Tag: Media company

Sydney, Australia – Out-of-home (OOH) media company JCDecaux in Australia has promoted Morgan Hannaford and Gemma Watkins to the roles of sales director in the state of New South Wales.

Hannaford will take on responsibility for direct clients and independent agency groups, while Watkins will lead the teams working with global agency holding groups.

Gemma Watkins takes up her role immediately, whileMorgan Hannaford will commence in January 2022 upon her return from parental leave.

Hannaford’s 13 years in media have been aligned to delivering customer solutions in the direct and independent agency space. Meanwhile, Morgan’s flair for collaboration and results has driven key partnerships with the Independent Media Agencies Australia (IMAA), and some of Australia’s biggest brands.

John Harris, who was recently promoted to the role of general manager for sales at JCDecaux Australia, commented, “Gemma [Hannaford] is the ultimate team player, who leads by example. A former media salesperson of the year award winner, Gemma has a natural ability to problem solve for her clients, and consistently drives high levels of customer satisfaction with experience working on key holding groups Mediabrands, Omnicom and dentsu.”

He added, “Morgan’s energy and professionalism is a huge asset for JCDecaux. She is driven to achieve results for her customers and has nurtured a group of highly talented salespeople in such an important area for the business.”

Harris further stated that the two appointees have market-leading high-performance reputation, with a connected culture mentality at the core of their strengths, adding that they are truly excited to see them lead the NSW sales team.

JCDecaux Australia has seen a lineup of appointments this year, including Amanda Munce as head of campaign execution and Oliver Newton as chief sales officer.

Manila, Philippines – Digital talent and media company Gushcloud in the Philippines has recently signed Jason Magbanua, a celebrated local videographer known for his videography stints at well-known celebrity weddings in the country, as well as his own visual storyteller stints.

In an exclusive deal, the digital talent and marketing agency will be working closely with the esteemed videographer to represent and manage key brand deals, and to provide channel management support. Said deal is aimed at bolstering as well the talent’s digital presence and thought leadership.

With over 20 years of experience, a slew of international awards, and a strong roster of clients, Magbanua is known as well for capturing captivating video content for corporate clients and brands.

Speaking about this endeavor, Magbanua mentioned that the past year has been really challenging, to say the least, adding that events had to be put on hold and wedding shoots had to be cancelled. However, he mentioned that his passion to create was the one thing that didn’t stop him. 

“I shot and edited, and learned to master my craft – which is why I’m very excited to be in this new partnership with Gushcloud Philippines. I’ve received a ton of emails and direct messages about partnerships and representation and while all these messages were courteous and polite, none approached it the way the Gushcloud team did,” Magbanua said.

He added, “They were not only very nice people, but patient, thorough, forward thinking, and transparent. Inking the agreement was a process of relationship building and not once did I feel obliged or pressured. I’m eager to learn and create, and I’m looking forward to partnering with brands and exerting influence not just to sell but for the greater good.”

As part of the deal, Gushcloud Philippines will co-manage his personal YouTube channel where he shares his creative process, including reviews, tips, and tutorials. Magbanua also has over 314,000 subscribers on his second YouTube channel where he shares wedding films of celebrities and other couples. Apart from this, he also has over 113,000 Instagram followers and over 250,000 Facebook followers. 

“At Gushcloud, our goals have always been to create a sustainable ecosystem where brands, influencers, and content creators grow together. We’re thrilled to have Jason Magbanua onboard, to collaborate and strengthen his digital presence. Excited for him to impart his expertise, and continue to create a strong positive influence in our collective industry,” said Jamie Paraso, country director at Gushcloud Philippines. 

Aside from Jason Magbanua, Gushcloud has also signed gaming creator Yuka Kuroyanagi, celebrities Bangs Garcia, Ciara Sotto, Bettinna Carlos, Michelle Madrigal, and Patrick Garcia and family for channel management.

Sydney, Australia – Australian-based media company Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) has announced that it has partnered with global broadcasting company BBC to make its popular titles and content be made available on SCA’s new destination LiSTNR.

Launched in February, LiSTNR is a curated and personalized free app offering radio, podcasts, music, and news, creating a new audio destination for all Australians. LiSTNR houses more than 100 premium original local, national and global podcasts, live radio streams, radio podcasts and digital music stations from the Hit and Triple M networks, 15 linear music live streaming channels, four weekly music podcasts and an on-demand audio news and info service.

