Move and win roundup: Week of October 25, 2021

Dutch Lady Milk Industries Berhad, a subsidiary of FrieslandCampina, appointed PHD as its media agency of record in Malaysia following a review. The appointment covers integrated media duties including planning and buying for brands including Dutch Lady and Friso. The client cited as reasons for the selection PHD's approach toward media planning and digital transformation efforts as well as its grasp of fundamental media principles and strong innovative technologies and frameworks. PHD Malaysia will begin working on the account January 1.

Strategic B2B PR and marketing consultancy Influence Matters appointed David Zhou as vice president and head of client services, a newly created role that expands the agency’s strategic communication capabilities for B2B tech clients. Zhou was previously in charge of strategic development projects at Chinese internet company NetEase Group, including the company’s expansion into India. Prior to that, he was with Burson-Marsteller China and was one of the co-founders of the Text 100 (now Archetype) China office.    

Dentsu Indonesia has won the media mandate for Nestlé Indonesia. The agency will be responsible for handling the full-funnel media—including e-commerce, social, programmatic, SEO, and performance—for all brands under Nestlé Indonesia. The agency will form a dedicated Nestlé team that brings together capabilities across media, creative, and CXM service lines. Dentsu subsidiary iProspect has been managing Nestle’s search performance in Indonesia for the last two years. 

Brand strategy and design consultancy Houston Group has named Nick Foley to the newly created role of head of consulting. Prior to this, Foley was president for Southeast Asia, the Pacific and Japan at WPP’s Landor. Before that, he was group marketing manager at Mars based in Sydney. In his new role, Foley will lead the strategy team and boost Houston’s brand and strategy capabilities as the agency’s offering becomes more reflective of the major consultancies. He will work alongside Houston’s senior leadership team including CEO and co-founder Stu O’Brien, managing director Jo Lilley, strategy director Allison Simms and ECD Alex Toohey. The agency also promoted Stacey Wren from studio manager to chief of staff and Gretel Maltabarow from account director to senior account director.

Thrive PR has been appointed PR agency for Airbnb in Australia and New Zealand. The agency will support Airbnb’s consumer and corporate PR work and initiate a number of major projects throughout the year. Strategic and creative direction for Airbnb will be led out of the agency’s Sydney office and the team will be bolstered with specialist support across key locations including Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Perth, and Auckland.

Following the integration of Weber Shandwick and Jack Morton in Australia, five senior hires have been made. Olivia Randall has made the switch from contractor to a full-time role as Jack Morton's head of experience to lead the production offering. Ian Davidson joins Jack Morton as business director; he was previously Innocean as head of sponsorship and events. Damien Watson, a former strategist at Salmat and The Zoo Republic, joins the agency's new Intelligence and connections team serving both agencies as a senior strategist. Rishu Sharma joins Weber Shandwick as account lead to oversee the agency's tech, health and corporate clients. She was previously at Avian WE. Finally, Amelia Monteith joins Weber Shandwick to manage the consumer portfolio. She was previously head of strategy and social at Stark Matthews.

Edelman appoints a series of digital heads across the region:

• Yuliani Setiadi is head of digital for Hong Kong and Taiwan. She joins from Ogilvy, where she was executive group director in Hong Kong and managing director for the agency’s social and martech capability in Indonesia. 
• Jonathan Wong has joined as head of digital in Malaysia. He brings technical and automation experience, as well as a proven track record for ecommerce and digital transformation. He joins from OpenMinds, where he was director for digital transformation and advisory for Southeast Asia.
• Henry Taylor has been appointed head of digital in Australia. He joins from the World Economic Forum as deputy head of the digital media team. With a background as a data journalist, Taylor is specialised in content, SEO, newsroom and platform growth strategies.  
• Debra Ng returns to Edelman to take on the role of regional digital operations manager. She is tasked with delivering digital upskilling and competency development programs for clients.
• The agency has launched Edelman Studios in India, building on the regional studio work already performed in Singapore and Malaysia. Saurabh Kulkarni has joined as head of Edelman Studios in India, where he is tasked with building a regional hub for content creation. Kulkarni brings over two decades of experience from the Bollywood and Indian television industry, as well as multimedia companies such as Vice India and WPP’s content studio, Glitch. 

