Move and win roundup: Week of September 9, 2024

James Chua, former CEO of Germs Digital, and Adrian Yeap, former ECD at Publicis Singapore, have launched their own agency, Sweatshop, which specialises in solving a brand’s business problems through communications. Chua co-founded Germs in 2009. Before Germs, his stints include Kinetic, DDB and Ace:Daytons. Yeap brings experience from his time at agencies including Publicis, Ogilvy, Leo Burnett, Saatchi & Saatchi and DDB. 

iProspect Australia has promoted NSW managing director Marcelle Gomez to national managing director. Gomez has been with iProspect for nearly four years, first joining as general manager for NSW in November 2020 before stepping into the managing director position in February 2022. Before joining Dentsu, she served in leadership positions at Initiative, Magna Global, UM and more. Meanwhile, Ken Lam will take on the role of general manager for Melbourne. Prior to iProspect, Lam worked for Dentsu X, Amplifi ANZ, Carat, Mindshare, OMD Australia and UM.

Australian Pork Limited has appointed Rob Farmer as its new chief marketing officer. Prior to this role, Farmer served as a director for marketing consultancy The Inside Out and group director of marketing and partner solutions at Mamamia for over five years. He began his early career in the 1990s as an account manager at Publicis Groupe in London and moved to Australia in October 2011 as marketing director at the Foxtel Group.

Audi Singapore has named Jamie Lee as its new general manager of marketing, effective immediately. Lee brings over 20 years of experience in the automotive and lifestyle spaces and will be in charge of Audi’s overall marketing activities and communications in Singapore. Lee was most recently the marketing director at Uniqlo and has also spent time at Volkswagen Group and Eurokars Group.

WPP’s Onefluence has been appointed as the full-service influencer marketing agency for L'Oréal Vietnam under a three-year retainer agreement. This partnership reflects L'Oréal Vietnam's focus on utilising influencer marketing to support business growth. The appointment follows a competitive pitching process. A team consisting of L'Oréal Vietnam and local and regional experts from WPP’s Onefluence will form the WPP Beauty Tech Lab. This team will collaborate to develop and execute influencer marketing strategies for the brand. The partnership aims to enhance L'Oréal Vietnam’s influencer marketing efforts in the evolving Vietnamese market.

Mike Sneesby will resign from his role as chief executive officer and as a director on the Nine Board, effective 30 September 2024. In a statement, Nine stated that Sneesby and the board believe that ‘now is the right time for a transition of leadership to guide Nine into the next phase of its strategic transformation’ following the conclusion of the Olympics and Paralympics. Matt Stanton, currently chief finance and strategy officer, will step in as acting chief executive officer from 1 October 2024 while the company begins the search for a new chief executive officer.

Karen Coleman has been appointed as the new country manager of Australia at VaynerMedia Asia Pacific. In her new role, Coleman will oversee the agency’s continued growth and portfolio expansion. Before joining VaynerMedia, Coleman was the managing director at 303 MullenLowe and also spent over 17 years at the Next15 Group, where she held MD roles at global agencies like Bite Communications, Text100, and, most recently, Archetype.

Swann has appointed Magic to manage its Amazon advertising efforts in Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Magic's responsibilities will focus on optimisation, alignment, and activation to enhance profitability in these key markets.

Vu Quan Nguyen Masse has left Vero to join the start-up education platform NewCampus as head of ecosystem. He spent more than three years at Vero, where he last held the position of vice president of culture and brand for the Asean region.

Dentsu Malaysia has won the media agency of record mandate for Fraser & Neave (F&N) Group in Malaysia, following a competitive pitch. Effective October 2024, Dentsu will handle the media strategy, planning, and buying across F&N’s beverage and dairy portfolios in Malaysia, which includes isotonic, carbonated soft drinks, water, wellness, liquid milk and canned milk. Separately, Dentsu has been serving as media agency of record for F&N in Singapore since 2019.

Creative veteran Tay Guan Hin, the creative chair of BBDO, has joined global nonprofit The One Club for Creativity in a newly created position of APAC regional director for awards, programs, and partnerships. Tay will be responsible for elevating all of the club’s awards, programming, partnerships, and memberships in the region, primarily focusing on growing the ONE Asia Creative Awards and supporting a thriving regional creative community. He will also enhance the organisation’s visibility by establishing partnerships with agencies, brands, production companies, creative associations, schools, and media in APAC, and developing regional events and educational programs. Read more details here. 

Canvas8, a cultural and behavioural insights agency, has expanded its APAC team with three hires in Singapore and the Philippines.

• Singapore: Joceline Yong joins as senior behavioural analyst. With experience in psychology and social science research, she has led projects for public sector clients and worked as lead behavioural scientist at Grab.
• Philippines: Daniel Ian Comandante is appointed as cultural desk researcher. Ann Gabrielle Domingo is the junior cultural desk researcher. 

Amplify, a global creative agency, has launched Futures, a dedicated innovation practice focused on helping brands embrace and navigate creative technology, entertainment and IP.  Futures will be led by innovation creative director Ed Hallam and head of special projects Izzy Kertland, together with talent across Amplify’s global offices in London, Sydney, LA, New York, and Paris. Leaders include Australian-based ECD Tim Baggott, creative Lisa Aoyama and group business director Kate Maidment.

Hatched has appointed Juliana Yeoh and Emily Hall as client partners. Before joining the independent agency, Yeoh worked at Initiative Australia for the past six years, where she was most recently group business director. Before Initiative she worked for Carat and Starcom. Hall joined from Spark Foundry Australia, where she was a group client partner. She previously spent four years at the agency’s London office. Prior to that, she started her media career from Initiative and stayed for seven years.

Wicked Sister, a dessert and snacks brand, has appointed Forward as its new public relations and digital agency in Australia, following a PR and social creative review. Forward and its GrowthOps group partners, Khemistry and GrowthOps Performance, will oversee an integrated PR, social creative, and influencer marketing programme.

Cristiano Tonnarelli, the former executive creative director at Ogilvy Singapore, has joined M&C Saatchi Group in Dubai as ECD. Tonnarelli spent more than three years in Singapore as part of the team that won Asia Pacific’s first-ever Cannes Lions Grand Prix for Unilever’s Vaseline Transition body lotion for transgender women and men. 

Ross Henderson has joined M&C Saatchi World Services as Indo-Pacific director. He left Culture Group as managing partner in June. He has also worked at Publicis Groupe as vice president of global clients and as a managing partner at BBH. 

BBDO Guerrero has appointed Josh Espinase as the agency’s new head of social. Espinase has spent nearly a decade in advertising, specialising in social media and strategic planning. Espinase started his advertising career with an internship with BBDO Guerrero. He will lead the social team and work across the agency on its clients' social media campaigns.

Sam Summers, a former account director at OMD Australia, has launched wellness coaching for working mothers in the media space and beyond. Her business, 34Sevn, is designed to help mothers navigate the challenges of corporate life while raising a family. Her new venture offers group coaching workshops, individual mentoring, and one-on-one return-to-work sessions tailored to help women align their professional ambitions with their personal lives. It also includes free resources and a networking hub for like-minded women to come together and share their experiences and advice. 

Creative communications agency Society has won the accounts of not-for-profit organisation Optometry Australia and hotel group Rydges North Sydney. Society will help Optometry Australia deliver integrated creative and marketing communications services to drive awareness and visibility on the rising of myopia globally and help promote community eye health among Australians. For Rydges, Society will lead the communications for the reopening of Rydges North Sydney and Rydges Port Macquarie.