Shanghai, China — Marketing and communications network WPP has brought in industry veteran Caroline Slocombe to lead OpenX, the entirely new offering created for The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) that carries an integrated agency model comprised of creative, media, social, data, tech, PR, and commerce experts from across WPP.

In her new role, Slocombe will be overseeing the relationship of TCCC and its portfolio of iconic brands across all WPP’s agencies in Greater China. 

For 25 years, Slocombe has built her strong working experience with agencies. From directing multi-market and multi-functional teams, she has served for some of the world’s biggest CPG and FMCG brands. 

She was previously an executive director for Red Fuse Communications in APAC where she drove growth for a portfolio of over 10 brands across 15 markets. She was also a general manager in LOWE, currently known as MullenLowe Profero, in Hong Kong where she oversaw office operations and manage the Johnson & Johnson business across APAC.

Considering China as an important part of growth and innovation, Laurent Ezekiel, global CEO of OpenX from WPP & WPP CMO said that Slocombe will be an asset for supporting the company’s transformation in the country. 

Commenting on Slocombe’s appointment, Chris Reitermann, chief executive officer of Ogilvy Asia & Greater China added, “Her strategic marketing understanding, combined with her extensive experience in the region — having worked in Asia for more than two decades — made her an ideal fit for this vital role within the OpenX from WPP framework, which is all about delivering giant ideas that create giant value for The Coca-Cola Company.” 

Meanwhile, Slocombe commends The Coca-cola Company for its portfolio of iconic brands and recognizing its global success. 

She added, “Being able to help lead their marketing transformation agenda forward in this part of the world, which is so vibrant and innovative, is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I couldn’t be more excited to be working with all the talented experts that make up the OpenX from WPP team and together push the boundaries of possibility.” 

Sydney, Australia London-based adtech data and location firm Blis has made a number of appointments and promotions to expand its operations in Asia-Pacific, specifically in the markets of Australia, New Zealand, and Asia. Amongst the notable leadership unveiled is the announcement of Donald Saw as its new country manager for New Zealand.

Saw’s role is expected to charge efforts forward in meeting the increasing demand from advertisers in New Zealand. He will leading the company’s sales and operations across the country. 

For leadership targeted at the whole of APAC region, meanwhile, Blis has named Lupe Prada as head of marketing and Clarie O’Mahony as head of client services. Prada will lead marketing initiatives in APAC while O’Mahony is tapped to be in charge of the client services team in the region.

In addition, Scott Mathison is the newly appointed sales manager for Queensland and Western Australia. 

Commenting on new appointments, Emma-Jayne Owens, managing director at Blis APAC, said that she’s delighted for their new hires as they continue to grow across the APAC region over the past few years.

She added, “They join Blis to drive our ambition for an even stronger team within each of our markets, where their combined local knowledge, expertise in client service and growth marketing allows us to provide solutions to help our clients’ businesses grow.”

Singapore – Amidst continuing its growth in Singapore and the broader Asia-Pacific region, marketing technology developer Broadsign has appointed Veronica Ong as its new sales director in Southeast Asia. She will be responsible for supporting the regional sales team in strengthening Broadsign’s partner offering and growing its portfolio of DOOH clients across the region.

Ong brings with her a strong background in OOH and sales. In her previous roles, she led the team of JCDecaux’s strategic and airport advertising accounts where she collaborated with major global brands buying ad space on the OOH leader’s network. She also managed sales for all media platforms for street furniture, retail malls, cinema, and large format advertising in the Singapore region.

Even before joining JCDecaux, she held a range of sales roles across multiple advertising mediums, including publishing at SPH Magazines in the fashion and beauty division.

Remi Roques, general manager at Broadsign, commented, “We’re incredibly thrilled to have Veronica join the team, especially at a very exciting time when we’re expanding our platform’s capabilities to support customer growth in 2023 and beyond.”

Roques added, “Her industry experience and passion for OOH are a tremendous asset to our team, and will help us continue reaching our goals.”

