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arshanXaxis the world’s largest programmatic media and technology platform, announced the promotion of Arshan Saha to President, Asia Pacific (APAC). Saha was previously Vice President, South and Southeast Asia. As one of the founding members of Xaxis APAC, Saha helped establish offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and India.

Over the last 4.5 years at Xaxis, Arshan’s leadership included full charge of all seven markets’ P&Ls, as well as growing the businesses 20-fold within a short span of three years. Prior to joining Xaxis in 2012, Arshan served as Regional Director for Southeast Asia at Innity Corp. where he played a critical role in establishing the company as the leading media network in the region. Arshan’s portfolio included over 300 clients across multiple industries, an array of large to mid-sized publishers, as well as technology vendors across APAC, driving best-in-class -advertising technology and innovation.


SpeedCast International Limited, a leading global satellite communications and network service provider, announced the appointment of David Kagan to the position of Chief Operating Officer (COO) reporting to Chief Executive Officer Pierre-Jean Beylier.

Kagan comes to SpeedCast from Globalstar, where he served as President and COO. Uniquely qualified as a result of his extensive industry experience, Kagan previously held C-level executive positions at ITC Global, Globe Wireless, Maritime Telecommunications Network (MTN), ICG Satellite Services and Norwegian Cruise Line Ltd.

As Group COO, Houston-based Kagan will assume global responsibility for supply chain, capacity management, quality, health and safety, network operations, field engineering, customer support and service implementation.

Kagan is expected to start in March 2017 and joins during a key period as integration activities with Harris CapRock accelerate following the completion of the acquisition on January 1, 2017.

A new organizational structure has recently been put in place with a focus on agility, responsiveness and world-class customer service and support. Back-end systems will soon be harmonized and employees will undergo extensive training on products and processes with the underlying objective of improving focus on our customers and intensifying organic growth.


Essence, a global digital agency, announced the promotion of Singapore-based Kunal Guha and Vincent Niou to boost the agency's APAC growth plans.

kunalGuha has been promoted to the newly-created position of Managing Director, Singapore. He was previously Client Partner and Head of Strategy for APAC at Essence. Guha joined the agency in 2014 as Strategy Director and has since risen through the ranks, contributing towards Essence's overall growth story in APAC by establishing Essence Singapore as a hub to service its regional footprint, along with rapid expansions into Tokyo, Sydney, and Delhi. In addition to leading the agency's Singapore presence, Guha will also manage Essence's Delhi operations, which launched in July 2016. He will continue to report to Kyoko Matsushita, CEO of Essence APAC.

vincent
Niou has taken on the role of Senior Programmatic and Partnerships Director, APAC
and will be charged with leading and strengthening the programmatic and partnership practices in the region. He was previously Senior Planning Director. Niou joined Essence in 2011 and has worked across disciplines including media planning, investment and programmatic in New York, San Francisco and Shanghai, and has a unique understanding of client business requirements across these markets. Niou will report directly to Guha.


The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) announce the appointment of three new members to its Board of Directors. Brad Wardman, PhD. of PayPal, Dave Piscitello of ICANN, and Pat Cain of The Cooper Cain Group have joined the APWG Board of Directors. These board members join David Jevans and Peter Cassidy to expand the board to five members, all experts and practitioners in defending against Internet crime and identity theft.

The expansion of the APWG board to include additional members, with specialist knowledge of and experience with investigating and fighting cybercrime, is recognition of the growing complexity and scale of Internet crime today and the challenges in responding to this global threat.

The new board members could not have arrived at a more portentous moment. 2016 saw an unprecedented increase in the sophistication of email phishing, targeting businesses and ransomware. Business Email Compromise (BEC) phishing, also known as CEO phishing or impostor email, is a new scheme costing companies around the world billions of dollars by targeting enterprises’ operational authorities (e.g. comptroller, administrator) and executives (e.g. CEO, CFO). Ransomware attacks are equally pernicious attacks that target every Internet user: victims of ransomware phishing email unintentionally install encrypting malware on their computers and are then coerced into paying a ransom to criminals to recover (decrypt) their data.

Recognizing its responsibilities for expanding the operational capabilities of the APWG, the institution has expanded its board of directors with sector-leading directors of global repute, influence and authority who can help guide the organization in its next stage of growth.

The new members of the Board of Directors of APWG are:

Brad Wardman, Head of Threat Intelligence at PayPal, serves as chairman of the APWG Symposium on Electronic Crime Research. Brad is deeply versed in detecting, tracking, and fighting cybercrime, with a publication record that has pioneered ground-breaking discussions on cybercrime detection and mitigation. Brad is the inventor of 7 issued security patents and has filed an additional 10 patents with the US Patent Office.

