Move and win roundup: Week of April 15, 2024

Following a competitive pitch in late 2023, regional retail and property company Ikano Centres has appointed independent creative agency The Clan. This role entails brand and comms work for the various outlets under the Ikano Centres portfolio. The Ikea-anchored Ikano Centres are part of the Ikano Retail group, comprised of IPC in Petaling Jaya, MyTOWN in Kuala Lumpur, Toppen in Johor Bahru, and Klippa in Batu Kawan, Penang, in Malaysia. Collectively, they form some of the nation’s most unique shopping destinations. The Clan aims to apply its multi-disciplinary offerings to its new client’s business needs across the various online and on-ground platforms while striking the right balance between the brand’s Scandinavian roots and the cultural nuances of the local market.

Saurabh Singhal has announced on LinkedIn that he has left DBS. Singhal was group head of marketing and martech, institutional banking and has been working at the bank for over five years. Before DBS, he worked at Jabra and Juniper Networks as marketing head based in Singapore. He moved to Singapore from India, where he worked at Avaya, Cisco, HP, Microsoft and Infosys.

The Marcom Avenue has further strengthened its leadership team with the appointment of Sudeep Sengupta as its business director. Sengupta will be based out of the company's corporate office in Gurgaon. In this key role, Sudeep will be responsible for driving the firm's business, growth, strategy and expansion into new markets, in addition to leading the PR vertical. The agency also wins new clients including Jaipur-based Jhandewalas Foods Limited (owners of the Naman brand of ghee and other food products), emerging D2C fashion brand Sonam's Label, The Sriram Universal School, and Fundly.ai. 

Zeno Group has retained the communications account for Shokz, an open-ear headphone brand, after a competitive pitch. Zeno will focus on amplifying Shokz’ Australian brand presence through new product launches, integrated communications sponsorships and a product review program. Alongside Shokz, Zeno has expanded Australia’s consumer portfolio with brands such as Yorkshire Tea and Abano Healthcare, and long-standing technology clients Motorola and Lenovo.

Dentsu has appointed Winnie Chen-Head as managing director of media for Dentsu Malaysia, where she will be responsible for further driving the transformation and innovation of the network’s media practice in the market. Winnie will report to Audrey Chong, CEO of Dentsu Malaysia. Chen-Head  first joined Dentsu Malaysia in 2021 as head of product & solutions for its media business and has concurrently been head of iProspect Malaysia. Chen-Head assumes the role from Pankaj Nayak, who led Dentsu Malaysia’s media practice in an interim role since April 2023. He will now focus on his role as managing director, media of Dentsu Singapore. 

Leo Burnett Australia has hired Lenna Boland as group creative director and brought in two new associate creative directors, James Beswick and Rowan Foxcroft. Boland joins most recently from Ogilvy in Melbourne, and will lead the creative output of the Melbourne-based clients and joins group creative directors Tim Woolford and Tommy Cehak in Sydney. As a creative duo, Foxcroft has previously been a senior art director, and Beswick a senior copywriter. They have joined the team with experience in various sectors, such as sports, FMCG, telecommunications, travel and tourism, government, pets and alcohol. 

Communications agency Rice has launched offices in Thailand and the Philippines. Partner and regional director Donna Garcia is spearheading the regional expansion and overseeing operations across Thailand, Myanmar, and the Philippines. From its offices in Bangkok and Manila, Rice is already supporting regional clients such as CNH, Eaton, Levi Strauss & Co., and Remote. The firm has also been a long-standing communications partner to WWF on various conservation and illegal wildlife trade campaigns across Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam; and provides pro-bono and low-bono consultancy for purpose-driven projects, including international food rescue foundation Scholars for Sustenance (SOS)’s Zero Summit, which aims to reduce food waste and promote sustainable production and consumption. 

Mox Bank has appointed Igor Lau as its new chief customer officer effective 1 April 2024. As CCO, Igor will shape Mox's customer journey and experience. Having spent nearly four years with Mox and as interim CCO since early 2023, Lau had a critical role in shaping the latest Mox experiences and growing its base to over 550,000 customers through marketing campaigns and JV partnerships. 

