Tag: General Manager

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Publicis Groupe today has announced the appointment of Elya Eusoff as the new General Manager for MSL Malaysia, the communications network’s PR firm. Eusoff will lead and further strengthen MSL’s end-to-end integrated communications offerings while accelerating the Groupe’s innovative influence proposition using the ‘Power of One’, the network’s ethos.

Eusoff joins MSL from Ruder Finn, where he was responsible for overseeing the integrated marketing communications efforts of the agency. Prior to that, he led the public relations department at Bonsey Jaden. Eusoff brings a wealth of experience in public relations, digital marketing, and marketing communications to his new role as general manager.

Margaret Key, CEO for APAC & MEA at MSL, said, “I am pleased to welcome Elya to the MSL family. The industry is evolving, and MSL has developed an exceptional approach to client service that prioritizes digital media and social influence. Elya’s extensive understanding of digital PR and influence will undoubtedly ensure that we can put together the best, most agile solutions that ultimately drive business impact for our clients.”

Meanwhile, Neil Hudspeth, CEO of Publicis Groupe Malaysia and Global Client Lead for Asia Pacific at Publicis Groupe, said, “Public Relations has evolved rapidly to become a crucial component for brands trying to win in a platform world. With a digital content and experience-first approach coupled with the right Influencer and earned media strategies, I am looking forward to accelerating our holistic customer-centric PR solutions that will continue to drive our clients’ and the Groupe’s growth.”

Eusoff on his appointment, “I’m excited to be joining MSL during the rise of the platform era. With platforms serving consumers with abundant amounts of content, I am eager to collaborate and create humanized, relatable campaigns in collaboration with the leadership team of Publicis Groupe in realizing the client’s business objectives.”

MSL’s network in the Asia-Pacific has been growing rapidly over the last few years and currently includes 25 offices spread across APAC markets such as China, Singapore, India, Japan, and South Korea, and also Hong Kong, and Taiwan, among others. MSL’s activities in the Asia-Pacific region are coordinated by its Singapore hub and overseen by Key.

Auckland, New Zealand – Creative agency Colenso BBDO has announced the promotion of their managing partner Lucy Grigg into the general manager role, where she brings in work experience across multiple clients including NAB, BNZ, Airbnb, Spark, Fonterra, and DB.

She will be also taking the lead for their client Spark, a local-based telecommunications company.

According to Angela Watson, managing director at Colenso BBDO, Grigg shows an ‘impressive and diverse experience in business, brand building, and communications along with a very special ability to always drive the work forward’, adding that ‘she is an invaluable champion of their work, their people, and their client partners experience, and that her creativity is just what they need as they embark on their next chapter.’

“Grigg is amazing and we’re delighted she’s taking up this new role. It’s always a thrill to be able to promote from within and bring another talented human into the overall leadership of the agency,” Watson added.

Speaking about her appointment, she commented that with her new leadership comes new opportunities and that she is passionate about helping lead the talented humans at Colenso, with Angela at the helm. 

“It’s a pretty exciting time to be part of Colenso – we have a clear point of view of where and what we want to be for our people and our clients, and I’m proud I can be part of something awesome in an agency I love,” Grigg concluded.

Colenso BBDO has worked previously with campaigns to companies like automotive brand MINI, WWF New Zealand, and classifieds platform Trade Me with the Clemenger Group.

Sydney, Australia – Independent creative agency SLIK in Australia has unveiled four key appointments across management, creative, and production.

Taking the role of general manager is Sarah Wood who’s had 18 years of experience in the integrated marketing and creative industry, having spent 12 of those years at experience design agency, Imagination. Her role will focus on developing insights and strategies for SLIK that will drive the agency’s growth and direction across commercial, creative, client, and culture.

Meanwhile, assuming the position of senior art director is Randle Juan who brings a wealth of experience in art direction, digital design, and motion. Juan has worked with both specialist boutique and larger agencies including Saatchi & Saatchi and Naked. 

For the role, Juan teams up with SLIK’s new Senior Copywriter Sophia East. East comes from a customer experience background, having spent seven years at CX agency MercerBell working on end-to-end campaigns for clients including Qantas, Toyota, Allianz, and American Express. 

Meanwhile, with big name brands like Google and Sainsburys under his portfolio, Kyle Blanshard joins the SLIK team as head of production. Blanshard recently returned from the UK where he spent over 12 years working in management roles at production houses and creative agencies such as Warp, Gramafilm, and Pulse. 