Dave Piscitello, Vice President Security and ICT Coordination at ICANN, is an Associate Fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. Mr. Piscitello has over 35 years of experience in information communications and technology, cyber security, and cybercrime investigations. At ICANN, he and his team coordinate global collaborative efforts by security, operations and law enforcement communities to mitigate Domain Name System abuse and malicious uses of Domain names for the Internet. Mr. Piscitello represents ICANN in global cybersecurity forums, including the Commonwealth Cybercrime Initiative and the OECD Security Experts Group.

Pat Cain, CEO Cooper Cain Group, is a Resident Research Fellow of the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG), and President of The Cooper-Cain Group, a Boston, Massachusetts, USA based Internet security consultancy. He has been involved in information security development and operations for over thirty years and drives APWG’s data policy initiatives. He is a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), a Certified Information System Manager (CISM) and an associate member of the American Bar Association. Mr. Cain led an effort in the IETF to standardize phishing and electronic crime reports (RFC 5901), participates in many data-sharing initiatives, has served on a United Nations identity-related crimes experts panel, and is an observer to the Cybercrime Convention Committee (T-CY) of the Council of Europe.

With more than 2,000 institutional members worldwide, APWG is regarded by industry, governments worldwide and international treaty organizations as the leading NGO fighting cybercrime. APWG holds conferences around the globe, bringing cyber-crime and security experts together to focus on new solutions to cybercrime. APWG’s directors, managers and research fellows consult with treaty organizations such as the European Commission, the G8 High Technology Crime Subgroup, Council of Europe, United Nations ODC, OSCE, Europol EC3, Commonwealth of Nations, governance bodies like the OECD, ITU and ICANN as well as national governments in all hemispheres.


TSGlobal music and entertainment platform TIDAL and Sprint announced an unprecedented partnership that will soon give Sprint's 45 million retail customers unlimited access to exclusive artist content not available anywhere else. TIDAL and its artists will make exclusive content that will only be available to current and new Sprint customers.

As part of the partnership, Sprint will acquire 33% of TIDAL. JAY Z and the artist-owners will continue to run TIDAL's artist-centric service as it pioneers and grows the direct relationship between artists and fans. The formidable pairing of Sprint and TIDAL will grow customers on both platforms by offering exclusive access for customers who subscribe to TIDAL.

Sprint's chief executive officer, Marcelo Claure, will also join TIDAL's Board of Directors.

TIDAL is a global, experiential, entertainment platform built for fans, directly from artists around the world. Members of TIDAL enjoy unmatched exclusively curated content that directly connect artists with their fans in multiple ways. TIDAL is available in more than 52 countries, with a more than 42.5 million song catalog and 140,000 high quality videos. The innovative TIDAL platform, combined with Sprint's award-winning reliable network and best value for unlimited data, talk and text, will deliver a first-of-its-kind experience for music fans.

Sprint's dedication to its customers and to artists is at the heart of the partnership. Part of that effort will include the establishment of a dedicated marketing fund specifically for artists. The fund will allow artists the flexibility to create and share their work with and for their fans.

The Sprint-TIDAL partnership comes on the heels of TIDAL's recent announcement revealing the availability of "Master" quality recordings. A wide variety of content from labels and artists, including Warner Music Group's world-renowned music catalogue, is now available in Master audio across all of TIDAL's available markets worldwide.


Local Measure, a Sydney-based social customer intelligence provider for the hotel and tourism sector, has announced it has successfully raised AU$4.5 million in capital to fuel its business growth and global expansion.

Further expanding its global footprint, Local Measure will be opening an office in Dubai later this month and another in Los Angeles later this quarter.

Tourism brands continue to wrestle with the challenge of guest loyalty amid third-party disruption and increasingly fragmented customer relationships. Local Measure helps leading hotel and tourism brands, including Singtel and the National Museum of Singapore, improve guest experiences and build customer loyalty by arming front-line staff with real-time social media intelligence.

The Company’s geo-location social intelligence product arms front-line staff with unique real-time information to help them surprise and delight guests, detect and help resolve guest problems and negative reviews before they impact a property’s reputation or performance, as well as providing data back to the brand to build loyalty among customers across the brand, and at multiple properties, in real-time.


LRG Marketing Communications, a division of MediaMax, continues to aggressively roll out new digital marketing capabilities to provide the agency’s growing list of clients with comprehensive integrated marketing solutions.

LRG’s digital marketing programs are built on the principles of inbound marketing, including a variety of effective tactics such as social media, email marketing, search engine optimization, blogging and more – fully integrated and focused on aligning relevant, high-value content with customer interests. Designed to lead potential customers to marketers, inbound marketing attracts qualified prospects to a business and keeps them coming back, ultimately leading to more sales.