Meanwhile, Ong commends Broadsign for its offering and customer service which she personally experienced on the client side of her former role.

She added, “It has built the best OOH platform available for media operators of any size, and I look forward to working with the team to continue growing the business.”

Amsterdam, The Netherlands – DEPT®, a global digital agency, today announced that Matt Lynch will take on the role of chief executive officer for the EMEA region to accelerate growth across Europe. He will support global CEO Dimi Albers, and work alongside DEPT®’s other regional leaders including Missy Foristall for the Americas and Vishnu Mohan for Asia-Pacific

Lynch was previously CEO of FEED/DEPT®, an agency under DEPT that specialises in delivering hyper-personalised content at scale for brands such as eBay, Gumtree, and Ancestry. While based in the UK, he will be responsible for driving growth across EMEA, expanding the agency’s service lines, and growing the teams in each market. 

His appointment comes off the back of a year of growth for DEPT® globally. The agency won several competitive pitches for clients like BMW, Diageo, Cisco, Constellation Brands, Gucci, Samsung, Inter Milan, and Reckitt Benckiser, and added a number of new agencies including Hello Monday, Dogstudio, 3Q and Two Bulls to the family.

Furthermore, DEPT®’s operations in Europe has reportedly registered exponential growth working with brands such as Philips, Amazon Prime, H&M, and the Eurovision Song Contest.

Speaking on his appointment, Lynch said, “In addition to being true pioneers of marketing and technology, DEPT® boasts an incredible team and client roster across Europe. I’m incredibly excited to work more closely with the talented and diverse people we have across the region, bringing my experience in running a global business to help DEPT® reach its ambitions.” 

Meanwhile, Albers commented, “Europe is historically our home market and has been key to making DEPT® the best and most innovative digital native agency in the world. So we created this role to drive collaboration, efficiency and ultimately growth across the region.”

He added, “Since Matt and his team joined us, he has played a significant part in further elevating operations and in continuing to grow relationships with existing clients, such as eBay. He’s also been involved in the launch of our creative automation practice and serving as interim managing director in Germany. I’m stoked to see what he achieves next in this new position.”

Canberra, Australia – After a highly competitive process, the Government of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT Government) has chosen to hand its overall media mandate to Universal McCann (UM) in Canberra. The remit covers all media strategy, planning and buying for the brand as well as digital and functional advertising across all channels. In addition, UM will be providing digital and creative content services. 

Brett Elliott, managing director of UM Australia, said that his team were thrilled for its appointment and for adding government client roster to the agency. He also said that they are excited to improve the lives of Canberrans by contributing to the ACT economy.

Elliot added, “Having one supplier with a clear line of accountability for all media placement needs means we can bring holistic reporting, deeper category understanding and the ability to drive shared learnings to the account, ultimately providing a more effective set up and efficient use of taxpayer funds.”

Meanwhile, the spokesperson of ACT Government expressed, “We were impressed with UM’s experienced team of media practitioners and their breadth of understanding of our needs and their enthusiasm for the task at hand. We look forward to working with the team to drive efficiencies and value for money in the way our Government engages with Canberra’s community.”

In 2021, the national government of Australia renewed its partnership with UM to be its agency of record through 2024. 

Sydney, Australia Global media and marketing solutions group IPG Mediabrands has appointed Geoff Clarke as its chief operating officer for Australia. Clarke will retain his chief operating officer role and business growth development responsibilities for Initiative, a global media agency that is also under Mediabrands.

In his expanded role, Clarke will be responsible for driving operational and organisational improvements across the entire group. He will also continue to lead IPG’s transformation agenda throughout APAC while leading the operational integration and working system of Australian businesses. Clarke will also collaborate across the company’s entire client portfolio.

Mark Coad, CEO of Mediabrands Australia said that the expanded leadership role is a timely and well-deserved recognition for Geoff who has successfully led the Group’s transformational agenda.

