Move and win roundup: Week of August 3, 2020

MediaCom China has appointed Michelle Yin as its new chief operating officer. Yin joins the MediaCom China EXCO and will be based in Shanghai.  Her remit spans across MediaCom’s China-wide business, and she will be leading the trading and commercial divisions to enhance operational efficiency as well as developing strategic capabilities of the agency. With extensive management experience spanning over two decades at consultancy firms, multinational advertisers and media agencies, Yin rejoins MediaCom from Havas Media China where for the last two years she held the position of chief operating officer.

Ogilvy has been appointed as the communications agency of record for National Gallery Singapore, following a competitive tender. The appointment will see Ogilvy driving public relations and strategic communications efforts for the leading visual arts institution in Singapore and Southeast Asia. National Gallery's CMO Chris Lee cited Ogilvy's understanding of the business, creativity and media and influencer networks in the region for its  choice as our public relations partner. 

Publicis Groupe has appointed Adrian Farouk to the new role of Epsilon chief executive for ANZ, bringing the capabilities of the data business to operations to Australia and New Zealand leading offices in Sydney and Melbourne. Farouk will retaining his role as CEO of Digitas ANZ.

PR firm Influence Matters has made two new key hires in Beijing and Shanghai. Joyce Wang joins as associate director and deputy head of the Shanghai office, and Dijia Xin has been appointed client success director, sitting in Beijing and overseeing client strategy across both offices. With over 15 years of PR and communication experience, Wang will spearhead purpose-driven communication strategies and plans for multiple accounts in the software, fintech and cybersecurity spaces. Xin, most recently head of Growth Marketing at Lab 1886 China, has a strong background in media and PR for the technology and automotive industries. He will report to managing director, Simon Vericel.

Customer data management firm Tealium has appointed sales industry veteran Aaron Senden, as country manager to lead operations in New Zealand. Senden has over two decades of digital marketing and media sales experience. Most recently, Senden was country manager for global marketing automation leader, Marketo. From Auckland, Senden will be responsible for driving business growth, working closely with customers and partners.

Southeast Asian sports and media marketing agency Red Card Global has announced a partnership with esports organisation, Gen.G. to leverage Red Card’s network and knowledge to expand Gen. G. from its current operations in China, Korea and the US into Southeast Asia. 

OOH media measurent firm Moving Walls has added business consultant and Ebiquity China chairman D.Sriram to its advisory board as the group enters North Asia. An industry veteran with over 30 years of experience, Sriram has spent the latter half of his career in Greater China. 

Mindshare China has appointed Eva Lv as talent director, effective immediately reporting to APAC CEO Amrita Randhawa, and GroupM China CTO Michelle Jiang. Lv joins Mindshare with 14 years of extensive HR management experience, most recently having worked for Danone, where she became HR business partner to ecommerce and sales, commercial and brand teams. Prior to Danone, Lv spent five years with Unilever working with both the marketing and CMI functions, in addition to the HR shared service team.

Esports entertainment company Ampverse appointed Tim Roemer as director of operations. In his role, Roemer will support the growth of Ampverse as the company is set to scale across Southeast Asia. Roemer’s role is largely to implement efficient organisational processes and work closely with the C-suite team to analyse growth and acquisition opportunities across esports, content and product divisions. Roemer successfully founded ventures including performance marketing company, Heroleads, which he grew and scaled to over 200 people in five years.

Opr, part of WPP AUNZ has been appointed by DocuSign to manage its communication and content business across Australia and New Zealand following a competitive pitch. DocuSign helps companies prepare agreements and contracts with eSignatures and is evolving to cover the whole of the agreement process.

Content delivery software firm Varnish Software has opened a new regional headquarters in Singapore. It has appointed Peter Löfling as general manager for Asia-Pacific operations. Varnish chose Singapore for its technical talent pool, strong international trade and transport links. Löfling, has 20 years of experience in building and deploying content delivery network businesses and has previously worked with Cisco and Ericsson.

Mediamath, an independent advertising technology company for brands and agencies, has expanded its leadership team and board of directors. Former Nielsen executive, Eleni Nicholas, joins as the company’s first chief client officer, and the Mediamath board has inducted Allie Kline, a former Verizon Media CMO as a member. The company has also brought on Guillermo Abud as senior vice president of business development for Latin America and US Multicultural.

Digital media communications and research firm Drizzlin Media has been awarded the digital media intelligence mandate for bottled water company Danone-Aqua, the top bottled water brand in Indonesia. Drizzlin Media will help the brand leverage digital media data to make critical business and communication decisions. With Drizzlin Media’s expertise, Danone-AQUA wants to monitor
digital media trends and register insights relevant to its brand, such as sustainability. 

Ogilvy has won the creative duties for Cars24 – an online platform to sell and buy pre-owned vehicles in India. The business will be handled out of the agency’s Gurugram office. The agency will be tasked with the mandate of building and scaling-up the brand and its marketing ecosystem through its integrated communications efforts. This will include communication development across TV, print, radio, social media and other relevant touchpoints. 

The Australian Turf Club (ATC) has announced a partnership with sports and entertainment marketing agency, SportFive to grow the value of its commercial partnership portfolio and support the growth of existing supporters, while engaging with new brands and opportunities. SportFive will help build and deliver fully integrated partnerships across racecourse venues, community, digital, fashion, hospitality and media platforms.

Lewis Wiltshire, former Twitter head of sport and BBC Sport editor, has been appointed as the CEO of Mailman EMEA and Seven League, a European digital sports agency and consultancy, which is part of the global Mailman Group. Richard Ayers, founder and current CEO of Seven League, will remain with the organisation as Chairman. Mailman, an Asian sports digital agency, added London-based Seven League to its Group in 2018, expanded into Southeast Asia in 2019 with a Singapore office and presence in nine SEA regions. Wiltshire will oversee Seven League’s consultancy arm, which provides strategic guidance for professional sports leagues and teams.

Malaysia’s lifestyle e-commerce brand Oxwhite has appointed Citrine One as its public relations agency on record. The appointment was made following a competitive pitch between three agencies in early July, in which Citrine One pitched for an integrated PR approach which combines media relations, product placements and thought leadership opportunities.

To extend the reach of Taiwan's original content, Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA) and Catchplay have announced a joint investment in Screenworks Asia to create original Taiwanese content for the international audience. The joint venture aims to increase the quantity and quality of entertainment content productions and to facilitate international collaboration. Screenworks selects topics of international interest for development, focusing mainly on movies, mini-series, and factual entertainment for theatrical releases, TV, or streaming services with creating diversified, cross-industry global IP as its long-term goal. The first Screenworks project announced is the sequel to Mandarin-speaking drama series of 2019, The Making of An Ordinary Woman II.