Digital marketing joins LRG’s branding, public relations and general content creation capabilities as part of an overall integrated strategic marketing solution to meet clients’ specific business, sales and marketing goals. To provide the automation platform for the new effort, the agency has partnered with HubSpot to deliver the full suite of integrated digital services. LRG’s digital marketing portfolio currently includes services, like Lead Nurturing, Database Segmentation, Smart Content, Marketing Automation, and Growth-Driven Design. Furthermore, the company developed a number of resources, such as the Email Marketing Study, a whitepaper on content marketing and an e-book, to help brands stand out in 2017.


Jason Hill 2Ogilvy & Mather announced the appointment of Jason Hill as the agency’s Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) in Singapore, effective immediately.

Building on his 10 years with Ogilvy across two markets, Hill’s new role will see him leading Singapore’s strategy group across a broad range of capabilities including brand planning, customer engagement, channel, data analytics and social strategy.

Previously as O&M Singapore’s Head of Consulting & Data Analytics, Hill led teams of strategy and data specialists to combine customer insights and data analytics with creative interpretation to develop strategic solutions for some of the agency’s largest local and international clients.

Prior to his 2015 move to Singapore, Hill spent eight years in Australia as Head of Strategy at OgilvyOne Sydney, leading the strategic development of creative campaigns, CRM programs and strategic consulting projects. With over two decades of strategic marketing experience in senior agency, client and consulting roles, Hill brings substantial expertise in areas such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Value Proposition Development, Strategic Business Planning, and Data-led Communications Strategies.


Asia Pacific Effie Awards 2017 has announced 2 more Heads of Jury – Nicole McMillan and Kitty Lun, following the first announcement last week.

NicoleMcMillanNicole McMillan is the Vice-President of Marketing for the Asia-Pacific region with The Wrigley Company, a subsidiary of Mars, Inc. Based in Hong Kong, she travels frequently to key markets within the region including Australia, China, North and South East Asia and India. In addition to her VP responsibilities, she is also the Brand Strategic Lead for the Doublemint brand globally and a member of the Wrigley global marketing leadership team. Nicole has over twenty years of experience in packaged goods companies. Besides spending 15 years within various segments of Mars, she has also held senior marketing roles at the Campbell Soup Company and Fosters.

Kitty LunKitty Lun is the Head of Creative Shop, Greater China, Facebook. Kitty has vast experience in the Effies. She has been involved with the APAC Effies since 2014 and was the Jury Chair for the inaugural Positive Change Asia Pacific Effie 2016, Effie Hong Kong and Effie China. Prior to joining Facebook in January 2016, Kitty was Chairman/CEO at Lowe China for the past nine years, where she achieved tremendous business growth and led the agency to become the most awarded agency in China in 2014 and 2015. She has also worked with Leo Burnett, McCann, Euro RSCG and Arnold. One of the rare female creative talents also with agency management background, Kitty has extensive experience working in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China.

The APAC Effie is highly coveted and recognized by agencies and marketers as a prestigious and ‘must-enter’ effectiveness awards in the region. It celebrates ideas that work and honors marketing communications that have achieved the most significant results.

The remaining Heads of Jury and full jury will be announced progressively. Stay tuned for more updates via www.apaceffie.com.


Singapore-based technology company GlobalRoam Group Limited announced that it has cracked the perennial problem of business travelers – how to stay "always on", by seamlessly selecting traditional or cloud-based connection methods. According to GlobalRoam, costs of outgoing global calls can be slashed by as much as 90%.

The company has launched a calling app, 'Toku', which uses an advanced algorithm to automatically select the most cost effective option to connect a caller even if he or she is overseas – helping the traveler avoid high roaming charges. The smart-technology can detect and analyze options -- from Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Public Switched Telephone Networks (PSTN), or a hybrid of both -- to deliver the best connection which maintains high voice quality without the user having to make a decision on the connection mode.

Toku allows users to link two mobile numbers to their username -- new users can automatically detect this global identity based on either numbers previously stored in one's contact list.

Unlike most known chat applications (that offer voice calls), where both users need to have a data connection for a call to go through, Toku does not have this constraint. When offline, Toku calls will be forwarded to the selected number. If both numbers are selected, the first to pick up will take the lead.

Through GlobalRoam's patented click-to-call technology, Toku users can also receive calls via a customized personal URL (e.g. my.tokuapp.com/johnsmith). Callers do not require any prior application download. Toku is available for download on all iOS and Android smartphones.


Hitachi Data Systems announced a local strategic partnership with AvePoint, the Microsoft Cloud expert. This partnership will help Singaporean customers reduce total cost of ownership, backup time, and input/output operations per second (IOPS) requirements for Microsoft SharePoint.