Said BBC content will be made available on LiSTNR on 23 June, and will include programs such as those of renowned broadcaster and natural historian Sir David Attenborough; English economist, broadcaster and journalist Tim Harford; music programs ‘Desert Island Discs’ and ‘Essential Mix’; ‘In Concert’ which is the BBC’s largest audio collection of live recordings; and music audio program ‘Pop Documentaries’.

According to Grant Blackley, CEO at SCA, when they first launched LiSTNR, they promised it was only the beginning, and now they couldn’t be more delighted that their first LiSTNR partnership is with the BBC which will bring their audiences world class, compelling, premium content from its vast library.

“We have selected BBC content that will resonate with our listeners and attract new audiences to LiSTNR. This is the first of a series of partnerships that will see LiSTNR become the audio destination of choice for premium and popular content such as what we are offering from the BBC,” Blackley stated.

Grant Tothill, general manager for digital audio at SCA added that to have the BBC as one of their partners is a reinforcement of LiSTNR’s vision as a diverse range of premium curated and created content. He also added that said partnership is a great way to complement their locally created live and on demand content across radio, podcasts, music and news.

Meanwhile, Larissa Abid, senior business development manager for North America, Caribbean at BBC Radio International and BBC World Service, commented, “BBC works with some of the biggest names in music, entertainment and journalism to create world-class audio content. Our partnership with SCA will see BBC content available for the first time on LiSTNR. We are impressed with the LiSTNR personalized app offering and are confident that the BBC content slate will appeal to a broad audience.”

Singapore – GroupM’s outcome-driven media company Xaxis has recently appointed Silvia Sparry as the company’s newest chief operating officer, following the company’s celebration of 10 years in operation.

Prior to her new position, she has served as Xaxis’ vice president of global operations and platforms.

In her new role, Sparry will help translate how differentiating capabilities such as Xaxis’ proprietary AI platform Copilot or GroupM Choreograph can be consistently leveraged by clients to deliver better outcomes from their digital media investments.

In addition, Sparry will lead Xaxis’ global operations and will focus on accelerating Xaxis’ journey to become an artificial intelligence (AI) and data science first company. Responsible for technology platforms, partnerships, operations and process excellence, Sparry will work to maximise synergies across Xaxis’ 47 markets, as well as across the wider group, including GroupM and WPP.

“I’m excited to take on my new responsibilities at Xaxis at such a momentous time of change. I look forward to continuing to work closely with Nicolas and the talented Xaxis teams around the world to further transform the business into an AI and data first company, that equips its people with the capabilities and know-how to deliver the very best outcomes for our clients over the next decade and long into the future,” she said, regarding her appointment.

She will report to Nicolas Bidon, global CEO at Xaxis, who commented that Sparry has a proven track record of driving transformative initiatives, adding that they could not think of anyone better to help the company continue their 10-year journey of innovation and growth.

“As programmatic advertising continues to conquer new channels like audio, TV or out of home, marketers are looking for globally scaled specialists that can help them accelerate their own digital transformation and growth. To help our clients seize the opportunities presented by this ever changing and complex ecosystem, it is more important than ever for Xaxis to have a strong global operational leader who can drive operational excellence and innovation across the globe,” Bidon stated.

Xaxis’s presence in Asia has been evident, with the recent appointment of Aravind Menon as managing director of Xaxis in Malaysia, as well as working with Singapore-based proptech Really for programmatic advertising.

Singapore – Media company Verizon Media has announced the promotion of former director of content Simon Wheeler as the company’s senior director of content, therefore ramping up the company’s remit in Southeast Asia and India following the success of its Australian-based media brands.

Through his new role, Wheeler will be responsible for editorial strategy in English-language regions including Australia, India, and Southeast Asia. Editorial teams in India and across Southeast Asia will now report to Wheeler under the new structure. 

Prior to his new role, Wheeler has led the editorial strategy in Australia, managing teams to deliver quality content, diversify audiences, and achieve substantial growth. 

According to the company, Australian monthly active users across its editorial brands Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Lifestyle, Yahoo News and Yahoo Sport grew by 8% last year, and logged-in users increasing by 7%.