Coad added, “Geoff is an outstanding leader. While still keeping his fingers 100 percent on the pulse at Initiative, he successfully positioned Mediabrands as an industry leader in the use of automation and BOTs considerably reducing repetitive and menial work and significantly improving the way we work across the entire group.”

In his three-decade media industry career, Clarke has established a background in investment, planning, and media buying. He worked for various agencies in London and eventually obtained a managing director position in Australia in 2013.

In 2015, Clarke started his role in Initiative as a client partner and later on promoted to chief operating officer. He has been instrumental in the agency’s growth and development in Australia.

For his new responsibilities, Clarke commented, “I am going to be busy, but it is an exciting time to be in the industry. My goal is for our clients to engage Mediabrands’ agencies knowing the unique business solutions we offer are fully effective and designed for ambitious growth.  This can only happen when the best operational and procedural innovations are in place and the most talented teams are available to service clients.”

Singapore – Wootag, a Singapore-based interactive visual marketing platform, takes a new step in expanding its global presence by launching its operations in India. Simultaneously, the company appointed Aditya Singh Chauhan as its first country manager.

With this expansion, Wootag still aims to further develop its growth strategy for India despite being one of its fastest-growing regions in the Asia-Pacific market. The company sets its eyes on strengthening regional partnerships for its visual marketing growth. 

As the inaugural country manager for India, Chauhan will lead the company’s go-to-market functions, and be responsible for driving client satisfaction and the adoption of the ‘Wootag for Ads’ in India. In his last stint, Chauhan worked as associate director of brand partnership & monetization for Myntra and led business development for Affle.

Recently, Wootag has introduced Wootag for Ads across Asian markets which aims to provide marketers with expanding offerings in interactive and intent-based audience engagement across various forms of advertising. 

Raj Sunder, CEO & founder of Wootag, said, “Not only does India boast the second-fastest growing economy in the G20, its marketing industry has evolved rapidly to keep up with [the] emergence of the video consumption and ecommerce ecosystem and ever-changing demands of consumers. This makes India such an important market for us in the region, contributing significantly to our business across Asia Pacific.”

Meanwhile, Chauhan commented, “I am thrilled to be joining Wootag and I would like to thank the company for trusting me to lead the team into the next chapter. I am excited to contribute to the company’s growth journey and empower our clients to succeed in a distributed and rapidly changing world.”

Wootag is currently operating in 13 countries including Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Hong Kong SAR, Taiwan, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia and now India

Mumbai, India – Wunderman Thompson has appointed Harsh Shah as its new chief digital officer for South Asia. Shah will be responsible for accelerating the digital transformation of the Wunderman Thompson Group and will work with its agencies across the creative, communication, tech, health, and commerce practices. 

In his last stint, Harsh was with Dentsu Creative as President – West, and led operations, revenue, people and culture for Dentsu Webchutney, and regional business for the rest of Dentsu Creative. For the new role, he will be reporting directly to Shams Jasani, chief executive officer of Wunderman Thompson South Asia.

Jasani said, “We are Delighted to welcome Harsh to the Wunderman Thompson Family. He brings in a wealth of experience across Digital, Technology and Commerce. Our work at Wunderman Thompson harnesses the power of creative, technology, and Commerce to drive unprecedented growth for some of the world’s biggest brands. We are glad to have Harsh onboard at a critical juncture when we are keenly looking at offering end-to-end capabilities to our clients at scale.”

Meanwhile, Shah commented, “I am deeply excited by the vision drawn up at WT and my specific charter as a key growth partner. I look forward to drive this vision and unlock growth with my highly experienced and talented peers at the agency.”

In 2022, we have seen numerous appointments and elevations in the industry, and out of all of them, it’s Australia-based mobile and internet provider Belong bagging our Appointment of the Year for its announcement of Amy Childs as its chief customer officer

Childs, who was previously the managing director of electric utility firm Momentum Energy, stepped into the newly created role in Belong last March 2022. She is now responsible for the strategy and implementation of the telco’s customer experience capability, with the intent of delivering a best-in-class customer experience to better serve the telco’s customers. 

