SpirkovskiCOLCreative innovation agency iris Sydney has appointed Mike Spirkovski, most recently creative director at Droga5 Sydney, as its new executive creative director (ECD). Spirkovski will take up the newly created ECD role in August.

He will report in to regional CEO for iris Asia Pacific, Luke Nathans, who confirms the appointment is part of an ongoing move to bolster its management team as it prepares for more growth and creative success in the Australian market. The agency’s current clients include Shell, Adidas, The City of Sydney and Diageo.

Spirkovski has collected more than 100 awards including a rare Titanium, and back-to-back Gold, Silver and Bronze Lions at Cannes in his career. He is the co-creator of the Earth Hour initiative, which was cited in the Gunn report as ‘the best 360 campaign ever’. Prior to joining Droga5 in 2011 where he helped grow the agency to win accounts such as Woolworths and Qantas, he led Clemenger BBDOSydney as joint ECD from 2009 to 2011, where he added AUS$120 million in new business by bringing on board new clients Virgin, Hungry Jacks and Foxtel.

iris is an award-winning global creative innovation network that creates participation brands - brands that consumers want to be a part of; brands that are capable of outperforming their competitors in every category – and has over 400 staff in the APAC region, with new offices recently opening in Indonesia and Dubai.


tripadvTripAdvisor announced the appointment of Desiree Fish to the position of vice president, global communications. Fish will be responsible for leading TripAdvisor’s communications efforts in markets worldwide and will report to the chief marketing officer, Barbara Messing.

Fish spent the past 13 years of her career at American Express where she most recently held the position of vice president, corporate affairs and communications. While at American Express, Fish was responsible for external communications for the American Express consumer services business including leading PR activities for the company’s consumer charge cards, lending and co-brand cards, as well as its loyalty program and travel business.

Since joining American Express in 2000, Fish led a number of highly visible public relations programs, including the launch of more than a dozen American Express cards and benefits. She helped create and promote signature brand projects and social media-based campaigns such as the Members Project, and the philanthropic program, Partners in Preservation. Fish also helped position American Express as a leader in the rewards and premium product markets through strategic and proactive media campaigns for the Membership Rewards program and American Express Platinum and Centurion Cards. During the recession, Fish led the company’s communications campaign positioning the American Express charge card as “the smarter way to pay,” which successfully addressed consumers’ interest in reducing debt.

Prior to joining American Express, Fish was an account supervisor with Hunter Public Relations, a New York-Based agency, where she developed and managed media relations programs and events for a number of large companies including Campbell’s Soup. She holds a B.S. in Journalism from the University of Kansas with a focus on Business Communications.

Fish will be based in TripAdvisor’s New York City office in SoHo.


taylor1

Taylor Vinters’ Asia practice announced that Lydia Johnston has joined its Singapore office as an Associate. Lydia is a highly experienced IT, Outsourcing and Corporate lawyer having practised at Mallesons in Hong Kong and most recently as corporate counsel with Vodafone.

 

Taylor Vinters is an international law firm with offices in Singapore, London and Cambridge, specialising in technology, investment and private client work. The firm offers a full range of corporate and commercial services, including M&A, contract advisory and negotiation support, regulatory compliance support and international data privacy advice.


Francis_Fong_Standing_copyFrancis Fong has been appointed Managing Director of SAS Singapore. In his new role, Fong will be responsible for leading the team as well as setting and managing the company’s strategy and investments in the country.

He will work closely with public and private companies as well as SAS’ customers and partners to help them achieve maximum return-of-investments through business intelligence and analytics (BIA), besides grooming the next generation of BIA talents through academic and government collaborations

SAS will enter their 30th anniversary of operations in Singapore this year and the company achieved record global revenue of $2.87 billion in 2012, up 5.4 percent over 2011

Fong joins SAS after 25 years with IBM in leadership roles, covering sales and marketing, services and client management. Most recently, he has been a Director with Global Technology Services for IBM ASEAN.

Fong holds a MBA and Bachelor Degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the National University of Singapore (NUS).