DocAve Storage Manager optimizes SharePoint storage by transferring unstructured data from Microsoft SQL Servers to Hitachi Content Platform, and DocAve Archiver applies intelligent lifecycle management to data in order to fulfil requirements around information retention when audited.

To establish lifecycle management capabilities, AvePoint and Hitachi Data Systems work together through the following products:

  • Hitachi Content Platform enables organizations to properly manage, govern, protect and share data so that they can improve productivity, gain efficiency and further their transformation of IT.
  • DocAve Archiver, part of the award-winning DocAve Software Platform, enables true enterprise content lifecycle management by helping organisations reduce SharePoint storage costs, improve performance, and enhance compliance with records and information management policies.
  • DocAve Storage Manager, also a part of the DocAve Software Platform, effectively mitigates the negative consequences of exponential content growth by implementing and enforcing BLOB externalization strategies throughout SharePoint’s lifecycle.

Light Reaction, an outcomes-driven performance advertising business that is part of Xaxis, just announced the launch of operations in Hong Kong.

Light Reaction’s pay-for-performance media model provides advertisers with a risk-free way to drive real outcomes such as sales, subscriptions and other concrete forms of engagement, paying only for clearly defined consumer results. The best outcomes possible are achieved by optimizing for numerous performance factors, including optimal exposure, geography, time and device. This is in addition to locating the best-performing spot on the webpage or app for the specific campaign goal.

Light Reaction insights and methods are shared openly with clients, showing the precise route and decision-making process that led to each outcome.

Hong Kong’s launch solidifies Light Reaction’s presence in 32 markets across North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.


Terence Yeo and Allen Kam join ICONZ-Webvisions (iWV) as the new Country Sales Manager for Singapore and Malaysia respectively. Reporting directly to Group CEO Albert Wong, they will be tasked to grow the Managed Hosting business in the region.

Terence has more than 16 years of experience in the IT industry spanning across sales, business development and customer service & support management. He was most recently with Oracle Corporation Singapore as their Country Sales Director, focusing on advanced customer services and support.

Allen has close to 15 years of experience spanning across direct sales, solution strategy management and strategic business development across the Banking & Finance, IT, Professional Services and Insurance sectors. He was most recently with Ricoh as their Solution Sales head for the Application & Workplace Business Unit.

With their focus shifting to cloud and managed services, iWV is gearing to be one of the top Managed Services Provider for the SMB market. Having been recently awarded with the Multi-Tier Cloud Security (MTCS) Singapore Standard (SS) 584, which is the world's first cloud security standard that covers multiple tiers of cloud security, iWV aims to provide a watertight and highly secured cloud environment to address the security concerns faced by clients.


FRANCIS WEEOgilvy & Mather announced the appointment of one of the most awarded creative directors in Asia, Francis Wee, as Executive Creative Director of Ogilvy & Mather Advertising Singapore, effective immediately.

Wee officially joins the Singapore office following a stint working on a project basis. Previously Wee was Executive Creative Director at Ogilvy & Mather Advertising Shanghai from 2012-2014.

In his new leadership role Wee will be looking to grow clients’ businesses in new and unconventional ways. Reporting to Eugene Cheong, Chief Creative Officer of Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific and Singapore, the two will work together to drive Ogilvy Singapore’s creative agenda to produce work that makes brands matter and that has both local impact and global influence.

Wee has nearly three decades of experience in advertising in Asia. Since launching his career as a junior art director at McCann-Erickson/Singapore in 1983, he has won countless regional and international awards including Cannes Lions, Clios and One Show awards. As Creative Director for Saatchi & Saatchi/Singapore, Wee’s 1993 Anti Drink Drive TV commercial took the world by storm, sweeping every Gold award from around the globe, including the most prestigious D&AD Black Pencil. After working as Executive Creative Director of BBDO/Singapore from 2002-2006, Wee founded creative boutique agency Religion in Singapore in 2007, his last project before joining Ogilvy Shanghai in January 2012.


grey grp

Grey Group has unveiled a set of triple hires in a move to bolster its leadership core in Asia, with a special focus on Grey Group Singapore.

The trio will play an instrumental role in deepening Grey Group Singapore’s creative offerings and creative processes, as well as drive the ongoing digital transformation of the company, across the region. The senior appointments demonstrate Grey’s commitment to design a path for repositioning and expanding its services.

