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.
Nine restructures sales team
Nine has completed the restructure of its sales team, with Richard Hunwick taking on responsibility for the TV and radio sales team, while Nick Young takes over the digital and publishing sales team, as well as the company's data strategy. Chris Nardi, currently director of sales for publishing, moves into the newly created role of director of client partnerships for publishing. Meanwhile, Nine+, led by Tim Rose, will be expanded with direct sales teams in TV, digital, publishing and radio aligning under the brand. As part of the shake-up, some redundancies have been made, including Penny Kaleta’s role as director of sales for radio.
Initiative Australia names first MD
Initiative Australia has named Sam Geer as managing director. Geer steps into the newly created role from his position as chief strategy officer which he’s held since 2018. The agency’s CEO, Melissa Fein, says Geer has been promoted to offer a broader platform for his talents. Replacing Geer as chief strategy officer is Chris Colter, who was previously Initiative’s national strategy director.
New CEO for Enero Group
Enero Group has appointed Brent Scrimshaw as chief executive officer. Scrimshaw, who steps into the role at the start of July, replaces Matthew Melhuish who stepped down from the role at the end of March. Scrimshaw has spent 18 years at Nike, in roles such as VP and CEO of western Europe and CMO for EMEA. More recently, he was the founder and CEO of Unscriptd, a technology led sports media company which was acquired by New York based publisher The Players Tribune in 2018.
TikTok names CEO
ByteDance, owner of social media platform TikTok, has named Disney’s Kevin Mayer as chief operating officer. In his new role, Mayer will also serve as CEO of TikTok, leading the growing app as it continues to build its global community of creators, users and brands. Mayer previously worked at Disney as chairman of direct-to-consumer and international where he oversaw the development and rollout of Disney+. In his new role as ByteDance COO, Mayer will also be charged with driving the global development of ByteDance, and will oversee corporate functions such as sales, marketing and public affairs.
Unruly appoints former Verizon director
Former News Corp Australia agency lead Toby Williams has been appointed vice president of business development in the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa regions for video ad tech company Unruly. The former Verizon director will be responsible for driving Unruly’s media footprint by building strategic partnerships with publishers and media companies. Williams will be based in Singapore and report to Phil Townend, chief revenue officer, APMEA. He replaces Haifaa Daw, who left in September.
Grant Broadcasters elevates Ryan Rathbone
Regional radio owner Grant Broadcasters has promoted Ryan Rathbone to the position of group content director. Rathbone is now responsible for all on-air talent and content teams across the 50 plus stations. He will be instrumental in driving the company’s music strategies as well working closely with the digital team to build local community connections.
Noisy Beast expands
Independent communications agency Noisy Beast has appointed Sabina Begum as creative director for the UK and Europe. The appointment continues the global expansion for the Melbourne-based agency. Begum brings more than 13 years’ experience working in agencies such as AKQA and Dentsu Aegis Network on brands such as Google, Kellogg’s and Toyota. Most recently, she worked as EMEA design lead at Facebook and Instagram in London.
Hotwire's new MD and content director
Global communications agency Hotwire has appointed Jaime Nelson as managing director of its Sydney office and Rochelle Ritchie as content director. In her new role, Nelson will be in charge of accelerating Hotwire Australia’s transformation into a fully integrated communications agency. Formerly managing director of sister agency Precinct, Nelson joined Hotwire in July last year as MD for strategy and marketing services upon the merger of the two agencies. She brings more than 20 years of experience in marketing, spanning multiple industry sectors. Ritchie joins the team with more than seven years of experience in digital marketing and content, with a deep specialisation in social media strategy and performance, as well as content production.
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