Move and win roundup: Week of July 31, 2023

BBDO China has confirmed that Nicole Ma is stepping down from her position as chief creative officer to start her own company. According to the agency, Ma will remain with BBDO China, but will be collaborating with them in a new capacity. Ma returned to BBDO China in 2021, and was the CCO of Proximity China from 2014 to 2021. Over the years, her influence in the industry has been on a continuous rise, making her a role model for young professionals. Ma was selected for Campaign’s 40 Under 40 in 2021. Her work ‘To the Greatness of Small’ kicked-off Alibaba’s global Olympics campaigns in 2018 for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, generating huge success in China and worldwide. 

Audio Series platform Pocket FM has appointed Pannagadatta K. Shivaswamy as the director of artificial intelligence (AI). Prior to this, he was an ML Research Scientist at Netflix based in the US. With over 14 years of experience, Shivaswamy has held significant positions at leading internet organisations including LinkedIn, specialising in large-scale machine learning and deep learning, focusing on personalisation, recommender systems, ranking, and search.  

Havas Worldwide India has appointed Kundan Joshee as managing partner and head – West and South. He joins the agency from Wunderman Thompson, where he was SVP and managing partner. Joshee will be based in Mumbai and report to Tarun Jha, CEO, Havas Worldwide India. In a career spanning close to 25 years, he has also worked with Ogilvy, FCB, Cheil Worldwide and Grey Group. Campaign India has more on this story.

Dentsu Creative has appointed Manzoor Alam as executive creative director. He will report to Joy Mohanty, chief creative officer - North, Dentsu Creative India. Alam moves from Goldilocks, where he was executive creative director. He also worked with Lowe Lintas, Euro RSCG (Havas Worldwide) and Rediffusion. Read more from Campaign India. 

Avyan Global, digital, design and technology group, has appointed Gautam Dutt as partner and CEO for the agency. Dutt brings with him extensive industry experience, having held senior marketing and agency roles across India, China, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Prior to Avyan Global, he was with Oplifi, a digital media agency that he founded in 2015, that was subsequently acquired by Yaap. And before this stint as a founder, Dutt held multiple senior roles at Havas Group, including heading the Shanghai office of Havas Media China and the head of digital operations for Havas Media Singapore and Malaysia. 

Golin, an Interpublic Group agency, has appointed Neysa Chou as executive director of the agency in Taipei. Before returning to IPG, she worked for Ruder Finn in Shanghai as senior director and previously held roles in Taipei and Beijing at Golin and DeVries Global. As part of her new remit, Chou will be charged with leading Taipei’s growing consumer and digital teams, focusing on ensuring excellence in strategic consulting, integrated marketing communications, as well as social media and digital project management. She will report to Taipei's managing director, Terry Chiang.

James Sampson, the former regional head of strategy, partnerships and finance at GrabAds has left the firm. Sampson took to LinkedIn to announce his exit and expressed his gratitude for Grab. Sampson is relocating back to New York with his family after almost a decade in Singapore. He joined Grab four years ago from DataXu and was also a board member of IAB SEA and India.

AdCounty Media India has appointed Kapil Rastogi as national sales head, India. Rastogi’s stint includes working with top publications like The Times Internet Ltd. Dainik Bhaskar, Zee Digital, SCB, 9dot9 Media, Network 18, Culture Machine and Asianet News Media. He will be entrusted with the responsibility of developing and implementing sales strategies in conjunction with the organisation's growth objectives.

McCann Worldgroup has appointed Shilpa Sinha as chief strategy officer (CSO) for Asia Pacific. She takes the reins from Richard McCabe, who is relocating to Europe to be closer to his family. Sinha served as head of strategy and transformation for McCann Moscow before the agency closed its operations in Russia in 2022.  

Karl Cluck has joined EssenceMediacom to become president of Media Futures Group, the agency’s specialist team that looks after Google. Most recently, the head of global agency at TikTok, Cluck returns to WPP having spent more than 14 years at Mindshare before TikTok. 

Communications and marketing agency Anthem has hired Ben Mabon as senior account director, Sophie Kaufusi as a senior consultant and Lydia Holmes is account executive. Katy Groom has been promoted to senior account manager, Hannah Kronast has been promoted to account manager and Chanelle Nottle has stepped up into the role of senior account executive. 

Pepsi Lipton has appointed FleishmanHillard Australia as its local PR partner and has kicked things off with this winter’s coolest activation. To celebrate the launch of Pepsi Lipton’s new iced range T2 Iced, Sydneysiders were invited to go icy cold themselves and take the T2 Iced Plunge. The Bondi Beach promenade was transformed into an immersive, spa-like pop-up with ice baths resembling life-sized T2 Iced cans. The plunge was hosted by television personality, Beau Ryan and director at Recovery Lab, Ben Seymour.  

Independent agency Today the Brave has launched a dedicated media offering. The division is spearheaded by Jacqui Capel as head of media, who was most recently, general manager of Squad, Mamamia’s social, content and influencer business.  

Magnite has appointed Yael Milbank to the newly created role of managing director of Australia and New Zealand. Milbank most recently served as Magnite’s managing director of New Zealand. Milbank is tasked with accelerating Magnite’s commercial growth in the ANZ market. He will report to Juliette Stead, SVP and head of JAPAC. 

