Move and win roundup: Week of March 6, 2023

Yahoo has promoted John McNerney to managing director for Australia and Southeast Asia. He has been with Yahoo for 13 years, and he was most recently senior director of platforms for APAC. In his new role, McNerney will oversee the newly formed integrated teams across all of Yahoo Advertising’s disciplines. Yahoo Advertising has a series of new promotions, including: 

• Matt Farrington, APAC head of partnerships & investment
• Julia Edwards, commercial director AUSEA
• Andrew Gilbert, director of platforms AUSEA

Dentsu Asia Pacific has appointed Harsha Razdan as CEO of South Asia, effective from 1st May 2023. Razdan  will be responsible for leading nearly 4,000 talents across South Asia, uniting teams around Dentsu’s vision to be at the forefront of people-centred transformations that shape society. He will be based in Mumbai, reporting to Rob Gilby, APAC CEO. With over 25 years of experience, he has worked across large, global FMCG organisations PepsiCo and Unilever, and consulting practices, including Accenture, where he spent four years in the UK. Before joining Dentsu, he was senior partner at KPMG. More details can be read here. 

DDB Group Singapore has bagged Samsonite as creative agency of record for Southeast Asia. As part of the partnership, the agency will enhance awareness and engagement about Samsonite and American Tourister product ranges across all regional marketing channels. In addition, a large-scale campaign for American Tourister’s new brand concept will also roll out in H2.

Le Pub APAC has appointed Hanh Kanssen as general manager and Cyril Louis as executive creative director. With deep and native insight into Asian and Vietnamese consumer lifestyles and experiences, Kanssen has a career spanning across Asia, Europe, and North America, where she helped drive significant growth for global brands. Louis started his career in France and worked in Singapore, Tokyo, Dubai, and Los Angeles. Now back in Asia, he is leading creative for Heineken APAC and Tiger Beer globally as ECD at Le Pub.

Hono has appointed Virender Aggarwal as global advisor and board member for APAC. Aggarwal will be responsible for leading the company’s strategy in the Southeast Asia region and will concentrate on forging a significant footprint in this high-growth market. With more than 35 years of technology leadership experience, prior to joining HONO, he led people and change management in leadership roles at Ramco Systems, HCL Tech, Satyam Computer Services Limited, and so on.  

EssenceMediacom, has retained the media account for health insurer, Nib following a competitive pitch.

Hivestack has started an exclusive partnership with Focus Media Hong Kong. Both local and global buyers will have exclusive access to Focus Media Hong Kong’s network of digital panels and billboards. This network reaches audiences in several of Hong Kong’s prime and strategic locations, such as Causeway Bay, Tsim Sha Tsui, Mongkok and Kwun Tong, and includes the first digital screen in the city that can be activated programmatically with 3D creative executions.

DDB Group Melbourne has appointed Ella Ward as head of DDB experience, which is a newly created role to shape, elevate, and lead the DDB experience for talent and clients. Ward has worked across Melbourne and London for more than two decades in roles such as head of client service at Saatchi & Saatchi, head of account service at Leo Burnett, and group account director at George Patterson Y&R.

Mediahub has been selected as the media agency of record across Australia and New Zealand for Bosch, following a highly competitive pitch. Mediahub will be responsible for all media strategy and buying across all platforms for Bosch's entire appliance portfolio, including kitchen, dishwasher, and laundry appliances.

Blintn, a South Korea-based premium database for the media industry, has appointed Gregory Ho as senior advisor to its chief executive, Peter Choe. Ho joins Blintn’s Board of Advisors effective immediately. Based in Singapore he supports Choe specifically in areas of strategic business development, branding, marketing and communications. Ho was the former chief communications and marketing executive at Warner Bros.

Leverate Group has joined Tribe Global, an international network of over 40 independent communications agencies. Leverate Group’s team has grown to become a leading provider of bespoke strategies for creative brand communication and media buying in Southeast Asia. Joining Tribe Global opens doors for Leverate Group to ample exchange of ideas, learning, and collaborations across the globe.

Apparent, an independent agency in Australia, has promoted Candice Lombard to chief of staff, effective immediately. In the newly created role, Lombard will work closely with Apparent’s managing director, Suzy Smiley and the various department leaders, taking responsibility across agency integration, people and culture along with strategic and organisational priorities. She brings 25 years of agency experience, leading large teams and departments across a number of agencies.