Publicis Groupe is making a $15 million strategic investment in Jana Mobile, the global company that rewards consumer action in emerging markets such as Brazil, India, Indonesia and Nigeria.

Mr-Maurice-LevyThis is the first direct investment Publicis Groupe has made in a mobile technology start-up, and as part of the $15 million investment, Publicis Groupe Charmain and CEO Maurice Lévy will join Jana’s Board of Directors.

Rishad Tobaccowala, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer of VivaKi, will join Jana’s Board of Advisors and leads the Ventures practice that will orchestrate the introduction of Jana across all Publicis Groupe agencies to drive adoption and scale.

Clients can also target offers to Jana’s membership, which is amassed through a consumer-facing platform called mCent. In exchange for participating in an rishadoffer, such as filling out a survey or purchasing a product, members are rewarded with mobile airtime. Over the past six months, mCent membership has exploded, with more than six million opt-in members registered and over a million new emerging market consumers joining every month.

The Publicis Groupe’s strategic investment brings Jana’s total capital raised to approximately $25 million from investors including Todd Dagres (Spark Capital), Rohini Chakravarty (NEA), Jon Miller (AOL / News Corp), Paul Sagan (Akamai) and Esther Dyson.

Based in Boston, Jana has built the world's largest rewards platform in the fastest-growing markets, where mobile airtime is often viewed as equivalent to cash. By integrating into the billing systems of 237mobile operators in 102 countries, Jana can instantly reward 3.48 billion emerging market consumers with prepaid airtime in local currency.


Anne_BolognaTripAdvisor, the world’s largest travel site, announced the appointment of Anne Bologna to the position of vice president, brand strategy. In the new global role, Bologna will lead TripAdvisor’s brand vision efforts along with television and offline advertising and will report to the chief marketing officer, Barbara Messing.

Bologna was previously the managing director at MDC Partners in New York City, where she was responsible for a portfolio of companies that included advertising, branding and research agencies. Bologna has marketing experience working on some the world’s top brands, including Starbucks, Virgin, Pepsi, Amazon Kindle and Citibank.

Prior to joining MDC, Bologna was a founding partner and CEO of independent advertising agency Toy. One of the agency’s most celebrated campaigns, “Elf Yourself” for OfficeMax, achieved unique notoriety when it spread virally to reach 200 million people in less than six weeks. Before founding Toy, Anne spent much of her 25 years in the advertising business at Fallon, including serving as the president of their New York office.

Anne has been featured in Fast Company, co-hosted “Ad Fight,” a reality show pilot for NBC's Oxygen Network, and in 2008, was named a “Woman to Watch” by Advertising Age. She is a guest lecturer at Columbia University and one of a group of industry leaders who co-authored the book, “The 22 Immutable Laws of Advertising and How to Break Them.” In 2009, Anne received the “Changing the Game Award” – an honor given by Adweek and Advertising Women of New York to honor women who’ve reinvented their businesses to meet today’s challenges.

Bologna will be based in TripAdvisor’s headquarters in Newton, Massachusetts.


JeremyPaulOmnicom Media Group (OMG), Asia Pacific announced that it will merge its branded content and sponsorship unit, FUSE, with its ideation hothouse Ignition Factory under the FUSE brand, to create a one-stop shop focused on strategy and building brand assets in owned and earned platforms and integrating these with paid media. In its enhanced capacity, FUSE will be led by Jeremy Paul, previously Managing Partner of Ignition Factory.

FUSE in Asia Pacific will specialise in branded content, sponsorship, experiential, celebrity management, in-store and social media activity which attract and retain customers. Jeremy Paul, FUSE’s newly appointed lead, has a background in communications planning rooted in ideation and innovation. He joined OMG’s Ignition Factory in early 2012, having worked for McCann Erickson Japan and MEC’s Global Solutions team in London. While heading Ignition Factory, Jeremy introduced planning based in bespoke consumer purchase journeys, ensuring the right message in the right platform at the right stage, reducing media waste and driving consumer loyalty. Jeremy Paul will report to Cheuk Chiang and his appointment is effective immediately.


