Move and win roundup: Week of February 27, 2023

Transmission has hired Amelie Marivain and Rimi Sweis to bolster the agency's client marketing capabilities in APAC. As the new VP of client marketing, Marivain brings 15 years of experience in marketing and leadership roles to the agency. In this position, she will oversee the agency's client marketing strategies and initiatives, driving growth, and ensuring client success. Sweis will support the agency’s marketing efforts and brings 13 years of experience in marketing and media.

FleishmanHillard has promoted Chescka Diaz to general manager of its Philippine operations. Before joining FleishmanHillard in 2019, Diaz provided communications counsel on behalf of international and local brands as well as communications firms, after beginning her career in broadcast news. She reports to Lynne Anne Davis, the Asia Pacific president and senior partner for FleishmanHillard and Omnicom PR Group.

Eskimi, a programmatic platform has joined forces with Move Ahead Media in Thailand to help clients benefit from a multichannel approach in digital marketing.

Uniquecorn Strategies has opened local operations in the United Kingdom, under the corporate name Uniquecorn Worldwide Limited, as part of the agency’s global expansion strategy. The UK office will be overseen by Dean Bernales, founder and CEO of Uniquecorn Strategies, who recently moved from Manila to London to lead the expansion.

Media.Monks has moved into a new space at Barangaroo, Sydney, designed to meet the needs of its employees and clients for the “new normal” at work.

Team Lewis has launched Vivid, a new reputation and impact practice to respond to the rapidly changing, fast-moving, digital-first world. Vivid brings together brand consultancy with creative engineering and real-time reputation management.

DDB Singapore has appointed Siyuan Aw as chief strategy officer, effective immediately. Aw will work alongside CEO Jeff Cheong to lead the group’s strategic leadership and grow new and existing client businesses. Before joining DDB, he was strategy chief at BBH Shanghai and held senior strategy positions at Ogilvy London and Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore. Aw has been a regular face at awards shows, including Cannes Lions, AME Awards, Effie Awards, WARC, Adfest and APG Awards.  

Havas Media Australia appoints Rebecca Tos as managing partner to lead the new Havas MarketX business division, integrating customer experience, ecommerce, and data. Tos brings over 23 years of experience in strategically and commercially building and transforming businesses and brands. Prior, she was the managing director at Merkle, Dentsu and CEO of Columbus. Since last year, she has been an advisor to tech, digital and ecommerce companies, including Havas Media.

TBWA India has appointed Ranjeev Vij as managing director Nissan United 3.0 and executive director North, with immediate effect. In his new role, Vij will work towards furthering the impact of the Nissan United team and driving the growth strategy for the agency. Before TBWA, he worked for Adfactors PR and led digital-first integrated creative mandates. He brings over 25 years of work experience in advertising, digital, data and PR in United Kingdom and India, and across firms like Ogilvy, Zeno, Cognizant, McCann, BBDO, Rediffusion and Lowe. 

Parixit Bhattacharya is the chief creative officer at BBH India. Bhattacharya has polished his skills with shops such as Leo Burnett, Lowe, Fallon, JWT and Y&R in Mumbai, Singapore and Dubai. Before BBH, he was managing partner, creative at TBWA India. 

Hearts & Science has appointed Darren Stein as managing director in Australia. Stein will lead the agency’s growth across strategy and product innovation from April. Previously, he was the global CEO of Forethought and brings over 20 years of experience to the table. The agency has also recently promoted Luke Hutchinson to chief operating officer. Both the new appointees will work with ANZ CEO Jane Stanley to drive growth. 

Houston, a brand strategy and design consultancy, has appointed Daye Moffitt as executive strategy director, Sydney and promoted Cara Meade to executive strategy director, Melbourne.  Both join Houston’s senior leadership team reporting directly to Founder and CEO, Stu O’Brien. Bringing two decades of local and global experience to Houston, Moffitt was executive strategy director at Landor and Fitch. Meade joined Houston over eight years ago as brand strategist. Her extensive experience includes leading Toyota Australia and Toyota Asia Pacific's brand transformation projects over the last six years.  

Mindshare China has promoted Tracy Ta as Beijing office head. As part of her new role, Ta will join Mindshare China’s Executive Committee. Ta is a 14-year veteran of the agency, rising through the ranks of the office’s largest client partnership, Yili, until being appointed the account lead in 2018.

AlixPartners has opened its Singapore office. The Singapore office expands the firm’s presence in the region, where it already has offices in Japan and in Greater China, including Hong Kong and Shanghai. The team in Singapore will be led by Shiv Shivaraman, partner & managing director, Singapore country co-leader, and co-leader of the APAC region, and Lian Hoon Lim, partner & managing director and Singapore country co-leader.

Former Traffik CEO and Clemenger board member, James Neale has launched Sydney-based activation-led agency Activation Union with the following key business divisions: Live, retail, experiential and loyalty, supported by creative, design and tech. Neale launched Australia’s first experiential-based agency, Traffik, where he was the founder and national CEO for 21 years. He was a member of the Clemenger Group board from 2014 to 2022. Joshua Anderson joined Activation Union as managing partner of live. Anderson was former Traffik national head of experiential production and live events.

