Move and win roundup: Week of October 17, 2022

Sweetshop has promoted Catherine Law to managing director of its China operations. She succeeds Laura Geagea who has been elevated to regional managing director of China, Asia and MENA. Law is a senior executive producer who has worked on films and commercial work on both production and agency sides. Her past workplaces include Leo Burnett Guangzhou, Ogilvy & Mather Beijing, BBH, Cheil China and Good People Basically. 

Digital consultancy Appnovation has named Leo Tsui as its Asia president, taking over responsibilities from Yvette Yanne. Tsui will be responsible for regional expansion, developing new and existing client relationships, and introducing new capabilities to the market. He previously held leadership positions at DDB Group Hong Kong, Tribal Worldwide Hong Kong and Mirum Hong Kong. In this new role, Tsui reports to global president Scott Wassmer. 

Independent video advertising distribution GlassView platform has named Muneaki Takao as its country manager in Japan. In this newly created role, Takao will be responsible for expanding GlassView's presence in the Japanese market and identify growth opportunities. He will report to CMO Patrick Kirby.

Independent Australian agency The Hallway has appointed Carla Hizon as head of account management. In this newly created position, Hizon will be responsible for leading the agency’s account management teams across Sydney and Melbourne. With close to 15 years’ industry experience, Hizon has held senior roles at leading agencies both locally and internationally and has worked on brands including Google, Adidas, Telstra and VW.

Chtrbox has promoted Mrunali Dedhia and Karan Pherwani to VPs. In their new roles, they will innovate and scale the company’s creator-powered marketing solutions across India, while driving synergies with QYOU’s influencer marketing group in the US. Both Dedhia and Pherwani have been heading key growth and servicing divisions at Chtrbox, including managing a team of over 60 influencer marketing & creator content specialists. 

Programmatic marketing company Crimtan has appointed of Andy Houstoun as chief commercial officer. In his new role, Houstoun will be setting up a new commercial services division to focus on supporting existing clients, as well as growing Crimtan’s creative and analytical functions. He has more than two decades of experience in programmatic and digital, most recently as group operations director at Crimtan, and previously as chief commercial officer of Larsson & Jennings. 

Research and insights agency TRA has appointed Laura Mulcahy to the newly created role of director, cultural strategy. Mulcahy will be based in TRA’s Melbourne office, and work across TRA’s Trans-Tasman business leading cultural strategy and foresight initiatives, ensuring its cultural strategy offering is on track. Prior to joining TRA, Mulcahy spent nearly a decade at Nike, USA, most recently as research manager leading and executing research across the US, Europe and Asia markets.

Sheena Shah joins FWD Group as assistant vice president, corporate communications. Shah will be based in Hong Kong. She makes the move from Asia fintech company, Hyphen Group, where she was the head of corporate communications and responsible for the external affairs strategy for the group and its subsidiaries in the personal finance ecosystem space.

Sweetshop has promoted Laura Geagea to regional managing director of China, Asia and MENA. In her new role, Geagea will oversee Sweetshop’s China and Asia operations from a strategic perspective, working hand-in-hand with China’s senior executive producer Catherine Law, Asia’s executive producer Penny Woo, and senior bidding producer Jennifer Crabb. In the last two years, Geagea served as Dubai Lynx’s Film Craft Jury President and sat on the Film Craft Juries for Spikes Asia, Adfest, AdStars, Ciclope Asia and Cannes Lions Young Director Awards. She was also named a Campaign Greater China Woman to Watch in 2022. 

Saw Gin Toh recently joined Dentsu Creative China as head of strategy consulting. Prior to Dentsu, Toh was managing partner of consulting at MediaCom China. She joined MediaCom in 2014 as head of insights. Toh began her career at JWT Malaysia as a strategic planner, and continued to work at DDB, TBWA, and Mindshare as well as McDonald’s Malaysia as a consumer and business insights lead.

Manisha Seewal, CMO of Gumtree Australia, CarsGuide, and Autotrader Group Australia, has left her role after one year. She will return to Singapore. Prior to this role, she was CMO of Carro and Tokio Marine. 

Independent media agency Match & Wood has been appointed Australian bedding brand Snooze for media strategy, planning and buying. The agency will manage all paid media (excluding search) and take over the account from incumbent Starcom which held the business for a number of years.

Richa Goswami has left HSBC as chief customer and marketing oficer. Read the full story here. 

Tonic Worldwide has bagged the integrated digital mandate for Mahindra First Choice’s Car&bike. As part of its mandate, Tonic Worldwide will be managing the social media, paid media the client. Car&bike is the consumer-facing brand for used multi-brand-retail from the House of Mahindra.

Sephora Hong Kong, part of the LVMH Group (Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton), has appointed Flare Communications Group as its public relations agency in Hong Kong. As a part of the partnership, Flare Communications Group will offer strategic counsel, spearhead media outreach and also leverage its expertise in influencer, social media and creative content to build, execute and measure various PR and marketing campaigns to strengthen the brand’s presence in local market. Sephora Hong Kong's account was previously managed by Karla Otto.  

Creative technology agency WhiteGrey has been appointed as the new media agency of record by Planpay, a paytech brand that is part of the Afterpay-backed ASX-listed Touch Ventures portfolio. Through the partnership, WhiteGrey will be charged with carving clear space in the market for Planpay and be responsible for international growth by highlighting the brand proposition. The agency’s remit includes all strategy, creatives, and planning for the paytech platform, initially launching in the travel sector with rapid expansion to follow.