ITE Singapore signs multi-year partnership with CadSoft Computer and element14 Asia-Pacific that will provides training on Computer Aided Design of PCB (Printed Circuit Board) for students in Asia-Pacific. CadSoft’s award-winning software, EAGLE, is a user-friendly, powerful and affordable tool for PCB design, and has been used by design engineers worldwide for 25 years.

element14, a distributor of technology products and solutions for electronic system design, maintenance and repair, and CadSoft Computer will work with ITE on developing the curriculum for PCB design that supports ITE’s Electronics courses, including Schematics Capture, Components of Library Creation, PCB Routing among others.

As part of the agreement, ITE will establish a CadSoft-element 14 EAGLE Training Centre at ITE College West. This training centre will be used to provide training in the use of the CadSoft EAGLE software for both ITE students and industry professionals. CadSoft will supply the necessary licenses and technical support for the training sessions. Through the training, students will learn to work with the EAGLE software on multiple projects before entering a professional career in electronics design.


JuliettePassKit, the world leading company powering Passbook, announced the recent hire of Juliette Gimenez as Senior Vice President, International. Juliette will be leading the company's global expansion, sales team, and driving revenue, product strategy, as well as general management responsibilities. Her appointment comes exactly 1 year after PassKit was born; the day Apple announced Passbook.

Juliette comes to PassKit with over 9 years of experience in developing and managing multi-country sales teams, marketing and business development, consultancy within the Internet & Technology industry and Investment Banking in London and Asia.

As the former Director of Sales, Asia at LivingSocial, the Washington D.C. based international daily deals company, Juliette has played a key role in strategic sales planning & execution as well as dramatically scaling products and services revenue for its Korea & South East Asia business. Prior to that, Juliette served as the Vice President of uBuyiBuy, the leading HK-based daily deal startup, which was subsequently acquired by Groupon, Inc. At Groupon HK, she was instrumental in growing its core daily deals business and expanding its product offering to both travel & retail sectors, helped growing the company’s revenue over 1100% within 1 year. Groupon Inc went officially public in Nov 2011.

Juliette holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics at University of Bath and she has lived and worked in 6 countries.


vinod_kumar1Vinod Kumar, Managing Director and CEO of Tata Communications has been named CEO of the Year at the recently held Asian Communication Awards. The Awards recognise the achievements of Asian telecoms companies and the individuals responsible for the innovations, achievements and new services that are helping build tomorrow’s industries.

Vinod was declared the winner following a public vote by readers of Total Telecom, taking a clear majority.

The CEO of the Year covers the period October 1st, 2011 to February 28th, 2013. The judging panel consisting of industry influencers drew up a short list of 10, which was then put to the public vote with over 5,700 votes cast.


Mila_ColladoPHD Singapore has appointed Mila Collado as Senior Director on the Unilever Global Communications Planning account. In her new role, Collado will lead strategy for brands in hair and beauty care with a focus on account management, strategy development and building a stronger product for Unilever. Collado joins a 10-member team set up to manage Unilever’s global communications planning account out of Singapore, one of the two hubs for servicing the business, the other being a 30-member strong team in the UK.

Collado has over 10 years of media experience, leading large international accounts with a focus on the FMCG sector. Prior to PHD, Collado was with Starcom Media Vest China as Associate Planning Director on another big FMCG account. Working across 4 markets – Philippines, Dubai, China, Singapore – Collado has worked with the Vivaki group for close to a decade, building her expertise in account management, development, and delivering award winning campaigns.

Mila’s appointment is effective immediately and she reports to Marie Gruy.


goh-shu-fenMs Goh Shu Fen, Co-founder and principal of R3, Asia Pacific’s leading and largest independent marketing consultancy (with offices in Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New York and Chicago), has been elected as the new President of the Institute Of Advertising Singapore (IAS).

Shu Fen was elected at the recent IAS annual general meeting held on 4 July. She will be taking over the helm from Terry O’Connor, who has stepped down after two years in the position. Terry will remain as senior advisor to the council.

