Move and win roundup: Week of November 1, 2021

Lion & Lion has partnered with multinational Kellogg’s to develop its social media channels as part of a retainer account. Lion & Lion will manage the company’s brands on social media across five markets, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. The mandate includes market and category research to understand the local audience, content planning and seeding, and the development of creative brand assets relevant to each market.

Crypto.com has been appointed the first official global marketing partner of Twitch Rivals. Through this multi-year partnership, Crypto.com also becomes the first official cryptocurrency platform partner of Twitch Rivals, bringing the cryptocurrency market to the forefront of esports. As a Twitch Rivals marketing partner, Crypto.com will have category exclusivity, in-stream branded segments, media placement, activations at Twitch events, and more. 

GroupM promoted Michelle Jiang to chief talent officer for GroupM Greater China. She has more than 17 years of experience in talent management and joined GroupM in 2015 as the talent director of Mindshare China and the finance and IT departments of GroupM China. In 2019, she was promoted to chief talent officer of GroupM. In 2019, she and her team won a gold in the Agency of the Year Awards for Talent Development Program of the Year. She will work with Caroline Chan, CEO of GroupM Hong Kong, Susan Chao, CEO of GroupM Taiwan, and the talent teams of GroupM Asia Pacific and GroupM Global to refine a sustainable talent development platform.

Jones Knowles Ritchie (JKR) appointed former Labbrand Group VP Jacquelien Postigo Brussee as its first China CEO. (Full story)

Twitch named Jasper Mah as head of gaming sales for Asia Pacific. He has more than 15 years of experience working with game publishers, developers, brands and agencies in the APAC region and has held senior positions within global agencies including ESL and Sportfive. He has worked with gaming clients including Krafton (PUBG Corp), Riot Games, Activision Blizzard and Playstation, as well as brands such as AxA, Foodpanda, Lazada and Grab. In addition, he has consulted for the Singapore government on gaming and esports since 2018.

iProspect Australia promoted Sam Cousins to chief strategy officer, Bonnie Dodemaide to national digital performance lead and Jean-Yves (JY) Scauri to national SEO lead. Cousins has been in media for 23 years, most recently with Dentsu across four agencies in leadership, planning and strategy roles. Dodemaide has been with iProspect for nine years most recently as client partner. Scauri has been with iProspect for nearly five years in SEO roles as manager and director.

MBM appointed Lee-Ann Morris to the newly created position of CEO. She will join in February from PHD Media, where she has been managing director for the past five years. MBM's managing partners, Sean McCready, Matt Bale and Alysha Delany will be taking on new governance, strategic and product-focused roles, respectively. Morris has more than 20 years in the industry, starting in the UK with Unilever, Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble. She sits on the Comms Council Media Board. The agency has offices in Auckland and Wellington. 

WWF Singapore appointed Vivek Kumar as its chief marketing and communications director. He was most recently director of strategic marketing and omnichannel monetisation at the NTUC FairPrice Group, where he provided marketing leadership for over 160 Cheers and FairPrice Xpress convenience stores across Singapore and setup FairPrice Group Media. He has more than 20 years of experience in management and strategic communications. including with the Singapore Labour Movement and the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC). For WWF, he will lead campaigns focusing on conservation and climate change goals such as deforestation, haze pollution, food security, plastics, sustainable finance, sustainable consumption and illegal wildlife trade.

Carat China appointed Aaron Zhang as head of integrated client service and managing director, reporting to Ami Qian, CEO of Carat China. The agency also appointed Brenda Cheng as general manager, also reporting to Qian, and named Max Lee as deputy general manager of integrated client service, reporting to Zhang.

Hogarth Australia appointed Emily Harridge as content director and Alan Harca as director and post-production lead. Harridge previously founded Visual Playground, a post-production company that delivered broadcast design, live-action, content production and visual effects.
She has worked with brands including NAB, Mazda, Fox Sports, Bayer, MLC, Warner Bros and EndemolShine Australia. Harca has 12 years of production experience across film, TV, online and digital and has worked with Nike, Sony, Disney, Beck's HP, BMW, Vodafone, Samsung and Adidas. The agency also recently appointed Brendan Barnes as shooter and editor.

Imagination appointed Cyril De Baecque as production director of digital content in its Sydney office. He will report to Imagination Australia’s managing director, Antony Gowthorp, and will be responsible for driving growth and establishing Imagination as a centre of excellence for premium content production. He was previously executive producer at experiential agency Vandal Sydney.

