Tag: Wunderman Thompson

Singapore – Wunderman Thompson has announced three new key appointments across its technology and content teams across Asia-Pacific. They include Hasan Hasnie as chief technology officer, Geoff Smeaton as head of technology, and Nicholas Yeam as head of content.

Hasnie was recently the managing director at Accenture Song, and has spent 19 years with the company serving roles in digital and technology consulting. In his new role at Wunderman Thompson, he will work closely with clients as a strategic partner helping enable growth in their organisation, as well as focusing on deepening the agency’s current technology capability set.

“I am very happy to be joining Wunderman Thompson at this juncture of our growth journey. I hope to truly immerse myself in the exciting world of advertising, relying upon my experience of commerce and marketing technology delivery in a scaled and distributed fashion. We have amazing clients in diverse industries, and I hope to learn a lot from them as well as my talented and experienced colleagues at Wunderman Thompson,” he said.

Meanwhile, Smeaton still retains his role as chief technology officer for Australia as part of his expanded role. He has extensive experience providing technical and architectural leadership on highly complex projects with varying scales of size and complexity. 

“Being able to help our markets deliver world class technology solutions for clients across APAC is a fantastic challenge and opportunity for me to be taking on, alongside our fantastic team of leaders and practitioners all through the region,” he stated.

Lastly, Yeam previously led the production and operations as executive producer at Huge and spent time at Media.Monks and Hogarth Worldwide. In his new role, he will continue to drive growth for the agency’s studio by delivering content solutions and operations for clients – bridging the gap between inspiration and execution for brands.

He commented, “It’s an exciting time to be joining the team, as we’re observing a period of transformation in the content landscape. There’s an ever-growing demand for scale, efficiency, and quality, and I’m confident that Wunderman Thompson’s borderless approach to production excellence will allow us to continue to meet and exceed the needs of our clients.”

Wunderman Thompson recently announced the appointment of Emily Chang as CEO of West Coast region, as well as the appointment of a new chief growth officer and chief client officer for South Asia

New York – To strengthen its status as one of the few significant agencies on the West Coast, marketing communications agency Wunderman Thompson has appointed Emily Chang as its chief executive officer for West Coast region to lead its offices in LA, Seattle, as well as the Swift boutique agency in Portland.

Chang’s remit also includes overseeing the region’s growing client portfolio including technology companies Microsoft, T-Mobile, Qualcomm, Venmo, Snap, and major automotive brands and DTC companies whilst leveraging Swift boutique agency’s creative and social media expertise.

Prior to joining Wunderman Thompson, Chang also held the CEO position at McCann Worldgroup in China where she restructured the leadership team and developed new strategic and digital capabilities to grow its revenue. 

On the brand side, Chang served as CMO at Starbucks China, chief commercial officer at InterContinental Hotels Group, and was the first executive in China for Apple Retail.

Audrey Melofchik, CEO at Wunderman Thompson North America describes Chang as a powerhouse leader who will bring people together to deliver inspiring brand stories along with her expertise across the marketing ecosystem.

Chang added, “I’ve watched Wunderman Thompson’s build its reputation as the authority on inspiration and look forward to tapping into this insight and adding inspiration of my own when it comes to our clients and culture.”

This month, Wunderman Thompson has also appointed Raji Ramaswamy as chief growth officer and Joy Chauhan as chief client officer for South Asia. 

India – With its commitment to maintaining growth and maximising business outcomes for clients, marketing communications agency Wunderman Thompson South Asia has promoted Raji Ramaswamy as its chief growth officer and Joy Chauhan as its chief client officer. They will report to Shams Jasani, chief executive officer at Wunderman Thompson South Asia. 

Ramaswamy will retain her CEO role at Contract India, Wunderman Thompson India’s group company and Chauhan will simultaneously work as a managing partner of Wunderman Thompson in Delhi.

In their new role, Ramaswamy and Chauhan will lead strategic growth for the group, focusing on new business and key clients across the region. They will also oversee client retention and business development, nurture teams of talent and drive strategic growth initiatives including the development of new client services and capabilities.

