It's hard to keep up with all the latest moves across media, marketing and advertising, so we've made a list. Check out the biggest moves in adland this week.
DAN creates new Queensland leadership role
Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) Australia and New Zealand has appointed Chris Ernst as managing director, DAN Queensland. Ernst joins the group in the newly created role from Media Merchants where he held a commercial director position, when he joined in March this year in a contractor capacity. Prior to that he held a series of senior leadership positions at Ikon Communications, where he had headed up its successful Brisbane office and IPG Mediabrands, working with with leading clients including Bunnings, Target, Flight Centre, ING and Coca Cola. As managing director, DAN QLD, Ernst will be responsible for the commercial growth and integration of the market as well as showcasing DAN’s capabilities and offering.
DDB Sydney elevates Lisa Hauptmann
DDB Sydney has promoted Lisa Hauptmann from group business director to managing partner – McDonald’s. Her promotion is a recognition of the contribution she has made to the DDB Sydney business and the long-standing relationship with McDonald’s. Hauptmann has more than 20 years of industry experience and began her career at DDB in the 90s before re-joining the agency in 2014. She has also worked for Fox Studios, News Corp, BWM Dentsu and Freedom Foods.
Amazon specialist agency launches in Australia
Podean, an Amazon specialist agency, is opening an Australian office with Ashley Wales-Brown, former head of Ve Global ANZ, as the first hire and managing director. Wales-Brown was chosen after an extensive search of both Australian and global talent. He joins from Ve Global where he was managing director and has also held roles at Global Red Australia, Ninemsn, IPG Mediabrands and PHD Media.
OMD appoints Suncorp lead
OMD Sydney has appointed Declan O’Dwyer as head of Suncorp, leading the major insurer's media account won by the agency last year. O’Dwyer has more than 12 years’ experience, working across a range of categories including finance, FMCG, telecommunications, automotive and retail. He joins OMD from his most recent role at UM, Sydney where he was group director across several high-profile brands, including Coca Cola South Pacific and Lion Beer.
One Green Bean brings Simone Gupta back to Australia
One Green Bean has appointed Simone Gupta as its new CEO. The former Mango managing director will start with the agency in early 2020, succeeding Claire Salvetti who is departing ogb at the end of the year to relocate with her family to Barcelona. Gupta is currently MD of influencer marketing agency @London and prior to that was in leadership roles at Edelman and Ogilvy in London. She spent 11 years in Sydney, during which time she transformed Mango into an award-winning agency, winning clients including Telstra, Tourism Australia and Volkswagen. Throughout her career she has led integrated campaigns for brands including Team Red Vodafone global and Visit Dubai.
Dentsu exec joins Microsoft Advertising
Microsoft Advertising has appointed Nick Seckold as regional vice president of Asia Pacific Sales. Seckold returned to Australia earlier in 2019, where he was the national managing director for the Denstu Aegis performance agency, iProspect. Seckold exited the business earlier this year following the first wave of redundancies under new CEO Henry Tajer. Prior to iProspect, Seckold's experience includes founding the Search practice at Mindshare UK, before moving to Singapore to serve as Mindshare’s head of digital and then CEO for APAC.
RateMyAgent adds new heads of marketing and sales
Australian reviews, ratings and rankings website for real estate agents RateMyAgent has made two new senior hires to support its ambitious plans for international growth in 2020. Senior marketing executive Emma Nguyen joins as head of marketing and will lead RateMyAgent’s international marketing operations after departing a similar role at Typsy earlier this year. Also securing a leadership position is Stephen Watson, who joins as head of sales. Watson will drive the set-up and development of the company’s ANZ sales operations. Watson will work closely with the executive team to accelerate sales performance and maximise market opportunities in a time of rapid expansion.
IPG Mediabrands exec joins start-up
Former head of digital at IPG Mediabrands Stephen Neville has been appointed as CEO of start-up BugHerd. The start-up is aimed at helping marketers effectively communicate website changes to their development team. Neville first joined the company in 2014 as a consultant and returned in 2018 to lead the company’s new charge for growth. He has also invested in the company.
Social Soup nabs Pacific's Annie Tran
Social influence consultancy Social Soup has appointed former Pacific Magazines campaign manager Annie Tran as senior partnerships manager to lead the agency’s new client relationship approach and support the consultancy’s innovation in the social influence sphere. With several new brand partners joining the agency, including Merck Sharp & Dohme and Procter & Gamble, Tran’s role will see her build a deep understanding of Social Soup’s brand partner products and category, trends and competitor. She will also work with commercial and strategy teams to partner with brands to builder longer term partnerships with influencers.
Sparro welcomes new strategy director
Independent digital marketing agency Sparro has named Michael Troumbas as its strategy director. Troumbas joins from Bench, where he was head of strategy. In his new role he will work with clients such as Temple & Webster, Catch, Estee Lauder and Domino’s Pizza. Prior to joining Bench, where he worked for more than three years, Troumbas previously worked at Microsoft and News Corp Australia.
Jack Morton promotes Vinny Panchal to GM
Global brand experience agency Jack Morton has promoted Vinny Panchal to general manager. Panchal joined Jack Morton Australia in 2014 as an account director and was later promoted to director of client services in 2015. In his new role, Panchal will manage the day-to-day operations for the agency across Australia, whose offices include Sydney and Melbourne. He will continue in the position of executive client lead, while also leading the team to build strong experience brands by blending business strategy with audience behavior insight and innovative design and technology. With more than 15 years’ experience across integrated marketing, brand strategy, design and brand experience, Panchal has also worked with iconic brands including Google, Samsung and Telstra.
Pinstripe Media boosts commercial team
Business and finance publishing and content group Pinstripe Media has hired three new team members who will work across the group’s digital and broadcast titles. The new hires are led by Ross Kidd as commercial director, Erin Holt as senior partnerships manager, and Jasmine Yin as digital campaign manager. Kidd comes across from News Corp, most recently as executive director of Storyful and prior to that as NSW group sales manager for The Australian. Also joining the team is Erin Holt, former group sales manager, media and content for NSW & QLD at REA Group. Yin has joinrf from Time Out in the DCM role. This is a new role for Pinstripe and comes at a critical time as they continue refining and evolving how they deliver brand campaigns to ensure results.
Interplay strenthens sales team
Interplay Media, the specialist sport, fitness and gaming digital sales house, has hired Mark Wooldridge as national sales director. Wooldridge has more than ten years experience in digital strategy and sales leadership across Australia and the UK, leading the digital sales teams for Jetstar, at Hardie Grant Media, and British Airways in the UK. Prior to British Airways, Mark was selling digital across sport and gaming brands in the UK at Future Publishing and Haymarket.
Nutanix announces new JAPAC marketing boss
Tech company Nutanix has appointed Jordan Reizes as its new vice president of marketing for Asia Pacific and Japan. Reizes has more than 20 years experience in senior marketing leadership roles, joining the company from Sitecore where he was senior director APJ field marketing. Based in Sydney, Reizes will be responsible for driving the enterprise cloud vendor’s marketing strategy and sales support as the company continues its regional expansion. Reizes will report to Nutanix chief marketing officer Ben Gibson and lead the 30-strong marketing team across the region.
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