IAS NEW COUNCIL MEMBERS 2013/2014

President: Goh Shu Fen, Co-Founder & Principal, R3

Vice Presidents: Wong Mei Wai, Head of Marketing, Asia Pacific Breweries, Vietnam & Lynette Ang, Senior Vice President and Head, Strategic Marketing and Communications, NTUC Income Insurance Co-operatives Ltd

Hon. Secretary: Jacqui Lim, General Manager, ZenithOptimedia

Hon Treasurer: Alrick Dorett, Chief Operating Officer, TBWA

Members:

1. Alan Fairnington, Managing Partner, Duxton Consulting

2. Alvin Neo, Chief Marketing Officer, Parkway Healthcare International

3. Ben Lightfoot, Chief Executive Officer, McCann Worldgroup

4. Fiona Gordon, Chairman, Ogilvy & Mather

5. John Hadfield, Chief Executive Officer, BBH Asia Pacific

6. Vernon Vasu, ex Director, Marketing & Communications, Health Promotion Board

Co-opt Members

1. Jeslyn Tan, General Manager, SMRT Media

2. Jimmy Yar, Director, Talent Development, DDB Singapore

3. Leela Nair, Managing Director, MindShare

4. Rene De Monchy, Head of Marketing, Asia Pacific Breweries

5. Ryan Lim, Business Director, Blugrapes

IAS was founded in 1990 with the aim to position Singapore as an internationally recognised “centre of excellence” with world class advertising professionals, international best practices and industry leading creative output. The IAS has several highly successful business platforms for the advertising and marketing communities to meet, collaborate and raise the standards of the industry as well as encourage continuous education.

IAS achieved international accolade conceiving and organizing the inaugural World Effie Festival (WEF) and the Asia Pacific Effie Awards, and has recently celebrated the 10th Singapore EFFIES with record success. In recognition of the people behind the work, the IAS has been organizing the year end Singapore Hall Of Fame Awards since 1998. Acknowledging the increasing importance of Singapore as a hub in the region for marketing and creativity, APPIES was conceived as a two day regional congress for marketers to exchange and share the 100 of the region’s best success stories, assessed by the region’s top 25 regional marketers.


docodcDocDoc Pte. Ltd., a digital healthcare portal for Asia, appointed Juergen Specht to Chief Technology Officer based out of the company's global headquarters in Singapore. Specht's ambitious mission is to create a highly scalable healthcare platform to serve 500 million people living in South East Asia

The technical accomplishments of Mr. Specht span decades and he is known as a visionary who worked in various industries including travel, software, fashion, consulting, photography, ISPs, advertising, mobile and now healthcare. Mr. Specht has led over 200 successful web and mobile launches since 1993 and about 40.000 international companies use API's developed by him.

DocDoc recently joined forces with DoctorPage to create a combined company ideally positioned to drive more patients to doctors, deliver a better experience for patients and enhance services for its doctors. DocDoc already dominates the Singapore market, has a substantive foothold in South Korea, and plans to expand operations into three new countries by end of 2013.


jawbone-logo-displayJawbone, a San Francisco based consumer electronics company, has engaged Bite for strategic counsel and public relations support for the Asia Pacific launch of UP®, a revolutionary wristband and app system that helps users discover and learn things about themselves and their lifestyles.

Utilizing sensors in the wristband, the technology of smartphones, and data in the cloud, UP® helps users take a holistic approach to a healthy lifestyle by illustrating the interconnectedness of user’s sleeping patterns, diet, movement and feelings.

Through a comprehensive media relations program, Bite will collaborate with Jawbone to generate positive awareness for UP, while growing Jawbone’s brand equity in Hong Kong, China, Singapore and Australia.

Jawbone has previously worked with Bite to successfully launch Jawbone’s multiple industry-defining audio devices across Asia Pacific, including its award-winning Jawbone ERA®, and ICON™ Bluetooth® headsets, and best-selling JAMBOX® and BIG JAMBOX® wireless speakers. As Jawbone enters a new sector of human-centered wearable technology, Bite will leverage its experience with the brand and industry to ensure the avant-garde wristband is at the forefront of consumers’ minds.


sunitaSunita Kaur, who helped lead social network Facebook’s charge into Asia, is joining Spotify to head up the region as the music service continues its growth across the continent.