Ramaswamy brings with her over 25 years of experience in marketing and brand management. During her stint in Contract India, she maintained its vision to create the most integrated agency model for the future with a seamless multi-dimensional structure. 

Meanwhile, Chauhan brings with him experience in managing people across multiple business units. In his stint at Wunderman Thompson Delhi, he was responsible for driving the growth of the agency’s brands, people and business.

CEO Jasani said that Ramaswamy and Chauhan’s appointments come at a perfect timing when the agency can drive good impact for clients and business whilst delivering transformational work that builds Wunderman’s capabilities in creative, data, tech, and commerce.

“With India as one of our fastest growing markets and being uniquely poised to provide integrated solutions to our clients, we are on an ambitious growth trajectory with Raji and Joy as enablers to chart the best course for the next growth phase,” Jasani added.

This month, Wunderman Thompson also elevated Gavin Bain as its chief executive officer for Australia.

India – Indian stationery brand, Linc, has released its new illustration-based ads for one of its most popular products, the Deli Highlighter. The ads were made in collaboration with marketing communications agency Wunderman Thompson.

The two spots featured bird’s eye view illustrations of Kumbh Mela, the world’s largest gathering of devotees, and Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum, to emphasise how the product “makes one stand out in a large crowd.”

Speaking about the campaign, Deepak Jalan, managing director at Linc Pens, said, “Linc, as a company has always stood for uniqueness, both in the way it designs its products, and the way it reaches out to its consumers.”

He added, “These stunning illustration-based ads for Deli Highlighter is yet another such campaign to create [top-of-mind] awareness of the brand, in a creative way.”

Arjun Mukherjee, executive creative director and vice president at Wunderman Thompson Kolkata, also pointed out, “To demonstrate how easy it is to spot anything using this highlighter, the need was to show overcrowding of epic proportions.”

He also said that while Kumbh Mela and Dharavi were obvious picks, the challenge was to recreate an ‘unimaginable hustle, bustle and chaos’ as the canvas for the ads through detailed illustrations and crafting.

Soumya Chowdhury, VP and CSD of client servicing at Wunderman Thompson Kolkata added, “We have been partnering Linc Limited for quite some time and creating clutter-breaking communication for them. This time, the particular product needed something extraordinary to ‘highlight’ its benefit in a simple, impactful way, and make consumers take notice.”

Last month, Wunderman Thompson has also collaborated with Australia-based frozen food brand Birds Eye to launch the brand platform ‘An Eye For Good’ to showcase the sustainable work they do in order to bring high-quality food products to its consumers.

Singapore – Wunderman Thompson has announced the expansion of Magpie, its own peer-to-peer mentoring app for women, across Asia-Pacific. This follows after the launch of said app in the United Kingdom during International Women’s Day.

Said app aims to empower and connect women across the business using a matchmaking style app based on each individual mentor’s expertise and knowledge. 

Complimenting longer-term mentoring schemes available in the industry, Magpie connects women for peer mentorship on specific/individual needs, featuring 15 themes ranging from maternity and motherhood, leadership, building your personal brand, and managing stress.

Originally launched in the UK on International Women’s Day in 2022, the app was created by RISE, Wunderman Thompson UK’s women’s network, and was born from a desire to create a self-serve platform to form connections and support Wunderman Thompson’s women who account for half of the agency’s workforce.

After a successful pilot scheme across the agency’s APAC offices, Magpie will launch the app across the region’s talent on 8th March, supporting their women’s network Ladybirds, which aims to strengthen representation and gender parity across the region through networking, mentoring, events. and knowledge sharing. 

Lindsay Shirley, chief people officer for Wunderman Thompson APAC, said, “As senior leaders, we have an obligation to mentor and support women to build their careers and thrive at Wunderman Thompson. Many women have wanted a mentor but not known where to find one, Magpie has helped us bridge that gap and we’re thankful to RISE UK for it.” 