Jolene Quek, the marketing director for Asia at DDB Asia, has left her post. Quek spent more than 19 years in Omnicom, with most of her time spent serving DDB. 

Luxury publication Tatler has appointed Apinya Dolan as managing director in Thailand, to spearhead the highly anticipated relaunch of the magazine. Dolan brings extensive experience in the luxury industry, having spent over eight successful years at Tiffany & Co. as retail director and country Manager, Thailand. In her new position, Dolan will bolster Tatler’s leadership team and drive the strategic relaunch of the publication, as well be responsible for delivering business and financial results, and structuring operations and systems to achieve sustainable growth.

Deepika Warrier, CMO of Diageo India of over three years, and a member of Campaign's Powerlist since 2022, has joined Bajaj Auto as head of marketing. Bajaj Auto is a leading manufacturer of motorcycles and three-wheelers in India. Warrier announced her move through a LinkedIn post: "I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Head of Marketing at Bajaj Auto Ltd!" Prior to Diageo, Warrier has worked with the consumer products brand Pepsico in various leadership capacities for 20 years and is an advisory board member for Social Alpha, a development platform for science and tech innovation start-ups.

The Observatory Singapore has appointed Ara Hampartsoumian as the managing partner for its new Singapore office. Most recently, the CEO of TBWA Singapore, Hampartsoumian, will collaborate with Sandy Burns, regional managing partner of Greater China, to support clients in improving their marketing practices and achieving growth throughout the region.

DDB Group Australia has named Paul Blockey as managing director of RAPP Australia. Blockey joins from RAPP in the US where he spent eight years leading experience, strategy and design. RAPP Australia will add individualisation, data science, advanced analytics, omni-channel CRM and more to DDB Group Australia’s offering, which also includes strategy, creative, PR and experience.

P&O Cruises has appointed Australian indie agency Supermassive as its creative agency of record. Newly formed independent agency Supermassive, which launched in June 2023, was selected for their disciplined and fresh approach to brand strategy and non-traditional thinking. Co-founded by ex-Havas staffers Simone Gupta, Laura Aldington and Jon Austin, Supermassive is one of the few majority female founded creative agencies in Australia and was established with an ambition to set a new benchmark in effective non-traditional advertising and earned media.

Havas Media Network Melbourne has won the French Connection Australia media account. Tasked with the relaunch of the Australian fashion retailer, Havas will provide implementation planning and buying. French Connection Australia, recently relaunched as Unison. The win comes hot on the heels of two other prestigious account wins for Havas Media Network, having also won both the Red Bull and Riviana Foods accounts in the past two months

Dentsu Singapore has been appointed brand agency of record by leading technology services firm, NCS, following a competitive pitch. The appointment expands Dentsu’s remit as NCS’ incumbent lead agency partner since 2021. As NCS’ first brand agency of record, Dentsu Singapore will tap its integrated marketing capabilities and innovative B2B solutions to continue building trust and innovation for NCS in the Asia-Pacific region. The agency will be responsible for providing strategic consultancy and recommendations across all the brand touchpoints to elevate NCS in its next evolution.

SLPR Worldwide, a leading PR and digital communications agency, has won two clients in Malaysia, LG Electronics (LG) and Love Bonito, in Q2 2023. As a renowned Korean consumer electronics brand, LG Electronics Malaysia has entrusted SLPR Worldwide with their PR responsibilities effective immediately. SLPR Worldwide's expertise will elevate LG's brand presence in Malaysia, showcasing their product innovation that enhances customers' lives and positions them as the leading choice for consumer electronics. This partnership reinforces SLPR Worldwide's position as a preferred and trusted PR partner.

Media agency Bohemia has appointed Kimberly Stafford as new national client partner in Australia. Before joining the agency, Stafford was head of business and operations at Identity Communications. Prior to that, Stafford worked at UM Australia for over 15 years, collaborating with clients including Coca-Cola South Pacific, ING Director, Nestle and Spotify. As senior client lead, she will be responsible for improving the agency’s efforts on client communication, engagement and satisfaction. She will start her new position at Bohemia from mid-September and report to Paul Hutchison, CEO and Sev Griffiths, general manager.

​Artbid, Australia’s first online-only auction house, has appointed digital agency Wonderful as agency for brand creation, development and end-to-end digital marketing strategy and implementation. Launched last year, Wonderful, which merges creativity, performance marketing and technology to scale businesses at speed, was selected by Artbid to manage brand creation and identity, platform design and development, go-to-market strategy, CRM, SEO, loyalty and paid media. Wonderful has integrated Artbid’s WordPress site with the auction technology platform Bidpath, with features including timed auctions, cataloging, webcast auctions and back-office auction management. 

Edge, Australian Independent creative agency, has appointed Ben Smith as executive creative director (ECD) following Stu Turner’s exit. Turner joined the agency as ECD and a partner just in February but has left the agency after six months. Smith has worked for a number of top agencies in Australia, such as Clemenger BBDO, 72andSunny and 303MullenLowe, and in the US, like R/GA. Before joining Edge to succeed in the ECD position, he has been recently working with the agency as a contractor.