Cooper LaPlanche, SLIK’s director and co-founder, commented, “We’re excited to welcome such a diverse range of talent and energy to the team. All four new hires bring fresh perspectives and are already making an impact here at SLIK, as well as with our clients.”

SLIK’s portfolio includes brands from the charity, food and beverage, finance, and music industry with notable new clients including Active Super, Redkite, and Bupa

Singapore – The global customer experience orchestration company, Genesys, has just announced two new senior appointments, to reaffirm the importance of APAC as a growth market for the company. 

The key senior hires are Assaf Tarnopolsky, the new senior vice president and general manager for APAC, and Stephen Hamill, the new vice president for ASEAN and South Asia.

Tarnopolsky will be driving cloud business momentum in APAC, which experienced strong growth in the fiscal year 2021. He brings with him more than 25 years of leadership experience to the role, including most recently as director of marketing solutions for SEA, North Asia, and Japan at LinkedIn, where he drove significant growth for the platform’s advertising business in Asia. Tarnopolsky’s past media and technology career highlights also include serving as the CEO of tech-news start-up Tecca.com, the vice president at Sony Pictures, and director of international business development at mobile-media pioneer MobiTV.

Meanwhile, Hamill will be responsible for business strategy and sales with a focus on accelerating the growth of Genesys in ASEAN and South Asia. He possesses more than two decades of expertise, having held senior leadership roles in APAC with technology firms such as Oracle and Adobe.

Commenting on his appointment, Tarnopolsky said that he looks forwards to being a part of Genesys at a pivotal point in its journey to assist businesses in their digital transformation journey.

Meanwhile, Hamill commented, “I am thrilled to be driving the next chapter of growth for Genesys and look forward to deepening our presence across the region.”

ML Maco, Genesys’ executive vice president for global sales and field operations, shared that customer experience has become a strategic differentiator as companies adopt cloud and digital technologies to meet customers’ evolving expectations, especially post-pandemic. 

“I am confident with Genesys, they have the platform to transform customer interaction into an empathetic customer experience. The leadership of Assaf and Stephen will help APAC businesses realize the value of the vision we call ‘Experience as a Service’,” said Maco.

The appointments come after Gwilym Funnell’s elevation from Genesys’ head of Asia Pacific to global head of strategic growth, which is a newly created global role responsible for identifying new opportunities for the company to expand across new market segments and establish strategic partnerships.

Tokyo, Japan – GroupM’s outcome media specialist company Xaxis has appointed Leanne Bowles as the new general manager for Xaxis Japan, where she will drive the growth of programmatic advertising in a highly-wired Japanese market while managing the agency’s relationship with its growing pool of clients.

She brings ten years of experience within the GroupM network, including over four years with Xaxis Asia Pacific before moving to Mindshare China where she held the position of partner for investment strategy for over three years, creating, delivering, and executing proprietary solutions to drive value for her clients.

Prior to her appointment, Bowles previously led the Mindshare Balance Champions initiative in China to raise awareness and support colleagues on their well-being journey. She will leverage her experience in Mindshare’s DEI (Diversion Equality Inclusion) Council to further drive Xaxis’ initiatives and instill a value-driven organization that celebrates diversity.

She will report to Arshan Saha, CEO for Xaxis Asia-Pacific and Michael Beecroft, CEO at Xaxis Northeast Asia.

“I’m incredibly excited to be returning to the Xaxis family, and am looking forward to working together with Arshan Saha and Michael Beecroft once again. . In an era where leaders need to take charge and foster a culture of work-life balance, diversity and inclusion. I’m honored to have the opportunity to drive this in my role in Japan,” Bowles said, regarding her appointment.

Saha, meanwhile, said that Leanne is incredibly talented and that they are thrilled to have her back at Xaxis. He added that Bowles’ experience in growing teams and delivering outcomes for clients, combined with Xaxis’ AI in programmatic and creativity, will bring incredible value to the company’s operations in Japan.

Beecroft added, “Leanne has proved herself as an invaluable member of the GroupM family, whether in Xaxis or Mindshare. Her knowledge and diverse experiences from across the GroupM network will empower her for this role as General Manager at Xaxis Japan. Importantly, Leanne is also extremely passionate about championing female leaders, and inspiring people like her will truly make a difference in our industry.”

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Media agency Trapper Group has appointed Erwin Goh, former business director at dentsu X, to assume the role of general manager for its media brand arm, SEED.