Meanwhile, Supria Dutta, head of talent for Wunderman Thompson APAC and Ladybirds member, commented, “We are excited to bring Magpie to our region on International Women’s Day. This unique peer mentorship app has the potential to build bridges between women on all levels and potentially open doors for active sponsorship.”

Australia – Australia’s capital tourism board VisitCanberra has launched a domestic tourism campaign, together with Wunderman Thompson, to prove that Canberra is more than what people perceive it to be, giving a spotlight to many lesser-known and unique spots in the capital city whilst showcasing the charm and warmth of its people.

The campaign titled ‘There’s more than they’re telling us’, is fronted by three thirty-second clips featuring a truffle farmer and her dog walking at piallago truffle farms, a child who plays at the pod-shaped playground, and the gallery of small things featuring its owner named Anne. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg3bTXcrTtQ

Steve Hey, creative director at Wunderman Thompson, said that there’s nowhere quite like Canberra, so they needed the campaign to illustrate and showcase the unique experiences in the place.

Meanwhile, Isaac Mizrachi, senior director of marketing at VisitCanberra, said that VisitCanberra is part of an incredibly successful yet competitive domestic tourism landscape where bigger is often seen as better.

“We want to create a personality for the city by focusing on the warmth, humour and quirkiness of real-life Canberrans through whom we tell the story of the destination,” he added.

The said campaign is also an evolution of the existing ‘more than’ campaign platform to develop a unique and refreshing persona for the brand that challenges perceptions of Australia’s capital.

Other works from the campaign will be seen across OOH, digital, social, radio and TV in New South Wales, Victoria and Greater Brisbane and will be expanded internationally later this year. 

Last month, Wunderman Thompson also crafted a brand platform for food brand Birds Eye to showcase their commitment to sustainability.

Sydney, Australia – Marketing communications agency Wunderman Thompson has announced the promotion of Gavin Bain, previously national managing director of the agency’s Australian operations, to chief executive officer. The change comes as outgoing Australia CEO, Matt Parry, moves to Hong Kong as WPP team Helix Business Lead for HSBC in Asia-Pacific.

In the new role, Bain will spearhead the continued evolution of the agency’s Australian business through creativity, consulting, and technology capabilities to drive broader organisational impact for clients. 

Bain will also bring with him over 30 years of experience in the marketing and advertising industry to the role, having worked in senior client roles at Bankwest and Adelaide Bank, as well as executive agency roles at Marketforce and independent agency Meerkats, where he was CEO for over 10 years. 

Speaking about his new appointment, Bain commented, “I’m thrilled to be taking on this new role and lead such a talented team as we continue to drive further growth and greater impact for our clients.”

He added, “The strong brand and communications approach we’re known for has been strengthened with key capabilities, including business transformation, EX, CX, strategic design, technology, data, and commerce, all connected to help grow the ambitious brands we partner with.”

He likewise wished for Parry’s success in moving into the new role. 

Meanwhile, Parry will lead WPP’s team Helix for HSBC APAC, one of the group’s key global clients, and will relocate to be based in Hong Kong. Before his move to Sydney, Parry was managing director of Wunderman Thompson Hong Kong, growing the agency to be one of the strongest in the market. 

“Wunderman Thompson will continue to grow from strength to strength under Gavin’s brilliant leadership and the team of outstanding individuals that make up the business in Australia. I’m proud of what this group has already achieved, and what is sure to come for them,” said Parry on the new appointments. 

Bain and Parry’s new roles will be effective immediately.

This follows Wunderman Thompson’s leadership appointment spree, including Shailesh Iyer’s appointment to the agency as chief strategy officer for Singapore.

Singapore – Wunderman Thompson has announced the appointment of Shailesh Iyer as its new chief strategy officer for Singapore where he will be working with the agency’s Unilever brands as well as the agency’s partnerships with brands HSBC and J&J, amongst others.