Publicis Groupe Australia and New Zealand has promoted Anthony Ellis to CEO for Publicis Media Exchange (PMX) in Australia and New Zealand from his previous role as managing director at PMX ANZ. As CEO of the Groupe’s media investment arm in Australia and New Zealand, Ellis’s remit will be expanded to Publicis Groupe’s Sport & Entertainment division (PSE) in ANZ, and he will continue to report to Publicis Groupe ANZ CEO Michael Rebelo. Before leading PMX, Ellis served as chief investment officer at Zenith Media for almost 20 years since 2001.

L&K Saatchi & Saatchi, a part of Publicis Groupe India, has elevated Snehasis Bose, its chief strategy officer (CSO), to the role of group chief strategy officer. With this, Bose will now oversee strategy across L&K Saatchi & Saatchi, Publicis India, and Saatchi & Saatchi Propagate. Additionally, Ekta Relan takes over the reins as the new CSO for L&K Saatchi & Saatchi. With over 25 years of experience, Bose has been associated with agencies like McCann Erickson, Publicis Ambience, IMRB International, and Contract Advertising. He joined the agency in 2015 and was elevated to CSO in 2020. He will continue reporting to Paritosh Srivastava, CEO of L&K Saatchi & Saatchi and Publicis India. Relan joins L&K Saatchi & Saatchi from her previous role as CSO at Lowe Lintas in April. Before that, she worked with Mullen Lintas, Sapient Nitro Singapore and Unilever Singapore.

Mindshare has retained its media planning and buying duties for Ford Motor China, including Lincoln, Ford and Ford Beyond, following a competitive multi-agency pitch. Mindshare has been working with Ford Motor China since 2014, supporting their imported vehicle line, including the launch of the Mustang in 2015 and the F150 in 2017. The agency has worked with Lincoln since it entered the market in 2014. Mindshare also began partnering with Jiangling Ford in 2023, supporting the launch of the new channel brand, Ford Beyond. 

Lush has appointed Sling & Stone as its agency of record following a competitive pitch. Sling & Stone’s brief is to ensure Lush is the most talked about cosmetics brand in Aotearoa with a focus on consumer PR and creator relationships, corporate thought leadership and driving the agenda for ethical causes the company is passionate about. Lush came off social media in 2021 as the cosmetic company believed it was not a safe environment for users. Instead, Lush promised to invest in new ways to connect and build communities and will also be part of Sling & Stone’s remit. The agency will also focus on activations, events and stunts to bring brand fans and advocates together. 

Ken Chan has joined Hero as head of planning. Before this, Chan was also head of strategy at VML and Hardhat, leading both planning and CX strategy functions. Chan’s client experience spans a diverse set of industries and brands, including NAB, Google, Coles, Ford, Microsoft, AAMI, Defense Force Australia and Officeworks. In his early career, he was a management consultant in strategy and digital transformation with Accenture.

Creative agency Emotive has made three new hires and a promotion to its account management and creative teams.

• Aoife Lehane, who joined Emotive from Droga5 Dublin twelve months ago, has been promoted to account director and will work alongside business director Andrea Dalton Doran on the Optus account.
• Ruki Ahad joins from Ogilvy where she worked on NSW and Federal Government, while Tyler Ronaldson joins from Clemenger BBDO with a background on YES23, insurance and betting clients. Both will work as senior account managers.
• Jenna Fisher joins as creative operations manager. She has experience in agency roles in the UK and Australia including Wave, VCCP, BWM Dentsu and Havas.

OML, or Only Much Louder Entertainment, has appointed Kreeti Gogia as head of content. With close to 15 years of experience in media, Gogia has been associated with OML since 2015, first as a freelance executive producer before coming on board full-time and rising up to become content head in 2019. She has previously worked at UTV Productions, Endemol Shine India, Wakao and Colosceum Media, creating content for Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, UTV Bindass, Channel [V], MTV, YouTube, Jio Cinema and more.  

K&C, an industry leader in global branding and communications, has announced its partnership with Peanuts, the global character brand beloved for Snoopy, Charlie Brown and friends. Through this partnership, K&C will lead the end-to-end social media strategy and operations to elevate the Peanuts brand across Japan. Through this partnership, the company will also collaborate closely with Sony Creative Products, which is the licensing agent for Peanuts in Japan.

NIC Ice Cream, a Pune-based home-grown brand, has appointed Madison Media Ultra, a unit of Madison World, as their official media agency on record. The account will be handled by the agency from their Mumbai office who will manage all media aspects for the brand including traditional, digital and outdoor.