WPP has acquired 3K Agentur für Kommunikation (3K), one of the leading healthcare specialist PR agencies in Germany. 3K will be integrated into Hill+Knowlton Strategies (H+K) global network, strengthening its healthcare presence in Europe and expanding its operations in Germany.  

Palo Alto Networks has promoted KP Unnikrishnan to the position of chief marketing officer. He will be based in the company’s Santa Clara headquarters and report directly to Palo Alto Networks Chairman and CEO Nikesh Arora. Unnikrishnan was vice president of marketing in Asia Pacific and Japan before his promotion. Taking over his role as head of marketing in Asia Pacific and Japan, Lisa Sim will be responsible for the company’s regional growth strategy, 

Veridooh has appointed Kate Crook (née Wilkinson) as group sales lead to help strengthen the business’ relationships with clients across Australia. Before Veridooh, Crook worked at Shopper as senior business manager, and she also worked at JCDecaux and Scentre. In her new role, based in Melbourne, Crook will focus on better servicing agencies and brands across Australia. 

Mediabrands Content Studio (MBCS) has appointed Marshall Campbell as general manager, client service and Luke Simkins as group creative director to further strengthen its senior creative team. Campbell has previously held senior roles at TBWA, DARE digital (UK), Clemenger BBDO, and Emotive and Genero. Simkins is an experienced creative problem solver who has worked at agencies in Sydney, London and Melbourne. Before MBSC, he was creative director at M&C Saatchi Sydney. Simkins and Campbell are based in Sydney and report directly to Managing Director, Olivia Warren.

Ocorian has appointed Novia Lu as business development director. Based in Hong Kong, Lu will focus on private and corporate clients in the region and work closely with professional intermediaries. Bringing more than 14 years of financial services experience, before Ocorian, Lu was at Praxis, responsible for business development in Greater China.

PlanPay, a PayTech brand, has unveiled its launch brand strategy, including new purpose and proposition via creative technology agency whiteGREY. This is the first work to market since whiteGREY was appointed as its creative and media agency of record, following a competitive pitch in October 2022.

oOh!media has appointed Paul Sigaloff to the newly created role of chief revenue and growth officer. Sigaloff has spent over 20 years at leading Australian, UK and global media brands, transforming legacy businesses into future focussed and digitally enabled ones and heading sales teams to drive growth. He will join the company in May.

ASL and Diageo solidify global relationship with renewed outsourcing contact extending to 4 markets of  Southeast Asia. ASL started a strategic relationship with Diageo in 2018 with a single outsourced contract for Diageo Thailand and Indonesia at that time. 

VisitCanberra appointed Wunderman Thompson as its creative agency in late 2022 and launched its first domestic tourism campaign, ‘There’s more than they’re telling us' in March. The campaign is fronted by three thirty-second spots, as well as video cutdowns and a suite of static assets. 

Dentsu has been appointed by Foodpanda as its media partner for its Asia Pacific markets. The markets will include Hong Kong, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand – in addition to its existing remit in Taiwan, where Dentsu has been their media partner since 2020.

Wunderman Thompson Australia has appointed Gavin Bain, previously national managing director of the business’ Australian operations, to the position of CEO. The change comes as current Australia CEO, Matt Parry, makes the move to Hong Kong to lead WPP’s team Helix for HSBC for the region. 

TotallyAwesome has announced Pablo Gomez as chief strategy officer for APAC, Belinda Casselden as head of marketing for APAC, Brian Riedlinger as chief delivery officer and Jeff Franco as regional head of growth APAC. All four roles are newly created positions. Gomez spent six years as the APAC media lead at Kantar, Casselden spent over 12 years in several senior strategic business roles at Woolworths Australia, Riedlinger was most recently CDO at Publicis and Franco joins from Initiative where he was head of Singapore.

Greenpark has promoted Fe Husaint to managing director for APAC. Husaint will succeed Marcelo Bittencourt, who is leaving the agency in March, after nine years leading Greenpark, to move back to Europe to spend more time with family.

Publicis Groupe has secured Dave Bowman from Google to become its new chief creative officer in Australia and New Zealand, Campaign Asia-Pacific can confirm. Read more here.

Icon Agency has hired Kate Ward as director of consumer PR and communications and Shane Weddell as head of growth, digital. Both have also been appointed to the senior leadership team.