1. Måns Tesch comes on board in the newly created role of Chief Strategy Officer for Grey Group Asia Pacific to lead the strategy teams and set the strategic direction across the region and to oversee Grey’s continued immersion into the areas of innovation, mobile and social. The well-respected and accomplished strategic and digital veteran joins Grey from Crispin Porter + Bogusky, where he was Chief Strategy Officer for Scandinavia. He led strategy and planning in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Copenhagen, working across the entire client spectrum including; Arla, Carlsberg, Ikea, Infiniti, Scania and Sony. Earlier in his career, in 1996, he co-founded Tesch & Tesch, a pioneering creative hotshop in Stockholm which quickly established itself as one of the top digital creative agencies in Northern Europe. In 2002 they were acquired by Lowe Worldwide and became known as Lowe Tesch before merging with leading Scandinavian agency Lowe Brindfors, in 2007. Thereafter, Måns was named Global Digital Strategy Director at Lowe Worldwide and based out of London, he developed the digital efforts of the Lowe network around the world whilst working with their global clients, Nestlé, Stella Artois, Unilever and Nokia, amongst others. In 2008, Måns took on the role of Digital Strategy Director at Fallon in London before re-launching Tesch in 2010 as a strategic and creative consultancy, advising brands such as Cadbury, LVMH, Samsung, Spotify & Unilever, on how to become more relevant through innovation.

Måns joined Razorfish as Executive Strategy Director in March 2013 where he worked with names such as Argos, BlackBerry, DHL, and McDonalds and won new clients including; Beats by Dre, JP Morgan, Novartis and Spotify. This was followed by a stint at Wieden + Kennedy in London working on Samsung’s Olympic Sponsorship and the launch of Angry Birds 2.

Måns is one of the world’s most awarded strategists and has been recognized as a ‘Digital Pioneer’ by the FWA (world’s leading community for digital creativity). He has participated on numerous jury panels and is a sought-after speaker.

2. Marthinus Strydom has been appointed to the role of Global Creative Leader, Team GSK, Grey Group Singapore. He will work closely with Ali Shabaz (Chief Creative Officer, Grey Group, South East Asia) to set the overall creative direction for Grey’s GSK operations. In line with the agency’s reputation for creative excellence, he will be responsible for fostering an even-deeper culture of creativity and accelerate Team GSK’s digital transformation. Over the span of his much-lauded career, Marthinus’ work has been recognized at the D&AD, Webby, Cannes, One Show, Effies, and has been featured on the Gunn Report and other prominent industry publications. Originally from South Africa, Marthinus has called Singapore home for the past 12 years. Prior to Grey, he did a six-year stint as a Creative Director of BBH Asia Pacific (Singapore), where he led several memorable projects for the likes of Google, IKEA, UOB Bank, Chupa Chups, and Vaseline. In an earlier role as Digital Associate Creative Director at BBDO (New York), Marthinus was credited for the development of groundbreaking integrated work for A-list clients including AT&T and GE.

3. The appointments of Måns and Marthinus follow that of key senior hire, Neil Cotton, who has joined in the dual role of Global Strategy Director for GSK and Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) for Grey Group Singapore. His career has seen him collaborate with many exciting brands such as Coca Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Heineken, Audi, IBM, and Nokia, amongst others. Prior to Grey, Neil was the founder of Liberty Networks, a brand and innovation consultancy with Unilever, Infiniti, OCBC, and Channel NewsAsia amongst its clientele. An industry veteran of 27 years, he has previously held a number of senior leadership roles including; Senior Partner & Worldwide Group Planning Director (1992-2002) at Ogilvy & Mather, New York, where he worked on IBM’s fast growing software business as well as assisting the client with several big acquisitions and partnerships. Neil then went on to become the Regional Head of Planning (2002-2005) at Bates, Hong Kong (HK), and was instrumental in building the planning function and re-positioning the Bates network before it was acquired by WPP. In 2005, he joined Lowe Worldwide, HK, as the Regional Chief Strategy Officer (2005-2007) and was widely credited with bringing in the planning discipline to their Asia operations. Neil was also the founder of GMT+8 Consulting, HK/Shanghai (2007-2009), where he worked with agencies and clients to find solutions to big strategic communications problems. From 2009-2011, he took on the role of Regional Chief Strategy Officer at Young & Rubicam, Singapore, and was attributed as a key contributor in developing their planning resources. A true globetrotter and citizen of the world, he has lived across several geographies including Singapore, Hong Kong, New York, and London.


Text100, the global marketing communications agency, has announced a new leadership structure, including the appointment of two executives to its global leadership team. The changes are designed to help advance Text100’s mission to do inspiring work for the world’s most important brands, having the specific impact of advancing Text100’s creative work, its talent initiatives and its work in Insights & Analytics, while also adding new talent to the leadership team.

Lee NugentLee Nugent, currently MD, Consulting & Strategy for APAC, joins the Text100 Executive Leadership Team (ELT), succeeding Anne Costello as EVP & Regional Director for the Asia Pacific business, who will move into a new role on the ELT.