Teneo has appointed Christine Loh as senior advisor. She will help Teneo’s clients to better understand, navigate and respond to the changing policy and business landscape as it relates to China’s climate, environment and sustainability agendas. Prior to this, Loh served as Hong Kong’s Undersecretary for the Environment from 2012 to 2017 and was a Hong Kong Legislative Council member from 1992 to 1997 and 1998 to 2000. She founded Civic Exchange, a non-profit policy think tank, in 2001 and served as its CEO through 2012. In addition to her role with Teneo, Loh is chief development strategist at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and teaches at the Anderson School of Management at the University of California at Los Angeles. 

The Mavericks India has won the national PR mandate for Indian fintech start-up Razorpay. The mandate includes strategic media outreach, integrated campaign planning and execution, and strategic counsel for the brand.  

Merkle appointed Krishnan Menon to the newly created position of chief client officer for Merkle & Dentsu CXM APAC. He will report to Z Shen, president of Merkle APAC. Menon moves from Wunderman Thompson, where he served as APAC chief client and growth officer. Menon has spent almost 25 years at WPP across Ogilvy India, Kinetic, Wunderman and Wunderman Thompson. He will join Merkle on December 20 and will oversee Merkle’s client services delivery across the region. He will also work across the Dentsu network to expand on existing Merkle/CXM client relationships within the creative and media service lines.

Discovery has appointed Anil Jhingan as its new president and managing director of Asia Pacific. Jhingan will start from 1 November, as current regional head Simon Robinson steps away from the APAC business to lead integration planning activities in connection with the proposed WarnerMedia transaction. Jhingan will be based in London and report to JB Perrette, president and CEO of Discovery Streaming and International. In his new role, Jhingan will lead all of Discovery’s businesses across Asia Pacific, spanning twelve offices across the region covering 52 markets, 25 channel brands in 18 languages, as well as the streaming service, Discovery+. Jhingan joined Discovery in 2019 as executive vice president of Corporate Development, EMEA and APAC, and has over two decades of international media experience, including across Asia Pacific. Prior to Discovery, Jhingan served as group director of M&A and International Development for Sky 

The Works, part of Capgemini, has hired Iggy Rodriguez as creative partner. Reporting to founder and creative partner Damian Pincus, Rodriguez will be focusing on the agency’s creative output, leading the creative department with creative director Nathan Bilton. He joins from RGA California, where he held the position of group creative director since March 2020. 

Australian media agency Nunn Media has been appointed by children's entertainment company Spin Master for its portfolio of brands in the market, including Bakugan, PAW Patrol, Hatchimals, Kinetic Sand and Air Hogs. Following a competitive pitch, Nunn Media will manage integrated strategy, planning and buying across all media channels for Spin Master Australia’s more than 25 brands as part of a multi-year engagement.

TotallyAwesome, the digital marketing firm for brands targeting kids and teens, has hired Alfred (Alfie) Leitao as chief technology officer, who will join the business’ senior leadership team. Leitao has a 23-year career in software engineering with digital development experience in 12 countries across Europe, USA and Asia Pacific. He was also co-founder of digital agency WHO Digital in Vietnam and continued to run the business after it was acquired by WPP. Part of his new role is in building a platform that automates workflows to enable clients to rapidly scale their inventory. 

Make-A-Wish Foundation New Zealand appointed Mindshare as its media agency. The partnership, effective immediately, will enhance Make-A-Wish Foundation’s digital marketing strategy in New Zealand to increase and nurture donors, drive brand awareness and ultimately raise more funds. Mindshare has previously supported the charity’s annual Hope campaign and World Wish Day.

TBWA Sydney promoted Katrina Alvarez-Jarratt to executive creative director and appointed two creative directors in Bec Johnson-Pond and James Sexton. Alvarez-Jarratt has been with the agency since 2016, working across accounts including Tourism New Zealand, Pepsi, Woolmark and Optus. Johnson-Pond has relocated to Australia from New York, where she spent four years at Anomaly. It also marks her return to TBWA, after spending two years at TBWA Chiat Day. Sexton has been with the agency for two years as associate creative director. 

Hisense Australia appointed Nick Peters as national marketing manager. Previously he managed communications, product and partnerships for Mazda Australia.

My Muscle Chef (MYMC) appointed Liam Loan-Lack as head of marketing based in Sydney and appointed Ryan Guthrie as senior marketing manager and Dee Wescombe as new product marketing manager. Loan-Lack was for the last three years a senior leader at UM Australia as national growth lead and general manager. Wescombe joins following agency and client-side roles including Subaru and Peugeot. Guthrie most recently led the enterprise marketing function at Afterpay.