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.
GroupM welcomes back Seb Rennie
Seb Rennie has returned to Australia to take up his old role as GroupM chief investment officer after three years in Canada. Rennie departed the local holding group in 2017 to take up the same role in GroupM Canada. During his time there, he has oversaw the introduction of GroupM’s new Investment management technology and the launch of the group’s addressable TV business Finecast and out-of-home business Kinetic. In his new role, his responsibilities include leading GroupM’s local Investment & Partnership function, and maximising the performance of the group’s media agencies.
SCA restructures digital audio sales team
Broadcaster SCA has restructured its digital audio sales leadership team. The shakeup, which follows the launch of the LiSTNR app, sees current head of podcast sales Kim Norman take on the role of head of commercial, podcast and partnerships. She will be responsible for managing the commercial relationship between LiSTNR Original Podcasts and sales. Reporting to Norman will be Angie Stavros who moves from group sales manager, LiSTNR podcasts into a new role as commercial partnerships manager. Jonathan Mandel, currently head of streaming sales and operations, has been promoted to the newly created role of head of digital sales and operations. He will be responsible for driving ‘on network’ digital revenue for SCA with a core focus on digital audio, social media, video and display.
Senior hires at CHE Proximity
CHE Proximity today announced the appointment of three new senior hires. CHEP’s new head of strategic production Tash Johnston comes from DDB Sydney, bringing a wealth of experience across a range of clients including Optus, IAG, Volkswagen, Westpac, Virgin and IKEA. With more than 10 years’ experience in London, Amsterdam and Sydney, Grace Vizor will join the leadership team on the Samsung account as group account director. CHEP’s new creative director Pat Lukjanow brings experience working on both sides of the globe on clients including IKEA, Google, Volvo and Huawei. In addition to these three new appointments, Jess Coulson has been promoted to managing partner.
Havas Media's first CMO
Francis Coady has been promoted to the newly created role of Havas Media Group chief marketing officer. He was asked to join the Havas Media Group five years ago to establish the Havas Sports & Entertainment division, building it into a multimillion dollar-billing operation. He has won large-scale clients and produced award-winning campaign work for brands such as BUPA, Gillette, LG, NRMA, CGU, Virgin, Red Bull and most recently, the highly successful six-part digital-first series THE LONG ROAD, for Destination NSW.
Seven's new head of commercial data
Seven has appointed Dean La Rosa as head of commercial data and signed a new deal with Adobe for its 7REDiQ platform. La Rosa, who has previously worked at Nine and Acxiom, will be responsible for identifying and delivering commercial data solutions for customers and partners. His appointment comes as Seven partners with Adobe to give clients the ability to identify new customers from its signed-in user base.
iProspect revamps Sydney leadership team
iProspect Australia has appointed three new executives and made one promotion in its Sydney team. Nicola Barnes joins iProspect as group investment director. With more than 10 years’ experience in media, Barnes joins from Carat where she was media investment director. Jason Smith comes to iProspect as client partner. He has more than 20 years' experience in the industry in both London and Australia. He has previously wored with Ikon, Bohemia and Zenith in Australia. Chris Jahnsen also joins as client partner. He previously held lead marketing positions with tourist related companies in Cairns over the past five years. Prior to this he spent four years with iProspect in Melbourne as digital performance director. Sam Bremner has been promoted to client partner at iProspect. During his seven years with the company he has risen through the ranks to senior digital strategist, digital director and now his current role of client partner.
oOh!media focuses on independent agencies
oOh!media has appointed Dani O'Meara to the newly created role of NSW sales director, independent agencies. O’Meara will provide strategic leadership to the company’s independent agency sales function, working with around 170 agencies. O'Meara has previously worked at Your Money, Domain and Fairfax Media.
LADbible expands into NZ
LADbible Group is expanding to New Zealand following its recent success in the Asia Pacific market, particularly in Australia. The new office in Auckland adds to the group’s recent additions in Australia and Ireland in the past two years. The newly established team will be tasked with growing LADbible’s audience in New Zealand with the goal of becoming the biggest publisher in the market within a year. As part of the expansion, Joseph Summers will take on the role of general manager for the APAC region after growing the Australian arm from start-up to more than 28 employees. Summers will split his time between Auckland, Sydney, and Melbourne.
Gemba builds out data services division
Sports and entertainment agency Gemba has strengthened its emerging data dervices division with new hires and clients. Gemba has appointed strategy, technology and data executive Mark Zucco as its divisional danager – data & analytics. He will lead Gemba’s service offer across data strategy, data management and warehousing, business intelligence, outsourced data services, predictive analytics, and other analytics-led products and software for the sport and entertainment sector.
Quantcast hires account management boss
Quantcast has appointed Jacquelyn Cowardin as head of account management for Australia and New Zealand. Cowardin has more than 15 years’ experience and joins Quantcast from George P. Johnson AUNZ, where she led its audience acquisition division for the past two and a half years.
Stink Group creates new role
Stink Group has named Dan Forman as its chief operating officer. In this newly created position, Forman will drive global growth and commercial strategy across both Stink Films and Stink Studios, with the objective of expanding both companies' offerings to an even wider array of global clients. Forman brings over 20 years of industry experience to the Stink Group and has served as the commercial director for BBH London, the CFO for Saatchi & Saatchi Fallon UK & Nordics Group, and, most recently, as the SVP of global client operations for WPP, where he was responsible for commercial delivery across the networks major clients.
DesignStudio names global CEO
Global branding agency DesignStudio has promoted former APAC partner Mark Liney to the group CEO role, responsible for overseeing its Sydney, London and New York offices. Liney joined DesignStudio Sydney in May 2019 where he successfully built the business across the region, working with clients including Grab, ExpressVPN, Ant Group, owners of China’s largest digital payment platform Alipay and Go1. In March he returned to the UK and was replaced by former Interbrand managing director David Storey. As part of the new leadership team DesignStudio’s CFO James Corney has become group chief operating officer.
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