brand and digital studio, has officially launched its Sydney office, marking its expansion into the Asia-Pacific region. Damian Borchok, former For The People co-founder and CEO, Interbrand Australia CEO, takes on the role of managing director APAC, and Gerald Torto, previously with Re part of M&C Saatchi Group, joins as senior strategy director. Founded in 2015 by Caroline Matthews (COO), James Greenfield (CEO), and Jowey Roden (CCO), Koto has grown from a three-person brand studio to a global team of over 100, with multiple offices in the region. The studio's momentum has grown steadily, recently delivering impactful projects for global brands such as Amazon Music, Discord, Glassdoor, Netflix, and Whatsapp. Koto's primary focus initially centres on extending its presence across Australia, India, Singapore, and South Korea.
 
L’Oréal has appointed  Adrien Koskas as general manager, consumer products division (CPD) of L’Oréal SAPMENA w.e.f October, 2023. He will be responsible for building the next growth chapter for CPD in the region, which comprises 35 markets. CPD holds L’Oréal's iconic global brands of L’Oréal Paris, Maybelline New York, Garnier, and NYX Professional Make Up. Koskas succeeds Manashi Guha, who takes on a new assignment as managing director, CPD for L’Oréal UK and Ireland. Koskas has been working for L’Oréal Groupe for 18 years. Since 2019, he has been the global brand president of Garnier. Prior to this, he held business leadership positions in France, Brazil and the United Kingdom. In his new role, Adrien will report directly to Vismay Sharma, president of SAPMENA, and will be based in Singapore.
 
Bud has appointed Patricia Malay as client services director and Urvashi Raizada as content director. Having spent the past two decades leading global agencies from the Philippines, Malay joins Bud’s leadership team and reports to founder and CEO Oliver Budgen. Before joining Bud, Raizada led content strategy for tech brands in the region, including social media strategy, thought leadership and data-driven content for industry leaders like Samsung, PayPal and Binance.
 
Bastion Creative has appointed Susan Bird, AJF Partnership’s senior leader, as its new managing partner. Bird will lead the agency’s creative practices from Melbourne. Before joining Bastion Creative, Bird spent over a decade at AJF Partnership as client partner and general manager.
 
Bruce Clay, a US-based SEO and digital communication services agency, has announced its expansion to Indonesia. The agency has appointed Debashis Das, a veteran in the Indonesian advertising industry, as its partner and CEO of Bruce Clay Indonesia, effective from September 2023. Before joining the agency Das was CEO of Kancil Group. Prior to that, he also served as CEO of  PT Ambient Digital and Ambient Digital in Indonesia. Bruce Clay's office in Indonesia is located in Jakarta and is expected to provide a huge boost to its initiatives in the region as Indonesia is the key market in Southeast Asia.
 
Clemenger BBDO has appointed Simon Wassef as chief strategy and experience officer to expand upon the agency’s existing CX capabilities. In the senior leadership role, Wassef will lead strategy and customer experience across the Clemenger business, and the remit will include growth, new business, elevation of talent and new practices. Wassef returns to Clemenger BBDO as he started from a junior account planner and first worked at the agency 21 years ago. He rejoins Clemenger after more than two and a half years as national chief strategy officer at WhiteGrey. Prior to that, he was CSO at TBWA Chiat Day in Los Angeles and has worked for 20 years in Europe, the US and Australia: three years at RGA in London, three years at SID LEE in Amsterdam, plus stints at Droga5, AMV BBDO, AKQA and Host Sydney.
 
Outbrain has promoted Yury Glikin to the newly created role of commercial director for Australia and New Zealand, effective immediately. Glikin joined Outbrain in 2021 as head of sales for the ANZ region. Under his new expanded role, Glikin will oversee the development and implementation of Outbrain’s commercial and sales strategy along with new business opportunities to accelerate revenue growth across the region. Glikin will report to Amrita de la Peña, based in Singapore, who was appointed managing director of APAC in May.
 
Who Gives A Crap, B Corp toilet paper company, has named Eleven as its new PR and social agency following a competitive pitch process. Eleven will lead local and global campaigns for the brand as it looks to expand into new markets—a remit spanning PR, social media and rapid response content. As part of an integrated agency model, co-located sister agency TBWA Melbourne will also support strategy, creativity and content, and Sustain by TBWA will consult from an environmental specialist perspective.
 