Full-service independent Apparent was appointed by superannuation fund Active Super to lead all media duties following a competitive pitch. The agency will manage media strategy, planning and buying, including performance media and SEO. Active Super, formerly Local Government Super, rebranded in May this year and has $14 billion of funds under management. It is one of only four Australian super funds with all its products certified responsible by the Responsible Investment Association Australasia and is also certified carbon neutral by Climate Active.

Virtue, the creative agency associated with Vice, appointed Lesley John as APAC managing director. She will oversee Virtue’s business and teams across the region, including offices in India, Indonesia, Korea and Japan, from its Singapore hub. John joins from S4 Capital-owned data, content and production company MediaMonks, where she was head of client services. Prior to that she held senior and regional positions at VCCP, Arcade and BBH. She will report to Virtue’s co-presidents, Colin Mitchell and Chris Garbutt. 

Uniplan appointed Sonny Shen as managing director in Shanghai, and announced Aiden Liu, currently the executive creative director of Uniplan Beijing, will transfer to the Shanghai office as ECD, effective November 15. Liu will report Shen, and Shen reports to Geraldine Chew, CEO for Greater China. Shen has more than 20 years of marketing and sales experience. Most recently, she was the GM of RR Donnelly Asia. She was also previously MD at Edelman. Liu has been with Uniplan Beijing for six years.

Ogilvy PR appointed Ant Kelaher as chief growth officer. The appointment marks his return to the agency, where he worked until 2014, after which he spent seven years in New York with agencies including Edelman, Fleishman Hillard and Golin. He takes on the role from Jacquie Potter, who was appointed managing director of Howorth, Ogilvy PR’s technology and business communications consultancy, in March. In addition, Ogilvy PR has recently made 25 promotions across its leadership, communications, social, content and operations teams. Senior promotions include Brian Corrigan, who was promoted to head of editorial, and David Radestock, who was promoted to senior business director.

Havas Group India announced a restructuring of the senior leadership team at Havas Worldwide. Manas Lahiri, previously president north, has been promoted to the role of managing director, and Ravinder Siwach, previously the national creative director, has been promoted to the role of executive director and national creative director. Lahiri will continue to report to Rana Barua, group CEO of Havas Group India. He will lead both offices (Gurgaon and Mumbai). Siwach will continue to report to Bobby Pawar, chairman and chief creative officer of Havas Group India.  

Technology-focused communications consultancy Hotwire appointed Nick Healy, formerly of Samsung Electronics, to the newly created role of client services director in Australia. Healy will also lead a communications team to support an evolution of end-to-end storytelling capabilities offered to enterprise technology and innovation-led clients. He joins following eight years with Samsung Electronics, where he held various leadership roles within the communications and corporate affairs team across the mobile and consumer-electronics divisions. The Hotwire team has also recently added Olivia Jarman and Allan Hunt as program managers. Jarman joins from The PR Hub, where she was a senior account manager. Hunt has moved across from Weber Shandwick, where he was a senior associate.

Citigate Dewe Rogerson (CDR) opened a new office in Guangzhou to support clients across the region who are growing their presence in the rapidly growing Greater Bay Area. The office will be led by managing director and head of China Benny Liu, who will spend regular time there, and the new team will work closely with other CDR offices to provide coverage across the region. The Guangzhou office is the seventh in CDR’s APAC network, adding to Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo and Taipei.

Walee.pk, an influencer ecosystem that raised pre-seed funding from Z2C Limited, appointed Zeeshan-ul-Hassan Usmani as its chief data scientist and Waqas Ramzan as its senior vice president of sales. Usmani was previously on the company's advisory board. Ramzan was previously country director of Monty Mobile. 

Outbrain appointed Shouneel Charles as managing director in India. He was previously executive vice president of digital at Times Network, and brings more than 20 years of digital and media expertise including at NDTV Convergence, Yahoo India, HBO and Warner Brothers. He will be responsible for driving revenue, business strategy and digital growth. 

Lynette Pang will step down from her role as assistant chief executive of the marketing group at the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) on November 29. She will be replaced by Chang Chee Pey, assistant chief executive of the international group. He will in turn be replaced by Juliana Kua, who is currently STB’s executive director for Greater China. (Full story)

Circles.Life has hired creative agency Cummins&Partners and media agency Mediahub, after a competitive pitch process. The agencies will launch Circles.Life’s first creative campaign in Australia in November, through the new brand platform created by Cummins&Partners, 'Switch To You'.

Independent agency Core appointed Clare La Palombara as head of strategy, following new account wins including Quest Apartment Hotels and Doctors on Demand. She was most recently strategic planning director at Clemenger BBDO Sydney.