WE Communications has been appointed as the PR and social media agency of record by Far East Hospitality, serving The Barracks Hotel Sentosa, Oasia Resort Sentosa, The Outpost Hotel Sentosa and Village Hotel Sentosa. The partnership, effective immediately, marks a significant step forward in elevating the four hotels’ brand narratives and amplifying their reach across all key markets, with a focus on Southeast Asia, South Korea and China. WE Communications will support with media relations, social media management, influencer engagement, campaign launches, content and creative production, and more.

Open AI has opened its first office in Asia in Japan, bringing on board Tadao Nagasaki as president of the Japan office. Before joining Open AI, Nagasaki has been serving as president of Japan, Amazon Web Services K.K. & Vice President since 2011. Prior to AWS, he was president of F5 Networks Japan K.K. & Vice President and senior account executive of Dell.

Mediahub, a full-service agency, has appointed Linda Fagerlund to the newly created role of chief strategy officer in Australia and New Zealand, effective immediately. Responsible for delivering Mediahub’s trans-Tasman strategic support for key clients, she also joins Mediahub’s senior leadership team, reporting directly to Sue Squillace, CEO of Mediahub ANZ. Before Mediahub, she was head of brand marketing at Dentsu and held CSO roles at Dentsu Media and Carat, and prior to that, she was national head of strategy at Spark Foundry. With over 15 years of diverse strategy experience, she worked strategy roles across media, creative agencies and publisher side, including Leo Burnett and News Corp. 

BMF has promoted Dave Roberts and Tom Hoskins to the role of group creative directors to further strengthen its creative department. Both will share roles and responsibilities as co-group creative directors. Roberts joined BMF in 2019 as a senior copywriter and has delivered award-winning campaigns during his time at the agency. Before BMF, he worked for agencies such as 303 MullenLowe and TBWA. Hoskins joined BMF as creative director in 2021 with a wealth of experience in the industry, having worked in the UK, US, Asia, and Australia and across agencies such as TBWA and Havas.

Stuart Archibald has departed Archibald Williams, the independent agency he founded with Bram Williams in 2012, to launch a new agency model in Sydney and London. His new agency CA.5, will offer clients an alternative model to the traditional agency structure and approach. CA.5 will offer clients an alternative solution to consultancies and traditional agencies by bringing together talent who have delivered some of the most innovative and successful customer strategies in the world, having served clients such as Tesco Clubcard, Apple, O2, Microsoft, Mastercard, and The Economist.

The University of Sydney (USYD) has appointed the Chep Network as its media account following a competitive pitch. Chep Media will take over the account from Yango, which has held the brand for at least four years. The agency will be responsible for the University’s media planning and buying services for Australia and key markets across the Asia-Pacific region. The agency will support USYD with an integrated media strategy to further elevate its brand profile and drive recruitment for undergraduate and postgraduate offerings.

Sephora has appointed Xia Ding as managing director of Sephora Greater China. Ding is based in Shanghai and reports directly to Alia Gogi, president of Sephora Asia. Before joining the beauty giant, she was vice president and general manager of ecommerce Asia Pacific and Latin America at Nike for the past five years. Prior to that, she worked for JD.com and Nielsen.

In Australia, Carat Victoria has retained the Beacon Lighting media account, handling paid media strategy and planning and buying, including brand, performance and programmatic. The Dentsu agency has held the account for six years since winning it in 2018.

Nova Entertainment has appointed GroupM’s Mindshare as its media agency partner. The agency will work across Nova’s entire portfolio, including Nova Network, SmoothFM, FIVEAA, Star 104.5 and the Nova Podcast Network. The new partnership will start on June 1, 2024. Dentsu’s Carat, the incumbent agency, has held the account since 2017, which is said to be worth AU$9 million (US$5.83 million). 

Lee Kum Kee has appointed the Hong Kong local agency Hungry Digital to handle the creative duties for its sauce business in Hong Kong following a competitive pitch. The agency was selected as a long-term partner for the brand (non-project led) based on its exceptional category consumer insights and creative craftsmanship.  

Open AI has opened its first office in Asia in Japan, bringing on board Tadao Nagasaki as president of the Japan office. Before joining Open AI, Nagasaki has been serving as president of Japan, Amazon Web Services K.K. & Vice President since 2011. Prior to AWS, he was president of F5 Networks Japan K.K. & Vice President and senior account executive of Dell.