Move and win roundup: Week of February 19, 2024

Tatler Asia has appointed Parminder Singh as its new chief operating officer (COO), effective from March 11, 2024.  As the former chief commercial and digital officer of MediaCorp, Singh spearheaded transformative initiatives that drove substantial growth in TV and digital revenues. His tenure at Twitter and Google further solidified his expertise in the digital domain. In his role as COO, Singh will play a crucial role in guiding Tatler Asia's commercial and operational strategies, with a focus on enhancing regional and local market presence, driving advertising, sponsorships, collaborations and B2B revenue growth, and he will be instrumental in amplifying Tatler Asia's brands and spearheading growth through the exploration of new products and business models.

AFL has announced it is renewing its partnership with PHD Australia. PHD Melbourne will be responsible for the media planning and buying across the AFL account, including the AFLW, game development programs and Marvel Stadium. The partnership started in 2019.

UltraSuperNew Singapore has hired Elrid Carvalho joins as head of creative. Before joining USN, Elrid served as Group East's creative head. Joining Carvalho in the creative department is senior art director Sharmain Lim, who was most recently at RAPP. Newly graduated junior art director Javeen Bakshi arrives at her first job in advertising, an award winner with two golds, one silver, one bronze, one finalist position, and one Best of Category title at the Crowbar Awards 2024. Justine Schlossmacher comes on board as a junior copywriter and rounds up the creative hires. Joining the account management team is associate account director Yong En Soon, who comes on board from BLKJ Havas, having led the RSAF account.

Publicis Groupe ANZ has appointed Clare Pickens as the new CEO of Leo Burnett Australia. The appointment comes following a global a search after former chief executive Emma Montgomery quit the role within two years to join DDB Chicago as CEO. Montgomery departed the agency at the end of June 2023. Montgomery works in tandem with CCO Rodrigo Jatene in the current role and reports to global president and chief operating officer Alex Lubar. Pickens is a former Wieden+Kennedy executive with over 15 years of experience working in diverse roles in Amsterdam. Her strong creative pedigree was evident in her nearly 10-year stint at W+K in Amsterdam, where she was instrumental in shaping brand strategy and work excellence across prominent brands, such as Uber, Nike, Mondelez, Instagram, Heineken, P&G, Netflix, Diageo, Levi’s, and Booking.com. Her most recent role was as managing director of HERC Amsterdam. 

Gordan Domlija, former Wavemaker APAC CEO who exited the agency last February, has announced the launch of a new global post-digital media and marketing agency, Re:Motive Media, on LinkedIn. He will be serving as founder and managing partner. Domlija also launched an independent marketing consultancy ElucidateX last year. 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, also landing 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 two consecutive years, he was named Asia Pacific Agency Head of the Year at Campaign's Agency of the Year awards.

Motorola has appointed Dentsu Creative India as its creative agency. The agency will service the brand from its Delhi office and will spearhead a broad spectrum of services across digital and mainline platforms. This includes proposition development, reporting & competition benchmarking, planning and strategy decks, social media creatives, media requirements encompassing digital, ATL (Above the Line), retail, ORM (Online Reputation Management), and social listening.

303 MullenLowe Perth has hired creative talent Sara Oteri as executive creative director. Oteri is tasked with leading the Perth creative team and its creative output, plus playing a pivotal role in new business development and creative innovation. She was most recently ECD at Melbourne agency Akkomplice, where she worked on Darrell Lea, Daimler, Sirena Tuna, Kellogg’s and Cricket Australia, among others, before her move home to Perth.

Swatch has hired communications agency Purple, as its media and influencers collaboration partner for Hong Kong. Purple has worked with the likes of Longines, Kenzo and Kappa.

SeenThis has appointed Michael Krawczyk as commercial director for Australia and New Zealand. With over 17 years of experience in media agency and publisher roles in the media agency and publishing markets, Krawczyk was previously News Corp’s national head of digital client growth and capability. He has also held senior roles at Wavemaker, where he was national head of digital, previously working at MEC for over a decade. In his new role at SeenThis, Krawcyzk will be charged with leading the commercial growth of the business, forging new relationships with brands and agencies, and driving sustainable growth outcomes for those partners.

