Move and win roundup: Week of April 17, 2023

FairPrice Group has appointed Interpublic's UM and Omnicom's Homeground United as its
media and creative agencies of record for its business, effective 1 June 2023. This follows a rigorous closed-door review, managed by marketing consultancy R3 which began in January 2023. The agencies were selected for their ability to provide integrated and holistic media, creative and communications counsel and execution of marketing for the group spanning multiple brands including FairPrice, FairPrice Xtra and Finest supermarkets, Cheers convenience stores and Unity
pharmacies. UM will undertake media services for FairPrice Group, while Homeground United, led by eg+ Singapore, will undertake creative, PR and social media management. 

Finance company Manulife has appointed Thaddeus Yu as chief strategy officer and Alice Li as chief communications officer for its Hong Kong and Macau operations. Yu succeeds Carrie Tong, who was recently appointed as chief operations officer for Hong Kong and Macau. In his new role, Yu is responsible for setting the overall strategic priorities of the Hong Kong and Macau business. He is also in charge of assessing necessary and effective changes to the company's business model to ensure the company stays on course in achieving its strategic objectives. Li’s responsibilities include leading strategy development for external and internal communication goals, building corporate reputation and a culture of pride, and promoting the company's global Impact Agenda, aligned with Manulife’s global communications team and strategy. 

Creative agency WhiteGrey has hired Reeshma Bhanji as executive creative director, based in Sydney. Bhanji’s immediate focus is to lead the Scentre Group (Westfield) business with an additional responsibility to develop and deepen WhiteGrey’s creative offering to drive business transformation for clients. Bhanji was previously with The General Store as creative director and prior to that founder of Flying Fish Designs. 

Influencer agency #AsSeenOn has announced its talent management service and expansion to macro influencers. Founded in Sydney, #AsSeenOn was created to connect up-and-coming influencers with the nation's favourite brands. 

German video supply-side platform ShowHeroes has entered APAC through the acquisition of IVS (Intelligent Video Solutions). The acquisition allows ShowHeroes to roll out its contextual instream video and CTV solutions in Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Singapore. IVS will be incorporated into the ShowHeroes brand. IVS CEO Milan Reinartz will take on the role of SVP for APAC and Hari Shankar, IVS chief revenue officer, will now take the lead as VP for commercial in APAC. 

Jon Gittings is the new international head of strategy at Wavemaker. He will be reporting to global chief strategy and product officer, Stuart Bowden and will collaborate closely with the global leadership team.Gittings will be based in the US on the West Coast and will be responsible for Adobe’s global strategic direction and for global brand strategy for Colgate, as well as further developing US based global new business opportunities. A familiar face in the GroupM family, Gittings has led the transformation of strategy at Essence since 2018, and in a career spanning over 20 years, he's held various roles as chief growth strategy officer at Mediacom, global communications planning director at OMG and European strategy director at OMD.

Dentsu Sports International has launched Dentsu Sports Analytics, a new global offering bringing together the research, data, and analytics capabilities of MKTG Sports + Entertainment (MKTG), Sponsorship Research International (SRi) and Merkle, to drive better outcomes across the sports and entertainment measurement industry. Based in New York, Glenn Lovett will head the practice as global managing director.

Media agency Bohemia has been reappointed to manage media strategy, planning and buying for energy management and automation major Schneider Electric. Bohemia had overseen media for Schneider Electric’s ANZ businesses for four years, prior to their global consolidation in 2022. Under the remit, Bohemia will manage B2B and B2C media and performance strategy, planning, and buying across all channels for Schneider Electric Australia and New Zealand, and its subsidiaries, including Clipsal in Australia and PDL in New Zealand. 

Gordon Domlija, former Wavemaker APAC CEO who exit the agency abruptly earlier this year in February, announced the launch of an independent marketing consultancy ElucidateX on LinkedIn. A seasoned marketer with over 17 years of experience, Domlija spent the last 15 years in China with the likes of Mindshare and Mediacom. He joined Wavemaker as chief executive officer for China in 2017 and was also landed the role of APAC president in 2019. A well-known figure in the APAC media industry, Domlija has been outspoken for his analysis of marketing trends and context from China while based in Shanghai for many years. For the past two consecutive years, he was named Asia Pacific Agency Head of the Year at Campaign's Agency of the Year awards.

InMobi has appointed Susannah Llewellyn as vice president of agency partnerships for Asia- Pacific. Based in Singapore, she will be responsible for driving InMobi’s strategic growth with key media agency partners and holding companies in the region. With over two decades of experience, Prior to joining InMobi,  Llewellyn was the business agency director at Google, Asia-Pacific.  She worked for agencies for over 13 years, from Wavemaker MENA to London and to Carat London. 

Google Cloud has appointed Patrick Wee as country manager of Google Cloud’s business in Malaysia. Wee will report to Megawaty Khie, regional director of Indonesia and Malaysia Google Cloud. Before Google, he took leadership roles at Zoom and AWS, bringing extensive experience advising and working with C-level decision-makers across financial services, retail, consumer packaged goods, telecommunications, healthcare, high tech, energy, and the public sector.

C27, digital enablement firm, has appointed two new creative directors, Michelle Francis and Shaiful Ayisy, to lead the agency’s creative direction. Before joining C27, Francis and Ayisy, both led creative teams at several other leading agencies and delivered outstanding results for a multitude of clients, including Netflix, Grab, Nike and Uniqlo. As creative directors, Francis and Ayisy will lead key accounts Lotus’s Malaysia and McDonald’s Malaysia, respectively, while providing creative governance for other C27 projects.

BLKJ Havas has elevated Guilherme Machado to executive creative director from his previous role as creative director. Machado will work closely with the leadership team to push the envelope for creative work, melding advertising seamlessly with authentic storytelling and unique perspectives. He joined BLKJ Havas in late 2021. Under his creative leadership, BLKJ Havas has clinched several awards, including an Effies Award and Spikes Asia. Won over 100 advertising awards, Machado has done a range of work over 3 continents.

Marriott Bonvoy, Marriott International’s travel program, has appointed Grey Group Singapore as its Asia Pacific (excluding China) social media agency following a competitive pitch process. Grey Singapore will promote Marriott Bonvoy’s brand promise through social content, while offering strategic counsel and guidance on brand strategy. The account will be led by Shawn Low, Head of Social at Grey Singapore. 

Neil Patel's performance marketing agency network, NP Digital, has launched its Southeast Asia regional office in Singapore, with the appointment of Manuel Denoual as managing director. Manuel will lead the expansion in Southeast Asia and has previously held positions at GroupM, OMG, and Dentsu. Most recently he served as a senior client partner at Twitter.In the new role, he will report to the APAC managing director, Dan Kalinski.