Tag: Rhys Taylor

Singapore – Brand and customer experience agency VMLY&R has appointed Rhys Taylor as its new managing director for Singapore. He will be reporting to Hari Ramanathan, CEO of VMLY&R South and Southeast Asia and Japan.

In his new role, Taylor will be overseeing VMLY&R’s SG’s sales, account management, and revenue generation. 

Prior to joining VMLY&R, Taylor was managing director for Asia Pacific at marketing and advertising agency dentsu international. He also has 14 years of industry experience working in senior leadership roles at Wunderman and financial services company Saasu, amongst others.

Speaking on his appointment, Taylor said, “VMLY&R stood out because its culture is built around an attitude of innovation and connectedness; and I’m incredibly excited to get to know and work closely with everyone who has been a part of its success so far and look forward to building more with our clients in 2023.”

Meanwhile, Ramanathan also commented, “Rhys’ background in strategy and CX makes him the ideal leader to take Singapore to the next level, complementing our full suite of capability leaders, and helping us to build connected brands for our growing portfolio of clients via our cutting-edge Commerce, Experience, Technology and Creative offering,”

Taylor’s appointment is part of VMLY&R’s strategy to strengthen its regional flagship operation and emphasise its focus on commerce as the intersection point between business experience and customer experience. 

VMLY&R Singapore also launched its global commerce accelerator programme last September in partnership with the Singapore Economic Development Board.

Singapore – Merkle, the customer experience management (CXM) company of the dentsu network, has announced the completion of the integration of gyro and Merkle | DWA, for its B2B-dedicated CXM agency, Merkle B2B.

This move is part of Merkle’s continuing realignment of its portfolio of B2B agencies into Merkle B2B. Since the launch of Merkle B2B in September 2020, Merkle | DWA, Merkle’s specialist B2B media agency, and gyro, Merkle’s specialist B2B creative agency, have been transitioning over the past year with the aim to form a fully integrated and best-of-breed solution.

Merkle believes that the integration serves as a significant step towards presenting more innovative full-service growth partners for leading B2B brands.

“As the market continues to evolve, the brand alignment speaks to changing customer needs such as broader models and more integrated solutions to raise the bar on customer experiences in the B2B space,” said the company.

Dentsu acquired DWA and gyro in 2016 and 2017, respectively, forming two fifths of the full Merkle B2B group, which also includes Merkle, B2B International, and Digital Pi. Presently, in Singapore, Merkle B2B will be headed by Rhys Taylor, who has led the Asia Pacific offices of gyro since 2020.

“Following 18 months of working together and developing new solutions to meet the changing needs of our existing B2B clients, we’re excited to formalise this integration and show the market what the future of B2B marketing looks like through the Merkle B2B brand — and give our employees wider opportunities within the broader B2B group,” said Taylor.

Meanwhile, Kiaran Geen, APAC president of Merkle B2B, commented, “After nearly seven years of leading our B2B offering in the region, it is very exciting to see the full integration of Merkle | DWA and gyro expanding our capabilities and making everything simpler for clients in this rapidly changing landscape. With this move, we are bringing together our full-service offering to clients to completely transform modern customer experiences, creating personal relationships between B2B brands and people, and putting human relevance back at the centre of brand connections.”

Singapore – Dentsu’s B2B creative agency Gyro has announced a new managing director, promoting its regional head of strategy Rhys Taylor to the position.

The new leadership comes as Gyro’s B2B capabilities are merged into the recently announced B2B powerhouse of Dentsu’s data-driven marketing agency Merkle, with four more other B2B companies roped in into the collective.

Taylor was Gyro’s head of strategy for two years since 2018 where he lead the agency’s internal transformation and oversaw its client-facing strategy practice from Singapore. For the new role, he will be reporting to Gyro’s Asia-Pacific CEO Kieran Vye.

Vye said, “Coming into 2020, we were fortunate to have built a stellar team who worked tirelessly to develop new services to ensure our clients were armed with actionable plans, and access to practical resources, keeping them relevant during what turned out to be a year of unprecedented disruptions due to the pandemic.”

In his new role, Taylor will work closely with the existing leadership team which includes Yasmine Mansour, regional head of growth; Rimi Sweis, regional head of media; Francesca Babet, who heads up Singapore operations, and Christine Mills who helms ANZ operations. Together, the team will be at pole position to set the future direction of the business, and further evolve how Gyro value-adds to its client offerings.

Meanwhile, the agency’s strategy practice will be led by Uzma Atcha who joined the business earlier in the year from Singapore-based digital marketing agency Bonsey Jaden.

The new managing director said, “Uzma joined us seven days before our world plunged into lockdown due to the pandemic. Despite the challenges of remote working and isolation, [she] has won the trust of key clients and the camaraderie of her colleagues. I’m excited to see how Uzma brings her experience and ideas to lead the roll-out of Gyro’s Ignition process and Merkle B2B’s LEN5 framework.”

The Ignition Process refers to Gyros’ unique global process which is building strategy around human relevance.

Vye said that amid COVID-19 restrictions, digital adoption, or even the generational changes in the workplace, the agency was able to help clients adjust to such challenges.

“With the leadership team in place, coupled with the launch of Merkle B2B, we are set on redefining what modern marketing looks like in 2021 and beyond,” he said.

The latest to join Gyro’s client roll is global network infrastructure provider CommScope with recent projects for clients Mastercard, Magento Commerce, and Marketo Engage, among others.