Iyer brings with him a strong leadership experience in integration-driven strategic approaches across a multitude of categories and clients. He was previously with public relations company Publicis Groupe Indonesia as chief strategy officer where he led the strategy practice across creative and digital, working across the three markets of Singapore, UAE and Indonesia.

Furthermore, Iyer has also worked on various global brands such as McDonald’s, Oreo, Cadbury, KraftHeinz, Samsung, Nestle, Coca-Cola, SK-II, Tide, IKEA, HSBC, Citibank and more.

Nimesh Desai, chief executive officer of Wunderman Thompson Singapore, said that they were thrilled to have Iyer in their team knowing of his proven expertise in strategies, bringing a creative and grounded human approach to the agency.

Meanwhile, Iyer commented, “I am super excited to be a part of the Wunderman Thompson family. The agency has everything it takes for the next phase of how the industry evolves. The right leadership, right skillsets and the right vision to help us create meaningful work that inspires growth for us and our ambitious clients.”

Earlier this month, Wunderman Thompson also announced other leadership appointments including KJ Lee as managing director for South Korea and Richa Dholi as VP for strategy planning for India.

Perth, Australia – Western Power, Western Australia’s electricity network operator, has cooked up a new campaign to further promote its safety hotline for electrical hazards. In partnership with creative agency Wunderman Thompson, the company puts forth advertorial shorts with an understated but no less engaging narrative. 

Anyone can always call an expert to make sure electricity lines and cables within one’s vicinity are in tip-top shape but that doesn’t mean civilians aren’t able to do their part via small acts. This is the message in Western Power’s campaign where every vigilant and pre-cautionary measure is a valuable one. 

Then it makes the assertion—it still won’t hurt to pick up the phone and give the network operator a call for any imminent danger. 

The agency’s Creative Lead Tim Newton said it took a very talented group of people to bring the brief from strategy through to final production.

The main ad subtly moves from one juxtaposition to another. One frame shows contractors laying cables on the ground, but a woman – ‘Sue’ – doesn’t need to be doing the same thing, rather, can help by simply staying away from the lines overhead. 

Meanwhile, ‘Mario’ doesn’t have to be up in a helicopter to wash power lines; he only needs to get branches off them. 

“The result is an unexpectedly fun take on an important safety message that honours the success of our previous Make the Safe Call campaign. It was a pleasure to work alongside Western Power and our production partners to bring it to life,” said Newton. 

Western Power has been previously promoting its emergency line service through the ‘Make the Safe’ Call campaign. Past ads, similarly done by Wunderman Thompson, inject the same jovial but subtle kick on magnifying simple, everyday acts and making the message that one person can always add to both the safety and hazard of power lines. 

The first portion of the integrated campaign launches on TV, OLV, Digital, and OOH. The agency shared that further content based on the three eager characters – Sue, Mario, and Karim – will be unveiled throughout the year. 

Australia – Australia-based frozen food brand Birds Eye has launched a new brand platform titled ‘An Eye For Good’ to showcase the sustainable work they do in order to bring high-quality food products to its consumers.

In collaboration with Wunderman Thompson, the brand platform comes with a 30-second video that shows ways of gathering natural resources, including pair of hands moving to cultivate the land, representing the activities done on a farm.

The video also shows ploughing rows of soil with a fork and using a seed silo like a pepper shaker – situations that are paralleled to how consumers prepare their meals at home, consuming the products that came from nature.

Katie Saunders, general manager marketing at Simplot, an agribusiness company behind Birds Eye, says that the brand platform is an opportunity to communicate about the actions it undertakes to build a more sustainable future.

Melanie Wiese, chief strategy officer at Wunderman Thompson, said that they loved helping Birds Eye due to its important contribution to Australia’s farms and consumers as well.

Lastly, João Braga, chief creative officer at Wunderman Thompson, added, “We wanted to show Aussies that Birds Eye put the same care into growing our food as they do into cooking theirs – and then bring it to life with an execution that felt as wholesome as a Birds Eye home-cooked dinner.”

Other works from the campaign will be seen on various platforms such as OOH, print, social, and television.