SEED, which was previously known as a content-centric company, is now a full-service agency that offers integrated thinking and media solutions to its clients. It will be a creative-led media agency, closely working with clients and agency partners to deliver business results on campaigns. 

With the appointment, Goh will be focusing on building a team to grow SEED’s clients’ business. He will also be developing digital-ready marketing and media solutions that will solve clients’ business challenges and impact revenue. This is in line with its sister brand, Trapper’s DNA of being ‘The Growth Engineers’.

Prior to joining Trapper’s SEED, Goh had more than 14 years of experience in the industry across integrated media solutions for various local, regional, and global clients. He has previously worked with brands such as AirAsia, Honda, and Heineken, as well as The Walt Disney Studios, among others.

“I’m looking forward to being part of the growth team in Trapper Group, to propel client’s business despite these trying times. We need to constantly challenge the status quo, quickly adapt and be on the lookout for new opportunities. I’m more than honored to help build SEED’s capability to be the new market challenger,” said Goh.

Meanwhile, Sue-Anne Lim, the CEO of Trapper, commented that Goh comes with a proven track record in developing client and inter-agency partner relationships, as well as growing brands and businesses.

“We are very excited to reintroduce SEED to the market as a creative-led media agency. Pandemic or not, we are constantly looking for ‘sprinters’ who are helpful, humble, and hungry. Erwin will add substantial value to SEED and steer the brand towards greater revenue share, alongside Trapper,” she said.

Trapper’s Chairman and Co-founder Sivanathan Krishnan said that hiring Goh fits exactly into the group’s future-forward goal as he has the right professional attributes in operations, communication, business experience, and leadership abilities to successfully execute on the SEED’s strategy and deliver financial performance.

“SEED is a young communications agency within the group, founded with very high ambitions. Its strength lies in the fact that it is a challenger brand with deep digital expertise that is focused on delivering value for clients. It will not be handcuffed to tried and tested methods, instead employ an innovative and experimental approach to solving problems,” said Krishnan.

Earlier this year, Trapper unveiled a company-wide brand transformation, which is the first time ever since its founding in 2001. This move marks 2021 as the group’s important 20th-year milestone.

Australia – Creative agency The Works in Australia has recently promoted Kristie Thistlethwaite as the new managing partner, and Jasmine Lansdell as the new general manager of people and operations, to scale up its leadership team.

Thistlethwaite has previously worked as the head of project management at The Works, where she was responsible for client and team management. As part of her new role, Thistlethwaite will now be managing business strategy and will be supporting the development of effective creative work, as well as drive client growth and happiness.

Meanwhile, Lansdell has previously managed people and culture since being appointed in 2016 at The Works, during which time the agency has become one of the most recognized and awarded agencies for culture in the country.

In her new role, Lansdell will now be overseeing the day-to-day operations and financial management across The Works and Daresay – a content and production agency driven by a team of strategists, producers, and editors.

Commenting on her new role, Thistlethwaite said, “I’m really excited about the momentum within the agency as we’ve seen some incredible growth with existing and new clients this year.”

Lansdell also commented, “I’m proud to work for a business that truly puts its people first and now having a people lens on all financial and business decisions will continue to ensure that remains the case.”

The Works’ Founder Damian Pincus shared that as The Works goes from strength to strength, he is pleased that they have been able to promote people from within the agency to ensure they continue to drive forward. 

“Both Kristie and Jas have shown strong leadership and business ability and are perfectly placed to work with our clients and people to continue with our momentum,” said Pincus.

New Delhi, India – The Trade Desk, a technology company focused on empowering advertising buyers, has announced that it will be expanding its market to India. With this, it has also named its general manager for the market band, Tejinder Gill.

He will lead the company’s business and growth strategy in India, helping Indian brands and publishers unleash the full potential of the open internet where Indian consumers are increasingly spending their time.

The Trade Desk aims to help India’s digital marketers capture these fast-growing opportunities. With The Trade Desk’s industry-leading data-driven capabilities, marketers can access a marketplace of premium advertising inventory across a wide range of websites, apps, podcasts and streaming OTT platforms. 

As an omnichannel platform, The Trade Desk enables marketers to reach relevant audiences across different devices such as computers, mobile devices, tablets and connected TV, and engage with them meaningfully along their entire digital journey.

For Gill, digital is the fastest-growing advertising segment in India and, as a result, marketers in India are seeking more trust and transparency as they shift more campaign budgets there.