Lee is based in Singapore and will lead 300+ consultants across Australia, China, India, Hong Kong, and Malaysia, as well as his home marketplace. He will continue Anne Costello’s work helping to build Text100’s capabilities and profile as a cutting-edge provider of integrated marcoms services.

He joined Text100 in July of 2016, and was prior to this CEO at Nelson Bostock Group, in London. He led that group from 2007-2016, and during his 20-year career has consulted with an enviable list of clients, including the BBC, Facebook, Amazon, Canon, Disney, Mercedes Benz, HTC, Salesforce, T-Mobile, Orange and EE.

Richard Parkinson, currently SVP Global Client Services, will join the ELT as its new EVP & Global Creative Director based in London.

Richard has 20 years of experience in designing and implementing global, creative, strategic brand and marketing programs that make a positive difference both for internal and external audiences. In this new role, he will be responsible for leading Text100’s creative function, driving a culture of creativity and innovation right across the business.

Richard has worked extensively across the technology, telco, consumer, retail and financial services, and led the brand transformation of NCR. Before joining Text100, Richard was owner and CEO of the brand marketing agency, IncrediBull, which was bought by Text100 in 2015.

AnneLeader21 2Anne Costello will move from her role as Regional Director for APAC, initially stepping up to become Chair of the APAC region before taking on a global people-focused role for Text100. Putting someone of Anne’s experience and seniority into the leadership of Global People Development demonstrates Text100’s commitment to investing in talent and skills. Anne has worked at Text100 for more than 15 years. Her knowledge of the business, people and clients makes her ideally positioned to take on this important responsibility.

CecileMissildineCecile Missildine will continue in her role as EVP & Regional Director of Text100 EMEA before moving into a new position leading the development of Text100’s Global Insight & Analytics offer once the ongoing search for a new EMEA RD, based in the UK, is complete. Cecile joined Text100 in late 2000, and has been EMEA RD since 2012. Prior to that, she led the Paris operation for four years.

Other roles on Text100’s Executive Leadership team remain unchanged with Aedhmar Hynes as Chief Executive Officer, and Peter Cumello as Chief Finance Officer.

From February 1st, the new global Text100 ELT will comprise:

• Aedhmar Hynes, Chief Executive Officer
• Peter Cumello, Chief Financial Officer
• James Beechinor-Collins, Chief Digital Officer
• Richard Parkinson, EVP & Global Creative Director
• Ken Peters, EVP & Regional Director, North America
• Kim Sample, EVP & General Manager, New York
• Cecile Missildine, EVP & Regional Director, EMEA
• Anne Costello, Chair, APAC & Head of People Development
• Lee Nugent, EVP & Regional Director, APAC


ketanGREY group India announced the appointment of Ketan Desai, as President North.

Ketan has been in the Marketing Services businesses for close to two decades, most of which has been with GREY in Mumbai, Kolkata, New Delhi, Colombo and until recently as Chief Operating Officer of GREY Bangladesh.

He brings with him experience from across geographies in India; across domains of Advertising; Activation and Shopper; across clients such as ITC, P&G, Marico Audi, Revlon, Gujarat Ambuja, Hindustan Times, CRY, Suzlon etc. Apart from GREY, Ketan has worked with TBWA too where he set up its Shopper Business.

Ketan, will be based in GREY’s Delhi office and will work closely with Sunil Lulla, Chairman and Managing Director GREY group India.


20170109 8521700124LOGOTealium, that revolutionizes today's digital businesses with a universal approach to manage the ever-increasing flows of customer data - spanning web, mobile, offline, and IoT - announced a strategic partnership with POSSIBLE APAC, a WPP digital creative agency.

With the power to unify customer data from a single source of truth, combined with a turnkey integration, Tealium's Universal Data Hub (UDH) enables organizations to gain real-time, actionable insights and create richer, more personalized digital experiences.

The partnership represents tremendous opportunities, as POSSIBLE's leadership in digital strategy and Tealium's industry-leading Universal Data Hub will assist global businesses in unlocking the power of customer data to create more meaningful and relevant customer experiences. The partnership intends to enable businesses to understand customer behavior better and build personalized, real-time digital experiences.


Asia Pacific Effie Awards has named the first 2 Heads of Jury - Ashish Bhasin and Jean-Paul Burge.

Ashish BhasinAshish Bhasin is the Chairman & CEO Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia and Chairman Posterscope and MKTG – Asia Pacific. He is also a member of the Dentsu Aegis Network Asia Pacific Executive Board. A well-known personality in the Advertising & Media industry in Asia Pacific for the past 29 years, Ashish has built the Dentsu Aegis Network in India from a 50 member team to a 3000 member powerhouse.