W Communications Singapore has further strengthened its banking and finance portfolio in Asia with the latest appointment by leading private bank, VP Bank. Following a competitive pitch, VP Bank will now consolidate its PR and social media scope across Singapore and Hong Kong with the agency. W Communications will also continue to amplify the bank's key narratives and thought leadership content to increase share of voice and engage the relevant audiences of financial intermediaries and private clients.

VCCP Singapore has appointed Anh Nguyen as creative group head. Nguyen was previously a senior copywriter with Kvur Singapore. Prior to that, he worked for TBWA and Iris in Singapore after moving to Asia from New York in 2016. Born in Ukraine, he worked in the UK in his early career at PwC before heading to the US.   

FleishmanHillard Australia, under TBWA\Sydney, has been appointed as the PR agency of record for Bugaboo, global premium parenting brand, following a three-way competitive pitch. FleishmanHillard was selected for its track record in driving transformative outcomes for brands through creative communications and for its experience in the mother and children category with its work for Philips Avent, WaterWipes and Bellamy’s Organic. FleishmanHillard is tasked with building the Bugaboo brand across Australia and New Zealand across creative PR, social and creator programmes.

Sustainability-focused streaming company SeenThis has announced the addition of four new hires as it seeks to expand its presence across APAC. All experienced professionals in their relevant fields, the roles vary across sales to technical production. Wen Jing Toh joins as sales manager for Southeast Asia. Most recently, Toh held the role of advertiser solutions manager at PubMatic. Ain Zulkifni also joins as sales manager for Southeast Asia, having previously worked as demand partners manager at ad-serving company, Equativ. Meanwhile, Ping Yew Tan joins the team as technical producer. Previously, Tan worked for omnichannel marketing agency FirstCom Solutions. Finally, Hui Jie Ong has joined as technical producer, having worked prior as a front-end developer at transformative digital CX solutions company TDCX. 

Supply-side platform PubMatic has appointed Peter Barry as vice president of addressability and commerce media for APAC. Barry’s appointment sees him return to PubMatic’s Australia office, following a move to New York in 2021 as PubMatic’s global VP of addressability and commerce, where he spent two years. In his new role, he will be responsible for rolling out commerce media solutions across the APAC region. In addition, Barry will also be working with publishers and advertisers to identity vendors and industry bodies to ensure PubMatic’s customers are maximising addressable opportunities across their businesses. During Barry’s time in the US, he led multiple cross-functional teams, helping PubMatic's partners execute against addressability strategies to drive monetisation. He also helped launch the Convert platform in 2023. Before that, Barry was PubMatic’s regional director for Australia and New Zealand, leading the rollout of the company’s addressability suite across the region and working with data and APAC identity partners.

M&C Saatchi Australia’s chief strategy officer Emily Taylor, is leaving the agency after over three years. Taylor joined the agency in 2020 from Colenso BBDO, where she held a similar position. Taylor has also previously worked in Leo Burnett, AKQA and VCCP.

ADK Group has revamped its Thailand office and announced key changes to its executive team. The agency has over 40 offices worldwide. 

• CEO Masato Suematsu has been appointed as the chairman of ADK Thailand Group. He will hold the additional role of Chief Strategy Officer at ADK Global.
• Meanwhile, managing director Thanawat Meesawat has been named the agency's first Thai national CEO. Together with Suematsu, he will lead the transformation of ADK Thailand into a customer experience agency.
• Wikorn Rojarayanont will head the creative teams at ADK Thailand as well as boutique agency Scrum (within the ADK Group as the new CCO. Rojarayanont is an accomplished veteran with over 20 years of experience. 

Accomplished creative Scott McClelland has joined 72andSunny in Australia as their executive creative director. He replaces Luke Martin, who has transitioned to a new position at Block. McClelland brings over 15 years of experience from his tenure at BBH in Asia, TBWA Media Arts Lab, and Weiden + Kennedy, among others. His impressive career spans across Australia, Asia, and Europe. Notably, during his stint at TBWA, he led Apple's creative output in the APAC region. Recently, he has been running his own consultancy, focusing on projects with a high index of creativity, sports, and social impact.

Word of Mouth Digital, a Sydney-based full-service digital marketing agency, has expanded its portfolio with six new clients: Happy Hounds Collective, MyBrainCo, Domaine Homes, Raw Essentials Tea, Community Refugee Sponsorship, and Dove Grey Bridal. Notably, Word of Mouth Digital’s existing stable already includes prominent names such as The University of Sydney and H&M.