“While Indian consumers are spending 70% of their time on the open internet, almost 80% of India’s digital ad revenue still goes to the big tech platforms, which sit outside the open internet. The Trade Desk is here to bring the much needed data-driven decisioning and transparency to India’s digital advertising ecosystem, offering marketers a credible choice where they can tap into the immense opportunities of the open internet,” he stated.

Rapid digitization of the media industry has provided a paradigm shift in the way Indians consume content online. In particular, content consumption on the open internet has exploded in the last 18 months. According to a study by Global Web Index, Indians, on average, are spending as many as eight hours a day online – 70% of which is spent on the open internet, which includes online content, over-the-top (OTT) and music streaming.

Furthermore, the open internet grew at a much faster pace than other online channels, even social media. Online content and OTT streaming grew 28% and 16% respectively, while social media grew by a mere 1%.

On a separate note, The Trade Desk has recently teamed up with marketing cloud InMobi to cater to this growing need among marketers by making their respective platforms available to clients accordingly.

Melbourne, Australia – Marketing communications company Clemenger BBDO Melbourne has hired a new general manager Scott Balalas for its business account, beverage company Carlton & United, which includes Asahi Beverages as well.

Balalas’ appointment coincides with Clemenger BBDO Melbourne’s recent work Victoria Bitter, a part of Asahi Beverages in Australia, for its VB Solar Exchange Program, which incentivizes Australians for their extra solar power energy with free beers from Victoria Bitter.

Speaking about the campaign back then, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne executive creative director, Jim Curtis, said, “I couldn’t be more proud to see one of Australia’s most iconic brands leading the way and showing the rest of the world an innovative economic model between brands and consumers.” 

The campaign comes after Asahi Beverages was acquired by Carlton & United Breweries last year. The program is part of Asahi’s ambitious sustainability agenda, which includes a goal to be powered entirely by 100% renewable energy by 2025. 

Balalas comes from creative agency 72andSunny in New York, where he has more than 15 years of local and international experience having worked at agencies including Anomaly, Havas and BMF.

“It has been awesome to watch from afar as the advertising industry in Australia continues to make its mark as one of the world’s most creative markets. Clemenger BBDO Melbourne continues to be at the forefront of that movement. In discussing the agency vision with Jim and seeing the creative firepower Clemenger is attracting, I’m incredibly excited to be part of the team,” said Balalas.

Jim Gall, CEO at Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, commented, “Wherever Scott goes, great work consistently follows and I am confident this will continue with CUB. We’re looking forward to Scott leading our relationship with the brewery and helping to foster sustained growth through world-class creativity.”

Hong Kong – The Hong Kong arm of global public relations firm, The Hoffman Agency has recently appointed Kevin On as its general manager for its local operations in the special administrative region.

Through his new role, On will be furthering Hoffman’s Integrated Marketing Corporation (IMC) proposition within Hong Kong, as well as working closely with the agency’s other eight offices in the region. His appointment comes after the agency hit a record high global revenue of US$15.12M in 2020, up 1% from 2019 despite the pandemic, with over half the revenue coming from its Asia Pacific operations.

Prior to joining the agency, On has worked as the global marketing and communications director for drone brand DJI, based in Shenzhen, China, where he led major product launches across APAC, as well as strategic partnerships, and issues management. He also boasts a background working for ad agency Ogilvy, where he worked with blue-chip clients such as Intel, Nokia, and Dell. Overall, he has over 20 years of experience in the public relations industry.

“We’re in an interesting time where companies are looking for new and innovative ways of doing business, and with this, a new approach to doing communications with their customers, the public, and different stakeholders,” On commented. 

He added, “I’m excited to be back on the consultancy side to help clients navigate the unprecedented challenges they are facing, and shape interesting stories around the role of technology and its impact on businesses, communities, and our everyday lives.”

On reports to Caroline Hsu, managing director for APAC at The Hoffman Agency. Hsu stated that On’s recent appointment can be described as a ‘rare find’ since On has worked with various marketing communication roles and moved many times from Canada to China in line with his work.

“We pride ourselves as an international agency that gets tech brands, and solves business problems – but to do that in Asia, where cultures and social norms constantly collide, you need a team that’s not just on the ground, but one that understands the ins and outs of a market. With Kevin on board, we’re looking forward to sparking new creative juices that take all his experiences to date and apply them in a uniquely Asian way,” Hsu commented.