Francis Floresformer global brand CMO of Filipino fast food company Jollibee, who quit the job in June 2022, has announced in a LinkedIn post that he started his own Marketing Consulting firm FEF as founder and CEO. Flores was a member of Campaign Asia-Pacific's Power List since 2018 and was on the list in 2020 and again in 2021. He has been working for Jollibee and Unilever for more than a decade. 
 
POAD has announced that it has secured the exclusive sales and marketing rights for Western Harbour Tunnel in Hong Kong after a competitive pitch, with the gross media valued at no less than HK$135 million (about US$17 million) annually. The three-year partnership between POAD and the Western Harbour Tunnel started in August. The new win further solidifies POAD's position as a leading force in the outdoor advertising and OOH media industry.

Collinson, operator of global airport lounge programme Priority Pass, has selected Saeloun Asia as its new Asia Pacific communications agency lead following a competitive pitch. Leading as Collinson’s Asia Pacific hub, Saeloun Asia will work closely with the team to develop its corporate communications strategy and programme that includes executive communications, thought leadership, media relations, and crisis and issues management. As part of the global pitch, Ketchum UK was also selected as the new global communications agency lead, along with Saeloun Asia and Pitchfork Partners appointed in APAC for Singapore and Hong Kong, and India, respectively. 
 
Morrow Sodali, global stakeholder engagement and ESG consulting firm, has appointed Susan Redden Makatoa as managing director to lead a newly created corporate communications practice, based in Sydney. Makatoa was most recently executive vice president and head of corporate APAC at Edelman, responsible for oversight over the practice and for providing key counsel to leading companies. She is also an adjunct lecturer for Charles Sturt University and sits on the board of the Touched by Olivia Foundation. Makatoa previously held leadership roles at Ogilvy PR and SenateSHJ. 
 
WhiteGrey, creative technology agency, has appointed Nerida Murphy to the newly created role of design director. Murphy will lead the agency’s brand design offering and further elevate the level of craft within the agency. Murphy previously held creative leadership roles at FutureBrand Australia and at Re (M&C Saatchi). She has also led her own design business. In the current role,  she will work across WhiteGrey’s national client portfolio alongside Chad Mackenzie, chief creative officer and the creative team.

VIOOH, global digital out-of-home (OOH) marketplace, has appointed two newly created commercial roles for the Australia and New Zealand region. Both will be based in Sydney and sit within the commercial team led by Gavin Wilson, global chief customer and revenue officer VIOOH.

  • Ryan Sullivan joins as partnerships director ANZ from Bench Media, a leading independent programmatic media agency in Australia. Sullivan will be responsible for taking the management of existing media owners forward, supporting them to transform their business through programmatic selling.
  • Mitchell Hodges joins as technical solutions manager ANZ, bringing with him valuable experience from his previous role at Yahoo DSP. Mitchell will provide crucial support for media owners, guiding technical implementation and spearheading revenue growth and partner education.
The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has appointed Lim Kean Bon as area director in India, South Asia, and Africa on September 1. He will succeed Raymond Lim as the India market lead based in New Delhi, leading STB’s promotion and travel trade engagement activities in Northern and Eastern India. In addition, he will be responsible for business development efforts to secure visitorship across India to Singapore, while engaging consumers in other regional markets like Bangladesh and South Africa. Kean Bon started his career in the Singapore public service as an urban planner in Singapore’s city planning authority. He joined the STB infrastructure planning and management division in 2015 and subsequently moved on to the SECB team in 2017. Prior to taking this role, he led STB’s lifestyle precinct development team from 2020 to 2023.
 
Iprospect Hong Kong has been appointed by KFC, Pizza Hut and PHD, the food brands under Jardine Restaurant Group, as its media partner to optimise ecommerce performances, effective immediately. With a need to transform and evolve with time, the brands are all eyeing to grow their e-commerce effectively. Iprospect, the performance-led integrated media planning and buying agency, now offers a comprehensive communication strategy that can seamlessly connect top, middle, and lower funnel initiatives, unlocking the full potential of media investments and delivering tangible online to offline business results.
 