As Spotify’s Director for Asia, Sunita will drive the strategic direction for the company across the region following the music service’s launch in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia this April.

Sunita’s responsibilities will include overseeing Spotify’s expansion across Asia, as well as managing the region’s sales division.

With over 17 years’ experience in the industry, including print stints at Time Warner and Singapore Press Holdings, Sunita was Associate Director, Singapore and International Accounts at Microsoft Advertising before moving to Facebook as Director, Asia, in 2010.

Sunita will be based in Spotify’s Singapore office.


Bradley_Young_1Omnicom Media Group (OMG) has appointed Bradley Dowding-Young as Business Director on the group’s mobile marketing brand, Airwave.

Airwave is a full service mobile agency, offering a suite of mobile services including media planning and buying, analytics, consultancy and creative and production expertise, with its regional hub based out of Singapore.

In his new role, Young will be responsible for leading OMG’s mobile product in Hong Kong with a focus on delivery of cutting-edge mobile solutions.

Young joins Omnicom Media Group from Guardian News and Media in the UK, where he held the post of Mobile Advertising Specialist, responsible for planning and strategy for clients across Guardian’s mobile properties. His appointment is effective immediately and he reports to Mark Halliday.


Helen_WalkerHelen Walker has been promoted to the Sydney Head of OMD Fuse, OMD’s Brand and Content Engagement Team. Formerly Group Communications Director for Fuse; Walker will lead a team of 11 Brand and Engagement Specialists including OMD Word, OMD’s Social Media Division.

Walker has over 10 years of experience working across agencies in the UK and Australia. Her work for Nintendo at MEC London received numerous accolades including Gold in the Media Week Awards 2011, as well as wins at the Hollies Sponsorship Awards and Campaign Media Awards. Walker was also recognised in UK Media Weeks ‘30 Under 30’.

Since joining OMD Sydney in 2011, Walker has been charged with overseeing the Branded Content and Sponsorship campaigns for McDonald’s, including the ‘It’s a Knockout’ campaign which was recognised at last year’s Festival of Media Asia, and the Media Federation Award’s.

Her latest promotion is testament to the strength of her performance over the last two years. Walker’s new role will see her driving increased innovation for our clients, maximising their investments with deeper consumer engagement at every touch-point.

Walker, will be taking over from Joanne Liddell who has led the Sydney Fuse Team for the last 3 years. Liddell has been instrumental in driving some of the team’s most innovative work including two Cannes Lions wins for Fantastic Noodles - Pimp my Kettle and McDonald’s Sponsorship of Australian Idol. Liddell is leaving with OMD’s gratitude and best wishes. Liddell’s new role will be announced in the coming days.

Helen Walker will report into Mark Jarrett, Managing Director OMD Sydney, and her promotion is effective 1st August 2013.


clickTRUE, an online consulting firm specialising in Search and Conversion strategies to help brand owners strategise, design and build compelling web experiences announced today that the company has raised a 7-figured sum in venture capital funding led by Rockstead Capital Group and ESW Manage.

clickTRUE has grown exponentially over the last 3 years with more than 400% growth in its revenue, making it one of the fastest growing independent digital agency groups in Southeast Asia.

Known for its efforts to grow itself as a reliable consultancy that provide clients with sound and practical advice in their digital executions in Search and Conversions, clickTRUE maintains that whilst looking to expand, partner and clients remain their top priority as they continue to progress, innovate and better their performance marketing strategies.

With more than 100 million clicks optimised across industry sectors, clickTRUE is looking at aggregating more click data across the Southeast Asia region with the latest investment.

"Our vision remains the same; our aim is to build the largest digital agency network in Southeast.Asia. We are constantly collecting click data gleaned from running campaigns for our clients. This has helped us to identify seasonal trends and jumpstart our clients' next campaign to increase their marketing efficiency. Ultimately, they must benefit from our insights," said Jackie Lee, CEO of clickTRUE.

clickTRUE is privately held by Kyosei Ventures which is an associate of the Singapore Press Holdings.