Y&R's Phil McDonald joins BCM as partner
Phil McDonald has resurfaced at Brisbane independent BCM just months after his departure from Y&R. He joins the agency as a partner, in equal partnership with existing owners Paul Cornwell and Kevin Moreland. McDonald was at Y&R for more than 11 years, holding the CEO role for just over two years before his departure in March this year. Soon after, former Leo Burnett boss Pete Bosilkovski was named as his replacement. During McDonald's time at Y&R, the agency was the most awarded in the ANZ region at Cannes Lions in 2016, hired top creative Paul Nagy and rebranded, dropping George Patterson from the agency name. Read more.
JWT Perth appoints Joe Hawkins as creative director
J. Walter Thompson Perth has appointed Joe Hawkins as creative director. The move will see Hawkins depart his role as creative group head at Marketforce to join the agency, following its recent growth. With more than 16 years in the industry, Hawkins has worked at creative agencies, including DDB New Zealand, R/GA Singapore, Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney, and 303MullenLowe Perth. He’s currently teaching AdSchool’s Copywriting course, and sits on the panel for the national Siren commercial radio awards. Read more.
New CD for AJF
Former founding partner of Banjo Advertising, Georgia Arnott, who left Banjo three years ago, has joined AJF as creative director, working across its major account with Target. Arnott – one of Australia's most awarded female creatives – started Banjo with Andrew Varasdi and Ben Lyttle in 2009, going on to help shape local brands such as AMP, RSPCA, Bonds, MLA and Crown, as well as global concerns Coca-Cola, Sony, Guinness and Levi's. Arnott has no stake or involvement in Banjo. Also bolstering AJF's senior ranks is celebrated creative Bryce Coombe, who will take on the role of client partner on the Bupa account. Coombe joins the independent after nearly a decade with Clemenger BBDO and then two years at CHE Proximity – AdNews' 2018 Agency of the Year. He was client lead on Snickers Hungerithm, the world's second-most awarded campaign in 2017. Read more.
News Corp stalwart Nicole Sheffield joins Australia Post
Former News Corp chief digital officer Nicole Sheffield has joined Australia Post as executive general manager, community and consumer. Sheffield resigned from News Corp in February after six years at the company and made "significant achievements", News Corp Australasia executive chair Michael Miller said at the time. Her exit had been rumoured for several weeks. Completing the company's executive leadership team, Sheffield will join Australia Post on 13 August. She replaces acting executive general manager, community and consumer, Christine Corbett, who is exiting Australia Post to pursue new opportunities after 28 years. Read more.
John Matthews returns to Sydney for top job at Fox Sports
After 14 years at Dgm and then Asia Pacific Digital (APD) after the marketing firm brought the sister companies together in 2015, John Matthews has taken on the role of director of customer acquisition at Fox Sports Australia. The move sees the British-born digital marketer head back to Sydney after almost three years based in Singapore. Matthews has a long and successful industry history, from four years as account manager at Webgravity, one of the UK's first search agencies, starting in 1999. This role saw him manage some of the region's first paid search campaigns. He relocated to Australia as head of search for Dgm in April 2004, setting up dgmSearchLab and working with clients such as Dell, Yahoo, and American Express (globally). Read more.
MercerBell adds to data team with two new hires
MercerBell has added to its data capabilities team with two new hires, Alistair McCall as data strategy director and Sophia Zhou as data analyst. McCall’s data career includes senior roles within Woolworths, Optus and Vodafone where he developed advanced analytics solutions. He is working with clients to develop predictive analytics that will add to the way they do business. Zhou, most recently at Bank of New Zealand, is an experienced data miner with extensive experience in propensity modelling, tree models, machine learning and many analytics platforms.
MediaCom appoints Matt Mills as client partner
MediaCom has appointed Matt Mills as client partner, after exiting his role as executive director and head of communications planning at OMD. Mills has over 20 years' experience within the media and communications industry. Joining MediaCom from previous employer OMD, the company will look to tap into his experience across a broad range of client categories including entertainment and FMCG. Mills’ experience and leadership across a broad range of verticals will help MediaCom continue to push for growth across its entire national client base, specifically Victoria based FMCG client, Mars. He will also assist in attracting and retaining talent internally and externally for MediaCom.
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