Prior to this, Ashish successfully led and set up several of Lintas India’s (IPG) businesses and had the global role of Executive Vice President, Lowe Worldwide and Asia Regional Director for Integrated Marketing.

His leadership and contributions are apparent from the multiple awards he has received, such as the Campaign Asia - South Asia Agency Head of the Year award 2016 and 2015 and MXM’s Media Person of the Year- 2016. As a veteran in the industry, Ashish has also served on global juries and trade bodies in India.

jeanpaulJean-Paul Burge is the Chairman and CEO of BBDO Asia. He began his career at JWT London in 1998 and joined BBDO in 2004. Over the past seventeen years he has worked in London, Bangkok, Amsterdam, Hong Kong and Singapore.

In 2007 he was appointed Managing Director of BBDO and Proximity Singapore, and was subsequently promoted to Chief Executive Officer in October 2008 and to President South East Asia in 2010.

Jean-Paul has led BBDO to become the most awarded network for creativity and for effectiveness in the region, including the APAC Network of the Year in the Effie Global Index.

Now in the fourth year, the APAC Effie is a highly coveted awards, recognized by agencies and marketers to be the most prestigious and ‘must-enter’ effectiveness awards in the region. It celebrates ideas that work and honors marketing communications that have achieved the most significant results.

The remaining Heads of Jury and full jury will be announced progressively. Stay tuned for more updates via www.apaceffie.com.


As Singapore’s Smart Nation agenda gathers pace, WPP’s Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) and the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) announced their collaboration on a three-year strategic initiative aimed at advancing the city-state’s capabilities in modern marketing services. These include data analytics, customer engagement marketing, marketing automation, user experience (UX) design, and digital media.

For O&M, this initiative also aims to foster Asia-led innovation from the Singapore office for its global network and to create solutions for its global clients. At the same time, the initiative will also include programs to develop a strong pipeline of Singaporean talent in this space.

This announcement follows reports on the Singapore Government calling for a record S$2.82 billion worth of technology tenders in 2016 and the launching of the Research Innovation Enterprise 2020 Plan (RIE2020) in January which will grant S$19 billion over the next five years to support Singapore's R&D efforts, innovation drive and technology adoption.

Correspondingly, O&M will be investing to build new solutions in Singapore as part of O&M’s global strategy to drive digital transformation and the advancement of modern marketing service offerings for its key clients. This will not only advance O&M's growth in Singapore but also further establish the country as one of the network’s key global hubs.

The three-pronged strategic initiative will include the creation of the following programs:

  • Ogilvy & Mather Modern Marketing Lab to develop globally-recognized products and services such as a turnkey SME marketing solution, social media crisis program and media modelling for audience intent to address client requirements. Undertaking development work ahead of client demand positions O&M to innovate ahead of the industry’s needs and establish leadership in the areas of modern marketing solutions. Operational since 1st November 2016, the Lab team will grow to encompass at least 40 modern marketers over the next three years.

  • Ogilvy & Mather Singapore Affiliates Program which will develop 20 high potential Singaporean talent for leadership roles through a secondment program to the agency’s global headquarters in New York. Participants will be assigned to globally significant client accounts, before returning to Singapore to apply those learnings to drive innovation and growth in Asia.

  • Ogilvy & Mather Modern Marketing Training Program to strengthen O&M’s creative services talent pool in Singapore through the delivery of a structured marketing training program including modules on data analytics, digital transformation, marketing automation, social media and UX.

Fuji Xerox Singapore Pte. Ltd. announced the launch of SkyDesk Media Trek, a new service for the tourism industry, The cloud service delivers audio guidance linked to a global positioning system (GPS) for individual smartphone users traveling in Singapore and helps the local authorities (Singapore Tourism Board), travel agencies, and other partner organizations to provide tourists with a new, unique experience.

Making audio contents for the SkyDesk Media Trek is easy, as it automatically transforms typed text into a synthesized voice in Japanese or English. The system can also meet the needs for other languages as long as audio data in the other languages are provided. The authoring tool that is required to create the contents, such as the narration of the guide, is available through a cloud service and can be used via a browser with no need for investment in special equipment.

By including information known only to locals and unavailable in guidebooks, the audio guide can be customized to fit the needs of the target markets.

The contents of an audio guide created and registered to the SkyDesk Media Trek can be downloaded by tourists through a smartphone app. The downloaded guides are linked to the smartphone's GPS and automatically played at the designated locations, so as to relieve tourists from having to perform complicated operations on their smartphone to hear the guide, allowing them to enjoy their audio guided walk as if they were accompanied by a tourist guide.