Commenting on his promotion, Wheeler said, “This is a really exciting time for Verizon Media as we band together with international teams to deliver quality content for our audiences across the wider APAC region. 2020 presented difficult and unexpected challenges for all but we overcame and adapted to interact with our audiences in new ways. I’m excited to be taking on this new role and working closer with our regional counterparts.”

Meanwhile, Marie-Hélène Savard, vice president and head of international consumer at Verizon Media, commented, “We’re thrilled to announce Simon’s promotion to this new role. Having proven success in diversifying and growing audiences over the past few years in Australia, we’re excited to see his expertise in play across the wider region. This new structure will better align our editorial strategy across wider APAC and enable our editorial teams to continue to deliver fantastic content and results for our audiences.” 

Singapore – San Francisco-based adtech PubMatic and New York-based adtech MediaMath have announced a new partnership in bringing MediaMath’s fully accountable, addressable supply chain known as SOURCE across PubMatic’s extensive publisher network in Southeast Asia..

MediaMath’s SOURCE allows brands to manage programmatic advertising launched by advertisers online accounted for the sake of transparency in terms of costs, and establishing trust between publishers, adtech intermediaries, and advertisers thanks to bidirectional data sharing.

Through the new partnership, MediaMath will leverage its SOURCE offering to include more industry-leading solutions and advertising opportunities. This allows PubMatic’s participation to bring added display, mobile, and CTV inventory from a roster of premium publishers that includes Indonesian news site KLY, Indonesian media company Detik.com, app publisher LINE, Filipino media conglomerate ABS-CBN, Thai news web portal Sanook, and Indonesia media conglomerate Kompas Gramedia.

For Viktor Zawadzki, general manager for EMEA and APAC at MediaMath, their recent partnership with PubMatic speaks to a greater need for the future of the open internet, as it is “built around radical transparency and improved performance for all participants”.

“MediaMath launched SOURCE as part of a broader drive to align the industry around these imperatives. Partnerships with like-minded partners such as PubMatic, which is focused on helping publishers maximize revenue, are critical to this momentum. This partnership makes PubMatic’s high-quality ad supply available to MediaMath’s buyers and moves us a step closer to achieving our goal in APAC, and we’re delighted to be working together,” Zawadski explained.

Meanwhile, Sudipto Das, vice president of advertiser solutions for APAC at PubMatic commented, “Together with MediaMath, PubMatic is aimed at driving results for buyers and increasing revenue and opportunities for publishers. At a time when the focus is honed in on making ad spend and content investment work smarter and harder, this partnership intends to help us grow the addressable pool of marketer spend in the programmatic channel.”

Seoul, South Korea – As many companies have endured a great deal in the mid of the global pandemic, Asian Boss has announced a fundraising via GoFundMe in an effort to save the company, which has been hugely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The South Korea-based media company runs a YouTube channel of the same name and covers local stories around Asia that are deemed to be of human interest. Their video format centers on the importance of every person’s opinion in regards to current affairs.

In a YouTube video uploaded on its official YouTube channel, Stephen Park, the startup’s CEO and co-founder, stated that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Asian Boss needed to move out of their office in Seoul and cease operations brought by lack of funds.

“We were recently informed that our investors themselves went bankrupt and as a result, we’re just months away from running out of cash. We were already a small team, but we just had to make a tough decision of letting go 40% of our employees. At this rate, we’re going to have to stop all of our overseas productions as well,” Park stated.

Asian Boss has overseas correspondents in Japan, the Philippines, China, India, Thailand, and Indonesia, which cover domestic current issues in the respective countries, gathering public opinion from locals. Examples include interviewing Filipinos regarding the shutdown of the country’s major media network ABS-CBN.

He also stated that his fundraiser ‘appeal’ is to continue his vision of Asian Boss as a global community that can transform the mainstream media.

“What we need is a community. A movement. The type of movement that can fundamentally transform mainstream media to bring people together. The type of movement that can fundamentally transform mainstream media to bring people together. If you can help fund our operation, we’ll in return continue to create great content and make a bigger impact on people’s lives,” Park added, as the funds that will be collected will be used to extend the company rate by the end of this year.

As of this writing, Asian Boss has raised US$628,445 out of their target US$700,000.