Move and win roundup: Week of May 17, 2021

Travel management company FCM has appointed Henry Jones as Asia marketing lead. Based in Singapore, Jones will be responsible for managing and overseeing marketing campaigns and initiatives to drive growth across the region including Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, mainland China. He will ensure that the brand’s positioning is executed effectively and translate the implementation of global strategies across Asia. Prior to this, Jones served a five-year stint at Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) where he held roles in customer experience, business development and corporate marketing. 

Heckler Singapore has appointed a line up of international directors as part of its new production offering in South Asia. The new roster of global directors include New York-based Andrei Juradowitch, Los Angeles-based Reynald Gresset, Sao Paulo-based directing duo Nylon (Boca & Caio), director/DOP Patrick Sher, fashion photographer/ director Tim Kindler and animation director Simon Rippingale, based out of Sydney, Australia.

iProspect has won the digital mandate for AU Small Finance Bank, a Scheduled Commercial Bank in India. As per the mandate, the agency will handle the entire gamut of digital duties for AU Bank including performance and branding campaigns. 

Yellophant Digital won the integrated digital mandate for Mumbai’s Turkish and Lebanese Baklava brand, Mezaya. The mandate includes managing the brand’s 360-degree digital marketing duties, including creative strategy, SEO, SEM, ORM, media spends, website maintenance and social media marketing across digital platforms.

Sydney-based creative production company Infinity Squared has added Paul Butterworth to its roster. Butterworth will be exclusively represented in Australia by Infinity Squared. Over his career, he has held several roles in the world of advertising and filmmaking, and has worked across brands including Sainsbury’s, Ford, Foxtel and BMW.

Blanc, Entropia’s creative and content division, has brought on board John Dorai, as head of creative to conceptualise and execute campaign and brand work for its client roster. Prior to his appointment at Entropia, Dorai was the executive creative director at ADK Malaysia and creative sirector at Hakuhodo Malaysia.

Kojo has appointed Andrew Fotheringham to the newly created role of head of Clients and Marketing Services, based out of the company's Adelaide studio. Fotheringham was most recently general manager - Marketing and Communications of Events South Australia, a division of the South Australian Tourism Commission. Fotheringham joins the Kojo creative management team led by the recently promoted, head of KOJO Creative, Jess Hill.

OMD India has won the communications mandate for edtech startup Cuemath. This deal includes the use of the shop's precision marketing and analytics platform Omni. OMD India will help its new client addresses demand in the market from untapped geographies.

Communications consultancy Hume Brophy has appointed Shawn Balakrishnan as director for its southeast Asia operations. Balakrishnan brings nearly two decades of experience to the table.
In his new role, Balakrishnan will work with leadership across the network to develop new
products, drive growth opportunities and provide strategic counsel to clients. He joins Hume Brophy after previously serving as market leader for Singapore and Southeast Asia at
Burson Cohn & Wolfe (BCW). Balakrishnan fills the gap left by Asia Pacific managing director Carolyn Camoens who left after managing Hume Brophy’s regional presence out of Singapore since 2018. 

Independent public relations agency, DEC PR, has been appointed by Bayer Consumer Health Australia to undertake a series of PR campaigns across its brand portfolio. The Agency has begun work leading a product launch campaign for the new Bepanthen Tattoo product, as well as an equity campaign for women’s intimate health brand, Canesten.

Google has appointed Michael Yue as the general manager, Sales & Operations at Google Hong Kong. Yue joined Google in 2011 and has held sales leadership and strategic partnership positions in this time. Most recently, he was was the global head of sales strategy and enablement responsible for the development and growth of Google’s advertising sales force. 

Sukesh Singh has been appointed as head of large customers, Southeast Asia at Criteo. Singh has had over two decades of experience in sales, strategy and business development at the likes of Yahoo! India, BBC India, Phunware Inc, Adform, and Scibids Technology. In his new role, he is responsible of expanding and growing Criteo’s existing portfolio of large customers, while working closely with them to strengthen relationships.

M&C Saatchi Performance clinched the digital mandate for Beam Suntory. The agency will manage branding and performance duties across Southeast Asia including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, and Cambodia. The mandate will run until April 2022 and includes digital media planning, buying and strategy across key Beam Suntory brands such as Jim Beam, Auchentoshan, Roku, Strong Zero and more.

The Body Shop has expanded its remit with Havas Media Melbourne by adding SEO to the scope of services. Havas was appointed to handle media strategy, planning and implementation for The Body Shop last year. In its first campaign for the client, it delivered a Christmas retail campaign whih was said to break ecommerce sales records. The Body Shop is also a client of Havas Village’s One Green Bean.

The Australian Government has awarded a three-year extension of its media agency contract to Universal McCann (UM). The extension will see UM continue media duties for the Government for another three years leading to June 2024. UM will continue to provide media strategy, planning and buying services to the Australian Government, after initially being awarded the contract in July 2018. UM also previously held the contract from 2002 to 2014. 

Chimp&z Inc was awarded the digital mandate for Astral Pipes, Astral Foundation, and Astral Adhesives. As per the mandate, the agency will be responsible for social media management, SEO, paid media & website maintenance for Astral Pipes and Astral Foundation; and website maintenance for Astral Adhesives. The accounts will be managed by the agency's Mumbai office.

DDB Group Hong Kong promoted Frankie Fung from ECD to chief creative officer and expanded the role of Marco Lam, also previously ECD, to ECD and managing director of experience design. Fung rejoined DDB Group Hong Kong in 2019 as ECD. Prior to that he was with Mcgarrybowen and Leo Burnett, which followed an earlier stint with DDB from 2011 to 2015. Lam joined as ECD in 2019, prior to which he spent time with Tribal Worldwide, Mirum and DesignerCity. Both promotions are effective immediately.

Integral Ad Science (IAS) appointed Takeshi Yamaguchi as country manager in Japan. He joined IAS in 2015 and most recently served as sales director. In his new he will help extend the company’s work with Japanese advertisers, publishers, and platforms, reporting to Laura Quigley, SVP APAC. Previous to IAS, Yamaguchi held roles at ComScore, HP Japan, and Experian Marketing Services.

Hong Kong Design Centre (HKDC) appointed CatchOn, A Finn Partners Company, as its agency of record. The agency will create and implement a PR and digital marketing strategy for HKDC’s annual flagship events (Knowledge of Design Week in June and Business of Design Week in late November and early December); create a new online portal for those events, with year-round events and content; and execute the PR plan for the HKDC's long-running design awards programme, DFA Awards. The scope includes creative campaign ideation; corporate and consumer media relations; content development; digital marketing; social media content development and management; influencer engagement and marketing; and brand and media partnerships. Key markets include Hong Kong, Mainland China, the Greater Bay area and key international regions. HKDC is a non-governmental organisation that aims to position Hong Kong as an international centre of design excellence in Asia.

Australian brand experience and innovation company Akcelo has opened its doors in Vancouver, Canada, with TikTok, the Tribeca Film Festival and a multinational ecommerce retailer as foundation clients. The Vancouver based team is being led by senior marketing executive and Canadian native, Jason Carnew. Carnew has held senior roles across integrated agencies including BMF, Saatchi & Saatchi Wellington, Havas Sydney, Y&R and Haystac.