Move and win roundup: Week of June 20, 2022

Media Monks is promoting Darren Crawforth to executive creative director in China, effective immediately. Crawforth will work with Rogier Bikker, the office’s managing director. With over 20 years in design and technology, the former group creative director with stints that spanned London, New York, Boston, LA and Beijing, spent the past 10 years living and working in China. He has created work for brands such as Nike, Google, Puma, Riot Games and Oppo. 

Iprospect has appointed Mavis Shang as managing director in China. Shang will be dedicated to Iprospect’s partnership with Kering Group. She joins from where she was general manager, E2E lead for SKII China account. Shang will report to Laurien Lee, managing partner of IProspect China.

GroupM has elevated Nitin Kumar to the role of chief investment officer in Vietnam. He will assume the position on 1st July 2022, taking over from Huyen Trinh. Kumar was principal partner of Products at GroupM Indonesia. He will report to Himanshu Shekhar, CEO of GroupM Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam as well as Anita Munro, GroupM’s chief investment officer for Southeast and North Asia, who also chairs the APAC Investment Committee.

Deliveroo Singapore has named VCCP as its creative agency. The remit for VCCP will be to reinforce Deliveroo’s passion for food and the value that the firm brings to the lives of Singaporeans.

Puretech Digital, a digital agency based out of Mumbai, has elevated Kedar Kulkarni and Hardik Shah as vice presidents—Digital. Kulkarni has been a part of Puretech for over 10 years and leads businesses for growth marketing and analytics. Shah holds over 12 years of experience with expertise that spans across several sectors, with a focus on organic growth marketing. Both vice presidents will focus on setting up the marketing automation and data ecosystems at Puretech Digital. 

Wesley Mission Queensland has appointed Windsorborn as its creative performance agency effective immediately. Wesley Mission Queensland will commence work with Windsorborn to create a website for visibility and performance.

Flare Communications Group has been appointed by Nike Hong Kong’s Converse Branch to renew the one-year contract after working together for three years. The contract was renewed without a pitch. Flare will continue to provide strategic counsel, PR, and social and influencer integrated services to boost Converse’s awareness, and revamp brand image among the younger generation. In the past three years, Flare drove the brand’s digital landscape in Hong Kong by delivering result-driven influencer campaigns through music, art, and photography.

Home services brand Urban Company has handed its media mandate for Singapore to Havas Media. The account was won after a competitive pitch and the scope of work includes brand and performance marketing management. The agency will aim to further grow its client’s on-demand home services category in Singapore.

Heckler Singapore has appointed Matt Osborne as editor. Moving from Shanghai to Singapore for the role, Osborne has cut campaigns for a variety of clients including Nike, Adidas, Porsche, Cathay Pacific, Volkswagen, Chevrolet, Mercedes-Benz, Sony, Lexus and Reebok and has worked with directors including Rob Chiu, Salomon Lighthelm, Lloyd Lee Choi, Rob Stanton-Cook, Xavier Tera, Mackenzie Sheppard, Ed McCulloch, Jan Wentz and Matthaus Bussman. His editing style is “emotive and authentic with human storytelling at the heart”. His work has picked up numerous awards including a Cannes Gold Film Lion, Grand Prix, One Show, and Australian Screen Editors Guild Award. Prior to this, Osborne Matt has collaborated with Heckler Singapore on several campaigns including those for SK-II and Riot Games. 

Data integration and analytics company Qlik has promoted Chris Powell to CMO. In this role, Powell will lead Qlik’s global marketing and communications organisation, and manage a multi-disciplinary team responsible for brand awareness, messaging, demand management, and communications. His previous role was SVP of field marketing for Qlik, where he led multiple strategic initiatives, including the development and launch of the brand’s most recent global branding campaign. Prior to Qlik, Powell held leadership positions at SAP and Commvault.

Independent media agency Slingshot has expanded its operations with the launch of contextual content and creative arm, Onesmoothstone, headed by Jane Waterhouse. Waterhouse joins from Are Media where she led brands and commercial solutions for more than six years as general manager. Erienne Lette also joins as social director. Formerly senior social and content manager at Atomic 212, Lette has held senior journalism and content roles at media companies including Seven West Media and News Corp. Onesmoothstone offers media creative, social and content strategy and creation. 

Jimmy Brings, one of Australia’s on-demand drinks services, and part of Endeavour Group has appointed Candid Communications as its public relations agency of record, following a competitive pitch. Candid Communications will work tightly with Jimmy Brings' internal communications team to deliver ongoing public relations consultancy, daily media relations and creative projects.

