Move and win roundup: Week of June 24, 2024

Zitcha, the retail media platform in Australia and New Zealand, has expanded its customer success team by appointing two former News Corp executives to senior roles. Kate Marshall, as the new customer success director, will manage Zitcha’s international client portfolio, leveraging her ecommerce and digital marketing experience from Amazon and News Corp. Genevieve Cleaver, the new customer success lead for APAC, brings a background in digital client growth and performance media to support Zitcha’s presence in Southeast Asia. This team expansion follows Zitcha's partnership with MixIn by Endeavour and the appointment of Josh Forsyth as APAC sales lead.

Hakuhodo H+ has appointed Guy Hearn as director of product and innovation. Hearn will report to Stephen Li, chief client officer of H+ and the H+ leadership executive, and will continue to be based in Singapore. Before joining H+, Hearn worked at Fullbeam, The Scale Factory and Heineken. He also worked for over ten years at Omnicom Media Group, where he served as chief product officer and director of communication insights, Asia Pacific. H+ is the international client offering from Hakuhodo Inc and Hakuhodo DY ONE Inc and has dual hubs in Tokyo and Bangkok.

WE Communications (WE), an independent global communications firm, has announced two new appointments to its international leadership team.  

• Nichole Provatas has been named as EVP, international head of integrated marketing, to oversee WE’s Borderless Experience Team (BET), a globally decentralised group that provides client counsel, creative execution, strategic insights and data capabilities to clients around the world.  Provatas joined WE in 2017, and she was previously EVP, APAC head of integrated marketing. 
• Brian Keenan has been elevated to EVP, international head of insights and analytics, to support Provatas in her new role. Keenan will be responsible for advancing WE’s insight, analytics, and strategy capabilities for clients and driving growth across key markets and sectors.  Keenan joined WE in 2020, and he served as EVP, APAC strategy before promotion.

Ingenia Holiday Parks has appointed a new PR agency partner in Thrive PR + Communications. Meanwhile, the agency appointed former News Corp Australia national PR and talent relations manager Liliana Molina as the new agency lead in Queensland. As business director, she will lead Thrive’s local client growth as well as drive the agency’s Olympic strategy.

Saatchi & Saatchi has secured Toyota Australia's retail creative account following a three-way pitch involving incumbents Dentsu Creative, independent agency Hero and Publicis' Saatchi & Saatchi. The latest win means that the agency's remit has now extended to the brand, retail, value chain, and select product communication. The account was previously held by Dentsu Creative since 2014. In 2021, Toyota handed its media and creative accounts to the Groupe—Spark Foundry was entrusted with the media portfolio, while Saatchi & Saatchi continued to oversee the brand and select product portfolios. The independent agency Hero was also on the roster for specific product portfolios.

In a statement released to Campaign Asia-Pacific, Publicis Groupe ANZ's chief executive, Michael Rebelo, said: “Toyota has been a valued partner for over 40 years, and we are honoured to have this opportunity to build upon our enduring relationship. In bringing together our expertise in marketing transformation and Toyota’s focus on innovation, we’re excited to extend the power of our connected capabilities across creative, content and data to drive Toyota’s retail and value chain business.”

UA Finance has appointed The Bread Digital, a Hong Kong local agency, as its creative agency, following a competitive pitch. Under the agreement, The Bread Digital will handle creative communication for the brand from 2024 to 2025.  Last year, UA Finance celebrated its 30th anniversary in collaboration with M&C Saatchi Spencer, and launched a series of campaigns, from a gigantic robotic 3D arm to the ultraman monsters film.

Global creative network OK COOL has appointed Casey Henderson as creative director. He takes on the role of creative director for its new APAC studio and works closely with the network’s senior leadership team across the region. Henderson was a former art director at Clemenger BBDO, He joined BBDO as a social media manager in 2017 and moved into the art director position within a year. 

Big Red Group, an experience marketplace, has appointed Toni Westlake as its new head of brand and marketing. Westlake takes on the role after four years with the company. Previously at Bisley Workwear, Seafolly P/L and Benden Group, she joined Big Red Group in 2020 as a brand manager and quickly moved into a senior marketing manager role. In her new role, she will be responsible for building out the marketing team and supporting Big Red Group’s sustainable growth across its portfolio.

Standard Chartered has promoted Haymans Fung to global head of wealth and retail bank marketing. Fung will retain her head of marketing of wealth and retail banking for Hong Kong role while also overseeing Singapore, China, India, Korea, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Taiwan. She will report to Samir Subberwal, global head, wealth solutions, deposits and mortgages and chief client officer, wealth and retail banking, Standard Chartered Bank.

Matt Farrington has joined Dentsu as president of trading and investment for APAC. He was most recently the APAC head of partnerships and investment at Yahoo. Before Yahoo, he also had stints in OMD and Wavemaker. 

Dept has hired Monica Ledwani as director of customer experience. In her new role, Ledwani will be based out of Mumbai and spearhead all aspects of digital transformation for Dept’s clients, which includes overseeing the delivery of projects related to the Adobe platform and marketing services. The agency has also hired Rishi Bhargava as head of solutions consulting to expand and strengthen its Adobe practice while building newer competencies and innovating its existing practices and solution areas. Ledwani and Bhargava will both report to Yash Mody, CTO for APAC at Dept.

Equativ has hired Rueben Vijaratnam as managing director for SEA to to build a demand-focused strategy for the platform. Most recently, Vijaratnam spent five years at Quantcast, where he led demand generation efforts.

Kiwi Communications, an communications agency focused on travel and hospitality based in Beijing, China has been appointed as the official communications partner by the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board to handle its PR and media relations in the China market.

Antoine Malin will join the luxury hospitality group, Jumeirah, at the Dubai headquarters as global director of social media. In this newly created position, Malin will report to the vice president, global marketing. Before joining Jumeirah, Malin was global marketing manager of Infiniti, the luxury car company where he held positions in Hong Kong and Tokyo for over six years. He has been named into Campaign’s 40 Under 40 in 2016. 

Best Gift Group, a hospitality experience, marketing and gift company, has appointed Bench Media as its digital media agency partner. The agency will implement a fully integrated approach to Best Gift Group’s media campaigns, from awareness to consideration, and ultimately purchases. A new campaign will launch later this month across DOOH, connected TV, social, search and shoppable display in Australia and New Zealand.

Prophet, a commercial mix modelling (CMM) platform, has appointed Hamish Mogan as its new chief operating officer and VP of marketing science. Mogan was the former head of marketing science for the retail and ecommerce sectors across ANZ. Prior to Meta, he also headed leading data science and analytics roles at Sportsbet, EY and Les Mills International.