Fantastic Furniture, Australian value furniture and bedding retailer, has appointed Initiative as its media agency of record for all offline media planning & buying, including BVOD and YouTube, following a competitive media review. Incubeta, Fantastic Furniture's digital agency, was not part of the review.  Work commences October 1, 2023, with the first campaign expected in the market before year-end. Initiative’s immediate remit is to undertake an in-depth analysis of the business to understand its unique brand identity, target audience and long-term business objectives, ensuring all media efforts are aligned with the company’s ambition and vision.
 
Narrative, a branding and communication agency, has won the creative mandate for Classic Stripes, a flagship company of Astarc Group, offering surface augmentation solutions to automotive, consumer durables & appliances industries across the globe for over 30 years. Following a multi-agency pitch, Narrative will manage the entire spectrum of brand development and creative services for Classic Stripes.
 
We Are Social has promoted Sunny Zhu to general manager in Shanghai, China, promoted from her  previous role as business unit director. As GM, she will continue to work with brands such as Ferrari, Korean Air and Google, while fostering growth in the region and leading a team of 40 people. Joining the agency in 2016, Zhu now reports to Tristan Qin, China Region EVP, with an expanded remit that includes spearheading the agency's strategic initiatives and overseeing internal training and development programmes across the business. We Are Social operates five offices in North Asia, in Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shenzhen, launched in February 2023.
 
Unilever Australia and New Zealand has appointed GroupM’s Mindshare as media agency, effective January 2024 following a competitive pitch. Mindshare won back the account, estimated to be worth US$26 million from incumbent Omnicom’s PHD, appointed in 2015. The tender was part of a periodic global review of Unilever’s media agencies. Unilever, houses brands including Lynx, Dove, Continental, Ben & Jerry’s, Comfort, Persil and more in AU/NZ markets.

Icon Agency, integrated communications firm, has announced a series of new appointments:

  • Emma Bridgeman joins Icon Agency as director of technology and B2B, based in Sydney. Prior to joining Icon, she held senior positions at Apple, Ogilvy and Herd MSL.
  • Stefanie Safahi joins as a senior account director also based in Sydney office. Safahi was previously head of communications at Folklore Ventures.
  • Rania Aissaoui joins as account director, following several years at Ogilvy and Teneo. 

Philips has appointed Peter Quinlan as managing director of APAC, effective September 1, 2023. With over 17 years in the healthcare industry, before the promotion, Quinlan led Philips’ MR, CT and diagnostic X-ray imaging businesses across regions including APAC, Japan and India, Latin America (LATAM) and the Middle East, and Africa (META). Since joining Philips in 2007, he has held leadership positions across the region in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and the Netherlands at the company’s global headquarters. He succeeds Caroline Clarke, who is leaving Philips after a 15-year tenure at the company, including nine years as leader for APAC.  

Techwish Group, a global corporation with a presence in diversified industries, has appointed G Ravindran R as vice president marketing (CMO) for its luxury brands, Hogar Controls and SuperSurfaces. Ravindran R is a new addition to the leadership team. With over 21 years of experience in strategic marketing, he has led marketing functions covering diverse areas with well-known companies in India such as LG Electronics, Asian Paints, Philips, JVC, Usha International and Hindware.
 
Town Square, independent creative agency, has appointed Jeff Malone as its new chief strategy officer. With over 15 years working in four countries, Malone joins Town Square from Cummins & Partners where he was chief strategy officer in Melbourne. He has also worked at TBWA and DDB in Australia and had senior roles at Mullen Lowe and at Ogilvy in the US, India and New Zealand on brands including Jeep, Unilever, Hyatt, ANZ, Telstra, Arnott’s, McCain and Cancer Council Australia.

Globale Media, an AI-driven mobile and web advertising platform, has appointed Kritika Arora as the director of performance & acquisitions. She has 12 years of experience in performance marketing and over 15 years of experience across various categories within this industry.
Prior to this role, Arora worked with many organisations, including Silverpush, PolicyBazaar, and established Hochads. At Globale Media, she plans to reach and engage the target audience across different platforms, ‌maximising the brand’s visibility and conversions.

ADNA Research has appointed Mani Padmanabhan as head of growth, APAC, effective September 2023. Before joining ADNA Research, Padmanabhan was enterprise sales director, Asia research services at Qualtrics based in Singapore. Prior to that, he worked for Dynata, Survey Sampling International, IPG Mediabrands, and Nielsen among others. 

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