In an exclusive interview with Childs, she discussed with us her biggest challenges and opportunities in the role, her plans for this new year, as well as the new trends we can expect in the telco industry.

Challenges and opportunities in the role

The biggest challenge Childs had come across in her new role is the realisation of just how many Australians are digitally excluded. She shared that while Belong retails services, addressing access to the network is not in their control, they can ensure that they focus on designing accessible products and services – both from a price point and accessibility lens – so that more Australians can participate. 

Meanwhile, on the opportunities, Childs said that they are now turning a lot of their attention to digital and opening more channels for customers to access support when they need it. 

“Our digital support model needs to go in, and our customers need better experiences across our web and app channels,” she added.

Meeting demands and expectations in 2023 

As customers’ habits and expectations change rapidly, Belong is directing a huge focus on self-service capabilities, and digital channels and app.

Childs said, “We will continue to focus on developing these with accessibility and affordability in mind and partnering with organisations that can represent these customers at the design table.”

She further shared that to keep ahead of customer expectations and demand, focusing on developing and nurturing a customer-centric culture in the organisations that you work in is the key.

Moreover, she believes that the connection of the whole value chain together is where the magic happens, and the only way to do that is through culture – which is why culture is always top of mind, and always her main focus.

What’s next for the telco industry?

Today, the world has already adapted to working remotely, businesses want to know how to connect to customers on a more personal level, and one thing Childs is looking forward to in 2023 is leveraging the Metaverse platform to help their teams walk a day in the life of a customer, connecting across regions or countries. 

“As technology evolves, so too will our opportunities to use them for the better,” she noted.

Childs also mentioned continuing Belong’s carbon neutrality initiative. She said, “I am so proud to work at Belong, as we are proudly Australia’s first certified carbon-neutral telco.”

This recognition is based on the results of Google Analytics on the most-read stories of 2022 with editorial validation on the significance of a leader’s contribution, campaign results, and overall impact.

Shanghai, China Dentsu China has recently announced the appointment of Richard Tan as CEO of Dentsu Creative China. His appointment will be effective on November 16 this year.

Tan will be reporting to Deric Wong, CEO of Dentsu China, and will be leading about 1,200 strong teams across Dentsu’s offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing, and Wuhan. 

He is expected to accelerate growth for the group’s extensive client base while championing innovation to drive greater integration to Dentsu’s creative services to media and its customer experience management.

Speaking on his appointment, Tan said, “I am passionate about balancing bold creativity with sustained business impact in China’s dynamic digital ecosystem. I love where DENTSU CREATIVE is heading and leading with ‘Modern Creativity’… through a simplified but compelling proposition that navigates practical challenges in the modern world of complexity.”

Prior to joining Dentsu Creative, Tan held several senior management positions as country head in various agency networks in China for 20 years. This includes Euro RSCG, DDB, and Mullenlowe China.

On Tan’s appointment, Wong commented, “I am pleased to welcome Richard as he takes on the leadership of Dentsu Creative China. We live in a time of exciting possibilities and Richard as a seasoned agency leader will continue to build on the momentum with dynamism.”

He added, “Our leadership team looks to work closely with Richard, to continue building on our bold strategies to fuel market-leading growth and help brands create lasting good with meaningful progress, as Dentsu continues to evolve in China’s digital era.”

Tan will be replacing Dentsu Creative China’s incumbent CEO Keita Ishikawa, who will be moving on to a management role at Dentsu Inc. in Japan.

“I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Keita-san for everything we’ve achieved together under his transformative leadership and wish him our best in his new role,” Wong further stated. 

Cheuk Chiang, chief executive officer at Dentsu Creative APAC, also said, “There is no creative leader in China more experienced than Richard. As we take Dentsu Creative to the next level, he is well placed to deliver success. He lives and breathes creativity.”

Since its launch last June, Dentsu Creative has been continuing its series of leadership appointments with Benny Augustine for India, Cheuk Chiang for APAC, and four new hires for its global leadership team.