Gusto Collective has integrated Gusto Luxe in Shanghai and Gusto Labs and Gusto XR Labs in Hong Kong to create one cohesive entity. Founded in Hong Kong in 2020 by Aaron Lau as Asia’s first BrandTech group, through consolidation, Gusto Collective will bring together Gusto Luxe’s expertise in marketing luxury and premium brands in Asia with the AR/VR technical toolkit of Gusto Labs in delivering immersive content and experiences.  

Yonder, London headquartered consultancy, has acquired Chapter and Verse and expanded into Singapore. Together with Hong Kong and New York, Yonder serves clients including Lane Crawford, Christies, Fuin, CUNA, Oriental Bank, Cognizant, Radisson Hotel Group, Randstad, Ralph Lauren, and Fruit of the Loom. Its Southeast Asian team will be led by Chapter and Verse founder and CEO Jonathan Bernstein, who has over 20 years of global marketing and branding experience. 

Holiday operator Club Med has named GHC Asia as agency of record for East, South Asia and the Pacific to manage brand communications and creative PR activations in ESAP for markets comprising 10 resorts across six markets. 

S-RM, a global intelligence and cyber security consultancy, has opened its new office in Singapore, to support its growing portfolio of corporate intelligence clients based there and in the wider APAC region. S-RM has another office in Hong Kong. 

IPG shop RGA has made senior management changes. As current CEO Sean Lyons departs for Accenture Song, global chief creative officer Tiffany Rolfe will add chair to her global creative remit with additional responsibilities of overseeing company vision, culture and business leadership. Robin Forbes, currently global chief client officer, has been named as interim CEO. Rolfe and Forbes will both report to IPG CEO Philippe Krakowsky, the appointments are effective immediately. Meanwhile, outgoing CEO Lyons will lead global capabilities at Accenture Song and report to CEO David Droga. For the newly created role, Lyons will be based in New York City and resume fresh duties starting May. 

Mark Anderson has been promoted to managing director at Cheil Australia from his previous role as managing partner. Anderson was recently a member of Campaign’s 2022 list of 40 Under 40. Other promotions at the agency include:

• Melissa Young will now head, people and culture.
• Alina Bendeli is the new associate creative director
• Samantha Benson is the senior account director across the agency’s retail and brand experience team.

Wunderman Thompson’s chief growth officer Lee Leggett is now the new CEO of Australia-based advertising agency CHEP Network. She will replace outgoing Justin Hind and is the agency’s third CEO since 2021. Leggett will also join the board of Clemenger Group.

Ipsos India has rejigged key leadership roles effective April 1, 2023.

• Vincy Jathanna, country service line leader, Observer (Ipsos’ field and tab vertical) Ipsos India, will move to the Data Service Centre (DSC) as VP Operations. He will report to Haribabu Rajendran, MD, Ipsos DSC, India.
• Shailesh Tiwari, research director, Observer is elevated to lead the Observer service line in India. He will report to Vivek Gupta, managing director, Research.
• And, Karthik Kankanhalli, a Kantar and Neilsen veteran has been hired as research director for Observer. The remit includes driving business development for CX, channel performance, automotive and BFSI. Kankanhalli will also report Vivek Gupta.

Marriott International has zero-ed on CatchOn–A Finn Partners Company as its public relations and communications partner for the luxury portfolio in the Asia-Pacific (excluding mainland China). The portfolio comprises existing and soon-to-open properties under the group which includes The Ritz-Carlton, Ritz-Carlton Reserve, St. Regis, W Hotels, JW Marriott, and The Luxury Collection.

Sydney-based creative company, Rasic and Partners has appointed Margarita Ognjanovic as head of digital. She will lead the delivery of work for a range of clients. Ognjanovic’s experience spans over 10 years on both the client side and at creative agencies, most recently at BBH London and Tag Worldwide London.

Octagon has promoted Joanne Warnes to managing director for APAC. Warnes will report directly to Octagon Sports & Entertainment Network CEO, John Shea. In her new role, Warnes will expand her purview within the agency to lead all regional creative, planning, strategy, sponsorship activation, integrated marketing, corporate consulting, client services, and production efforts across APAC. As part of the promotion, Warnes will also join Octagon’s global senior leadership team. Previously Octagon’s managing director of Southeast Asia and India, Warnes oversaw all of Octagon’s operations and new business programs throughout Singapore and India, including oversight of the agency’s key clients such as Mastercard and Standard Chartered.

Adtech firm LoopMe, which recently opened an office in Hong Kong, has appointed Alberico De Nardis as head of Southeast Asia. In addition, Bernard Fung’s role has been changed to head of North APAC. De Nardis most recently held the role of global agency development lead, APAC for TikTok. At LoopMe, De Nardis will spearhead the company’s expansion in South East Asia across Singapore, Australia, and India. Fung, who has been with LoopMe for over three years, initially joined as sales director and has also served as interim general manager for APAC. In his new role as head of North APAC, Fung will drive LoopMe’s expansion in the Greater China Region, Japan, and Korea.

Adtech startup, Veridooh, has onboarded JCDecaux New Zealand, Vast Billboards, and Mediaworks to expand its independent verification solution across the New Zealand market. Founded in 2019, Veridooh first launched in Australia where it is the preferred verification partner for GroupM, Omnicom Media Group, and IPG Mediabrands

BBDO Bangkok has been appointed by Samsung to handle the brand’s communication campaigns, social media, customer relationship management, e-commerce, and more in the Thailand market.