Move and win roundup: JWT, Mirum, Y&R, SpotX and more

PEOPLE MOVES

Peninsula Hotels promoted Mark Kobayashi, formerly director of marketing in Japan, to vice president of marketing, based in Hong Kong. The company also appointed Carson Glover as its new director of global communications. He joins from Tiffany & Co.

J. Walter Thompson Singapore appointed Riku Vassinen,  as digital business director. He joins from RGA Singapore, where he was strategy director working on Google, Uber, Netflix and several Unilever accounts.

B2B creative agency Gyro promoted Belinda Green to regional head of planning. Attached with the agency since 2012, she most recently worked with gyro: New York and gyro: Cincinnati on Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and other clients. 

Mirum Hong Kong appointed Michael Leung as creative strategic director and Tobing Lanata as user experience design lead. Leung has experience at Havas and Pixo Punch and has worked with clients including Hong Kong Airlines and Hong Kong Tourism Board. Lanata was most recently with Mirum Singapore.

Based in Kuala Lumpur, drawing on her expertise in relationship building, clientele management and growth strategy development, Sabrena Jefri joins REDHILL’s team in Malaysia as a consultant to develop new business opportunities in the country. Integral to furthering growth in Thailand, Natcha Kornkerati will head the firm’s operations from Bangkok - where she will be responsible for servicing premium ice-cream brand Häagen-Dazs.

SpotX announced that Katherine McHugh relocated from its London office to join the Singapore office as director of demand facilitation for Japan and APAC. The company also hired Parulian Lummy Sitorus (Ade), formerly country manager at Exponential Indonesia, as director of demand facilitation in Indonesia, based in Jakarta. 

Y&R Malaysia promoted creative director Emir Shafri to executive creative director. 

Mediacorp appointed Dasheng Toh as head of commercial planning and solutions, a newly created role. His previous roles include Singtel, StarHub and Temasek Holdings. The company also named Jennifer Chase, previously with Amobee, as head of its digital media solutions unit and Keith Cheong, previously with StarHub and PropertyGuru, as vice president of sales.

Boutique PR and investor-relations agency WeR1 named Justin Then as managing director and equity partner of its Malaysian operations. He was previously MD at Hill+Knowlton Strategies Malaysia.

Li Bin (李斌) is now a group creative director at McCann Worldgroup Beijing, powering campaigns for Qualcomm's Snapdragon processor. Before this move, he was senior creative director at DDB Guoan for more than two years since January 2015, driving the Volkswagen Import car account.

BUSINESS WINS

In Vietnam, Vinasoy appointed The Purpose Group as its agency of record for its portfolio of brands: Vinasoy, Fami and Soymen.

Messaging app Line appointed RedComm Indonesia as its creative digital agency of record. RedComm will provide full-service integrated digital marketing services including strategy, social, production of content and impact measurement.

Bacardi-Martini Australia appointed Ogilvy PR Australia as its PR agency of record across a number of its brands: Grey Goose, Bombay Sapphire, St-Germain, 42 Below and Dewar’s. The remit includes strategy development, creative, execution, partnerships, influencer relationships and experiential.

Oracle appointed Golin as its lead agency in Asia Pacific. The agency will work on PR, digital and content.

In the Philippines, TBWA\Santiago Mangada Puno won an appointment to handle McDonald’s corporate communications.

VLV Singapore, a restaurant/club/entertainment venue, appointed PR Communications as its public relations agency. The retainer includes management of all VLV’s media-relations efforts in Singapore and a few regional markets.

Electrolux expanded its remit with MEC in Asia-Pacific, giving the media agency its search engine marketing business in the region. MEC has handled Electrolux's SEO work since January 2016.

OTHER NEWS

Independent creative agency Constant launched an in-house production unit on top of its existing services for regional and global projects. The four-year-old agency has moved into a new 4,000-square-foot space in Hong Kong.

Creative agency Burd opened its doors in Sydney, founded by Simone Brandse and Kimmie Neidhardt. The agency has already worked on campaigns for clients including Australian Geographic Stores, Specialty Fashion Group and domestic violence charity RizeUp.

Yahoo Singapore launched Yahoo Storytellers, a content-marketing offering for brands and agencies that leverages Yahoo’s editorial expertise, data, and native advertising through Yahoo Gemini.