We take a look at the biggest industry moves of the week:
Inese Kingsmill resurfaces at Virgin Australia
Virgin Australia has appointed former Telstra marketer Inese Kingsmill as head of marketing and customer engagement. She will be responsible for brand, marketing, online product and services, e-commerce, digital strategy, the guest contact centre and Virgin Australia Holidays. Beginning on 12 December, she will report directly to John Thomas, group executive of Virgin Australia Airlines. She was most recently director of consumer marketing at the telco where she worked for six years. Read more here.
Jonas Jaanimagi exits REA amid programmatic restructure
REA Group's head of media strategy and operations Jonas Jaanimagi has left the real estate business following an internal restructure. AdNews understands there had been changes to the firm, which is 62% owned by News Corp, specifically within its ad operations and programmatic department. It is thought the change in structure sees reporting lines change and a new role of senior manager media operations created. Read more here.
SpotX director exits for GroupM
Ad tech business SpotX has lost its senior director Daniel Rowlands to media giant GroupM.
Rowlands, who was senior director of supply JAPAC based in Singapore, is now supply and operations director APAC at the group - still based in Singapore. Rowlands, who joined SpotX in 2013 as publisher relations manager, has also worked at Nine. After After eight months with no regional MD steering the ship, online video advertising platform SpotX announced Matt Von der Muhll's replacement in January this year. Marcus Tan now heads up the business.
Brisbane marketer takes top CMO spot
Former Ladbrokes Australia CMO James Burnett is now the top marketer at comparison site Comparethemarket.com.au. Burnett was at the marketing helm of the bookies when it launched Down Under in 2013 and was responsible for the total marketing function and non-VIP customer sales (over 95% of all customers). In 2015 had a marketing budget of $50m. His new role as CMO of Comparethemarket.com.au is based in Brisbane.
ECD Bob Mackintosh to depart Host
Bob Mackintosh is set to leave Host at the end of the year, with his replacement to be named “imminently”. Mackintosh joined Host in 2005 and was a driving force behind the award-winning Kiwi Sceptics campaign. He has not announced where he will be going.
Y&R NZ staff shakeup as MD exits
Y&R NZ managing director Steve Kane will exit the agency, with head of planning Jono Key to step up to the role effective next year. Both Key and Kane were a big part of the hugely successful McWhopper campaign. Kane now joins independent agency True as the MD.
Gourmet Traveller editor-in-chief steps down
Gourmet Traveller editor-in-chief Anthea Loucas Bosha has exited Gourmet Traveller after 13 years. In an announcement made on Friday night, Bauer Media said Loucas Bosha would leave the business for “personal reasons”. She becomes one of the slew of senior executives, including Marina Go and Carl Hammerschmidt, who have recently left Bauer. She will leave at the end of January with a search for her replacement underway.
Nova bolsters leadership team
Nova Entertainment has strengthened the Sydney sales team with a number of appointments to the leadership group. Josh Halling has been promoted to the newly created role of Sydney sales director for direct and independent agencies. Halling will lead and develop Nova and smoothfm business offerings for Sydney clients. Rob Sloan now leads the Sydney agency sales team as agency sales director. These appointments follow the promotion of Peter Colosimo, formerly Sydney sales director, to the role of Nova Entertainment’s Melbourne GM in September 2016.
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