Since intra-Asia travel has been growing rapidly, especially from Asia's second largest economy Japan, a common challenge faced by the tourism industry in Singapore is the lack of staff that speak Japanese. SkyDesk Media Trek enables the tourism industry organizations to produce and deliver audio tourist guides for tourists who seek content in Japanese. The SkyDesk Media Trek service has been available in Japan since 2014 for foreign tourists visiting Japan. Fuji Xerox is planning to gradually expand the availability of this service to other Asia-Pacific countries. Through this service, the company aims to provide multilingual support for tourists as well as to contribute to the further development of the tourism industry.


20170110 8521700138Makers and lovers of documentary film will find a new go-to place this year. "BIG STORY," a 35 hour television strand each weekend is home to a wide range of current affairs documentaries tackling global issues in unique and creative ways. The series is part of the launch of a dynamic new platform of programs on the China Global Television Network (CGTN).

BIG STORY signals CGTN's commitment to high quality global news and current affairs content. The China Global Television Network broadcasts daily through cable and satellite and through an increasing digital media presence from production centers in Beijing, Washington D.C. and Nairobi.

BIG STORY showcases films acquired from all across the globe and commissions ground breaking documentaries from top film directors. In addition to cable and satellite, BIG STORY and all of CGTN's wide array of news and current affairs programming may be screened on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVV5pj7Pvsc


Ben CoxBen Cox has been named Vice President and General Manager for Nickelodeon Networks Australia and New Zealand.

He will be responsible for the day-to-day management of Nickelodeon’s brands in Australia and New Zealand and oversee a diverse business consisting of 24-hour subscription television networks available in over 4 million households, digital platforms, live events, recreation destinations, consumer products, local production and program sales.

Cox joins Nickelodeon Networks after serving as the General Manager of Content Aggregation at Foxtel and assumes the position of Vice President and General Manager from Jihee Nam, who is leaving the company at the end of January. He is also an alternate director on the board of Nickelodeon Australia Management Pty Ltd, the joint venture between Viacom International Media Networks and Foxtel, that operates all Nickelodeon-branded businesses in Australia and New Zealand and comes to Nickelodeon Networks after a decade-plus career within the subscription television industry.

Prior to his current role as General Manager of Content Aggregation at Foxtel, he served as the Head of Channel Partnerships and as Business Development Manager since joining the company in 2008, after serving as a strategy analyst and a product manager at AUSTAR Entertainment Pty Ltd.

During his time at Foxtel, Cox was instrumental in several initiatives that enhanced offerings directed at children and youth. He played a key role in the November 2015 launch of the Nick Play app, which offered Australian kids access to hundreds of Nickelodeon-themed videos, original short-form animation and games as well as full-length episodes of Nickelodeon’s biggest hits for authenticated Foxtel subscribers.

Cox also managed content aggregation for the December 2016 launch of the Foxtel Kids app, which features a range of children’s television program streams on-demand and ad-free. In 2014, he worked closely with Viacom International Media Networks to maximize the distribution growth of Nick Jr. when the pre-school channel moved into the basic Entertainment Pack and quickly went on to become one of the most-watched non-sports channels on the platform.

Established in 1995, Nickelodeon Australia and New Zealand has built a diverse business by putting kids first in everything it does. Thanks to the success of local productions, Nickelodeon has twice been named the ASTRA Channel of the Year.


Avaya announced successful completion of the 'Dial100' project with the state government of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, designed to provide integrated emergency services across the entire state on a 24x7 basis. Avaya has also collaborated with Madhya Pradesh State Government to update an emergency response system with faster response time.

The solution is based on an integrated communication model, capable of responding to multiple communications channels, including phone, mobile, e-mail and social media. The contact center supports all dialects of Hindi and some foreign languages. Video calling features also support users with special needs, with agents available that can read sign language.

The system not only provides a seamless user experience throughout the process, but can also eliminate the need to visit a police station in some instances. The robust IT system by Avaya creates a detailed digital trail of all activities, documenting all issues electronically without police intervention. The system also allows citizens to upload pictures or videos, which gets tagged with their calls and forwarded to the concerned police station electronically for taking cognizance.


Tim HeileINFINITI is expanding its capability in China and has announced the appointment of Tim Heile as Division General Manager of Marketing & PR of Dongfeng INFINITI, its Chinese joint venture, effective on March 1, 2017.

Heile, previously Director of Marketing of BMW Japan, brings a wealth of experience in the premium automotive industry. He joins from BMW Group where he had held various roles for over 16 years, including marketing communication, brand development and general management, as well as his experience working in Asia for ten years.

Heile began his career in marketing innovations of BMW. He also worked in various roles of increasing international exposure and took responsibility for different Sales & Marketing functions in the Asia-Pacific region before being appointed General Manager of Marketing for BMW in Thailand. He studied in Switzerland, Ecuador, the U.S. and Germany and received an MBA from the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich.