Move and win roundup: Week of May 10, 2021

CatchOn has been named agency of record by Hong Kong Design Centre (HKDC), the non-governmental organisation positioning Hong Kong as an international centre of design excellence in Asia. The remit will be to create and implement a PR and digital marketing strategy for HKDC’s annual events – Knowledge of Design Week (KODW; 21 – 25 June, 2021) and Business of Design Week (BODW; 29 November – 4 December, 2021); to launch BODW+, a new online portal for KODW and BODW with year-round events and content; and to execute the PR plan for its design awards programme, DFA Awards. 

The South Australian Tourism Commission awarded Carat Adelaide the account for its 2021/22 domestic marketing campaign, after a pitch against the incumbent, Wavemaker. The scope will include traditional, digital and performance media, with Carat highlighting the ‘Rewards wonder’ campaign, which aims to increase travel to South Australia. During the pitch Carat collaborated with fellow Dentsu brands Isobar to activate programmatic display and video across Adobe, and The Story Lab for ideation.

PR and Social agency One Green Bean (OGB) has made three new appointments to its leadership team with the internal promotions of Amber Abbott, (née Lonergan) to head of Client Services, Hannah Stalder to head of Creative Services and Matt Hagias to the role of Social and Influencer lead (responsible for Co-maker, Havas Group’s influencer marketing team).

In a move that strengthens its research offering, integrated communications agency Think HQ has brought its research function in-house and appointed Pauline Ho to lead development of its growing research operation. Ho has joined Think HQ as strategy and insights manager. She is an experienced research and evaluation specialist who has spent the past decade working on large-scale national projects that impact social policy in the education and health sectors.

Wunderman Thompson Australia has formally integrated with the Wunderman Thompson Commerce business. Wunderman Thompson Commerce has delivered commerce capabilities for businesses across online retail, D2C, B2B, social and marketplaces. Led by chief commerce officer Geoff Smeaton, the commerce team is made up of technical, project and strategic talent. The commerce division will add a wide range of capabilities to Wunderman Thompson Australia including eCommerce platform builds and support, system integration with third parties, security assessment and analysis, and business operations and trading support. 

The Wired Agency has won the creative, digital and social remit for the digital education business, CoWorks. Specialising in providing digital based coaching to HSC students, CoWorks is growing its offering across New South Wales in Australia following the impact Covid had and continues to have, on students and how they learn and access various education platforms. 

Aravind Menon has been appointed as the managing director for Malaysia at Xaxis, GroupM’s outcome media unit, and INCA, GroupM’s influencer marketing solution. He will report to Arshan Saha, Xaxis CEO Asia-Pacific, and Chanchal Chakrabarty, GroupM CEO, Malaysia. Menon, who brings 18 years of experience to the role, was previously the head of Supply & Product Development in GroupM’s Trading Team.

Skim, an insights agency, has appointed Vinay Rao as APAC client business partner. Vinay brings over 15 years’ of insights experience in multiple roles across Asia. He has worked on innovation, product development and ecommerce insights initiatives for companies such as P&G, Visa, 3M and Lenovo.

Creative studio, Kojo, has hired Bim Ricketson to the newly created role of group creative director, to oversee the creative output of the Kojo Creative and Kojo Sport businesses. Ricketson was most recently executive creative director ANZ at event and experience agency, George P Johnson. In addition, Emma Gill also joins the studio in the role of creative director, bringing more than twelve years brand experience, having worked as creative director at event and experience agencies such as George P Johnson and London-based agency, TRO.

Tyson Foods Malaysia appointed Mindshare as its integrated media agency. The agency will be responsible for strategic planning and buying for Tyson Foods’ portfolio of brands, which includesTyson, Jimmy Dean, Hillshire Farm, Ball Park, Wright, Aidells, IBP, and State Fair. 

Nielsen Holdings appointed Alicia Olson-Keating as the Australian managing director for Television Audience Measurement (TAM), effective June 22. She has more than 30 years of experience in media, most recently as head of audience data and insights at ABC. She has also held positions within media industry boards and councils including Numeris, IAB, and OzTAM.

WPIC Marketing + Technologies, which bills itself as the world’s leading APAC consultancy, has launched a new creative practice to provide content, advertising, design and brand strategy services to global organizations launching and operating in APAC. WPIC Creative Labs will be led by Charles Lavoie, as director. He was most recently with PBB Creative, where he worked on campaigns for Acura, Bauer, Daimler, DiDi, Nestle, Paulaner and the World Bank. He will be based in Beijing, where he has lived since 2012 and where WPIC is headquartered.