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.
Dentsu's Rebecca Tos departs
Rebecca Tos, senior vice president and managing director ANZ of Dentsu Aegis Network's (DAN) performance marketing agency Merkle, is leaving the agency and holding group. Oliver Rapson, national managing director of DAN's digital performance marketing agency iProspect Australia, has expanded his role to oversee both agencies. Tos has been in the role for six months, being promoted from CEO of Merkle's local business unit Columbus. She has been part of DAN since 2012, previously working as managing director of Columbus and a short stint as DAN's first chief marketing officer. Prior to her time at DAN, Tos held senior roles at Reprise Media, News Corp's online division News Digital Media and Ninemsn.
Former Carat MD takes on new role
Former national managing director of Carat, Simon Williams, has been appointed to the newly created role head of audiences at financial comparison website Finder. Williams was one of a number of executives made redundant across Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) last year under the now former CEO Henry Tajer. He was promoted to the national MD role in late 2018, following the exit of former CEO, turned Nine Sydney sales boss, Paul Brooks. Prior to national MD, Williams had held the role of chief client solutions officer within the wider DAN business, leading pitching and was responsible for the retention of key DAN accounts, including Disney, during his time with the business.
Ten's CEO to lead ViacomCBS ANZ
Ten CEO Paul Anderson has been appointed to lead ViacomCBS across Australia and New Zealand as vice president. His appointment comes after the merger between Viacom and CBS Corporations last year. The expanded role gives Anderson responsibility over Viacom’s flagship TV network such as Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. As part of the new structure, Viacom Australia and New Zealand general manager Ben Richardson will report to Anderson. Anderson has been CEO of Ten since 2015 and oversaw its acquisition by CBS Studios International in 2017.
Nick Swifte joins indie agency
Former Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) executive Nick Swifte has joined independent full-service agency Rapid Media as a senior account director. Swifte had previously been leading DAN's government solutions division, which was launched in 2018 to service its federal, state and local government clients nationally. Swifte exited the holding company alongside Indy Khabra in August, during one of several rounds of redundancies rolled out by DAN last year. He had been one of the longest serving executives at DAN, with more than 20 years with the holding group.
Ogilvy strengthens social
Ogilvy Australia has strengthened its social capabilities with the appointment of Peter Galmes as lead social creative. Galmes joins from We Are Social where he was creative director, working on projects Netflix such as Queer Eye – Yass and Calling all Will Smiths. Ogilvy has also welcomed four new creative additions to its agile team. Maria Torres has joined as art director; Deb Rothschild as senior copywriter; SoJung Lee as senior designer and Jingyi Hu has joined as junior designer.
Pedestrian appoints commercial director
Pedestrian Group has promoted Rachel Tikey to the newly created role of commercial director. Tikey, who was previously national head of commercial operations, will lead both the partnerships and client solutions teams at Pedestrian. With more than 13 years’ experience, Tikey has also worked at Pandora, ARN and Southern Cross Austereo.
Bohemia hires Spark Foundry strategy boss
Media agency Bohemia, part of the M&C Saatchi Group, has appointed Max Broer to the role of National Strategy Director. Broer joins from Spark Foundry where he was strategy director. He also held the same role at Blue 449 before the two agencies merged. His career includes stints at UM, Match Media and Initiative. Broer’s focus has been client growth, new business and championing the role data plays in decision-making and measurement. At Bohemia he will oversee the strategy offering across the Sydney and Melbourne offices.
TBWA\Media Arts Lab's new APAC team member
The Royals head of strategy Michaela Futcher has joined TBWA\Media Arts Lab (MAL) as regional head of strategy APAC. The role is based out of MAL's Singapore office. A spokesperson from TBWA\MAL confirmed the appointment. Futcher, who won AdNews' Emerging Leader of the year in 2019, worked at independent agency The Royals for almost five years. Prior to her time there, Futcher worked in a number of senior strategic roles at Droga5 and Y&R.
Publicis Sapient bolsters global experience team
Publicis Sapient, the digital transformation hub of Publicis Groupe, has announced two more senior hires to its growing experience team - Karin Giefer and Quinnton Harris. Giefer has been appointed as senior vice president (SVP),experience. Giefer has previously held positions at McKinsey & Co, as well as executive creative director at Frog Design, and director of business innovation at Wieden+Kennedy. Harris has been appointed as group creative director, experience and will also serve as the team's chief of staff. Quinnton was previously the inaugural creative director at Blavity, Inc. and before that, led design at Walker & Company Brands, a start-up consumer products and tech company recently acquired by Proctor & Gamble.
Town Square names GM
Full service creative agency Town Square has appointed former The Brand Agency Melbourne director Alison Ray as general manager. Ray brings more than 16 years' experience to the independent agency and will be responsible for driving business development, plus overseeing digital strategy and digital and social campaign activity of clients. She joins Town Square after nine years with WPP-owned The Brand Agency where she had a broad range of responsibilities, including head of strategy and planning in Perth and client services director in the Melbourne office. She also worked as head of digital and direct at Draftfcb for more than four years and has held roles at CHE Proximity and George Patterson Y&R.
TABOO elevates Nick Jamieson
Melbourne based independent creative agency TABOO has promoted Nick Jamieson to executive creative director. Jamieson joined TABOO in 2018 as a creative director. Prior to TABOO he was a creative director at Clemenger BBDO and editor-in-chief at Lifelounge.
Nova bolsters Perth client services team
NOVA Entertainment has appointed Lisa Thom as Nova 93.7’s key client manager in Perth. Thom has previously worked at NOVA Entertainment, the Pedestrian Group and Nine Entertainment. Most recently she was program, marketing and commercial manager at Nine Entertainment, a position she held for over two years. Thom started her media career at Nova 93.7 in 2008 and over a nine-year period held various management roles across sales and integrated solutions.
Marriott International promotes in APAC
Marriott International has appointed Bart Buiring to chief sales and marketing officer of Marriott International Asia Pacific based in Hong Kong. Buiring replaces Peggy Fang Roe who will transition to the newly-established role of global officer, customer experience, loyalty and new ventures at Marriott International’s headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
Buiring has worked with Marriott International for nineteen years. He will transition from his previous position as chief operations services officer, Asia Pacific and will oversee the Asia Pacific consumer strategy to Marriott International’s core hotel business and brands.
Block appoints first CEO
Independent Perth agency Block has appointed Natalie Jenkins as its first CEO. Jenkins joins from Black Swan State Theatre Company where she was executive director and co-chief executive officer. Jenkins also ran her own consultancy NJ Management for eight years and has been a sessional lecturer in Arts Management at Edith Cowan University since 2007. In December, Block announced that it was deepening its account service capabilities under the leadership of Jane Jones, who has joined the agency as director of client services from iiNet, where she was national marketing manager. Johanna Borger and Fernanda Fauzi have also joined Block as account manager and account executive respectively.
Venntifact creates new role
Martech and data consultancy Venntifact has appointed Leisha Morrison to the newly-created role of head of talent. As head of talent, Morrison will build a new and unique recruitment model within the Australian market. The new model will help Venntifact’s clients grow their data and technology teams, strengthen their talent attraction and retention strategies, and will grow globally as Venntifact scales. Morrison is the founder of the Women in Data networking events in Sydney.
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