Azeus Convene has appointed Kapil Lad as head of global marketing. Based in India, Lad joins from Atos, where he worked as global head of digital platforms, and head of digital marketing for Atos Syntel for nearly six years. In his new role, he will report to Michael Yap, CEO and executive director and deputy chairman of Azeus Convene.

The Wired Agency has appointed Samantha Nunura (nee Bradford) as its group business director, following her role as head of client service at Junkee Studio (part of oOh! Media). Nunura brings with herself seven years of Junkee Media experience during which she worked across accounts including Netflix, Westpac, AMEX and Qantas. In her new role, Nunura will oversee The Wired Agency’s key accounts, manage staff, and support the managing director and two managing partners on business development initiatives. She will directly report to founder and managing director of The Wired Agency, Angela Hampton.

FCB Shout has added five new senior hires to its brand management team. Timothy Teh and Chin Yee Wen join as brand directors, Kevin Choong is the new communications planning director, meanwhile Kong Pooi Ling and Melanie Mustapha come on board as the new associate brand directors. All five will report directly to Syahriza Badron.

Glad U Came has acquired the influencer marketing mandate for The Momo Co, a brand of momos. The Mumbai-based PR agency will be responsible for designing and executing influencer marketing and celebrity gifting campaigns and establishing brand recognition among Indian consumers.

BBH China has bolstered leadership by appointing Colin Lee as executive creative director, Summer Yang as senior planning drector, Tony Wang as senior Account director and Circle Lee as group account director. They are all based in Shanghai. Lee reports to Kelly Pon, chief creative officer of BBH China; Yang reports to Siyuan Aw, chief strategy officer of BBH China; and Wang and Circle Lee report to Joanne Liu, managing director of BBH China.

VaynerMedia has appointed Marc Langenfeld as head of media for Asia Pacific with immediate effect, reporting to APAC managing director, Tim Lindley.  Langenfeld has over 12-years of experience in the APAC region, most recently as the APEX regional lead at Publicis Media APAC and he has also worked with Dentsu and Carat in various regional capacities.

Mahindra Group has appointed Abanti Sankaranarayanan as chief group public affairs officer effective July 1, 2022. In this role, Sankaranarayanan will lead group public affairs (India & international), group sustainability and the group risk & economist functions. Sankaranarayanan will be a part of the group executive board reporting to Dr. Anish Shah, managing director and CEO, Mahindra Group. She will be taking over the Group Public Affairs portfolio from Manoj Chugh, President, Group Public Affairs, who will be retiring on April 1, 2023. Prior to joining the Mahindra Group, Sankaranarayanan was chief strategy and corporate affairs officer & member — executive committee at Diageo India. 

Grab has hired five leaders to further its advertising capabilities and strengthen the technology, product, marketing, partnership and operational capabilities of its GrabAds offerings. 

The hires include:

• Jennie Johnson as head of marketing for GrabAds from adtech company The Trade Desk where she served as senior director of marketing, Southeast Asia.
• Kaia Lai as head of product for search and personalisation technology. She was most recently head of product, strategy, marketing and operations for Grab.
• Christina Lin joins from Facebook as product marketing lead for Ads and Personalisation Technology.
• Kareen Mendoza is appointed regional financial services partnership lead and moves from Tiktok where she led regional financial services brand partnerships.
• Lastly, Wong Yi Ling has joined as head of sales operations at Grab.

Insights and research consultancy TRA has announced the appointment of a head of innovation and two new directors to join its Sydney team. This follows the recent opening of Sydney’s office and appointment of its managing partner Terri Hall.

The appointments include:

• Nikki Davey, head of innovation, TRA Sydney, previously head of innovation, Kantar
• Ngaia Calder, business director, TRA Sydney, previously customer insights specialist, Kmart.
• Tara Collins, account director, TRA Sydney, previously associate director, The Behavioural Architects, and senior consultant, TRA New Zealand. 

The newly created roles will report to Hall. 

Following one year of working with digital media agency M&C Saatchi Performance, Beam Suntory has extended the partnership until April 2024. The extension continues to see the agency responsible for the digital media planning, buying and strategy across key Beam Suntory brands such as Jim Beam, Auchentoshan, Roku and Strong Zero. Over the next two years, the agency will cover performance and awareness duties across key countries in Southeast Asia including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, and Cambodia.

Mercury PR has been appointed as the PR agency for Puma in Singapore.