Exec Moves & Industry Roundup: Reprise Media, GroupM China, Performics India, iProspect, and Omnicom Media Group

Chris Ernst, performance director at Reprise Media based in Sydney

Reprise Media has strengthened its team in Australia adding three senior hires, Chris Ernst, David Coats, and Andrew Hughes within a week. Ernst will join Mediabrand’s search and social media unit in a newly created role as performance director. Previously senior search specialist at Mediacom UK, he will now be based in Sydney to lead the search team with an expanded focus across other online and direct response channels. Ernst reports to Craig Ellis, Reprise Media Australia CEO.

Other new hires include David Coats as SEO director, Andrew Hughes, innovation and technology director, and Midu Chandra as social director.

In July, Reprise made three hires to boost its fast growing social media business by appointing Maria Casas as social media strategist, Richard Dalke as social media manager, and Cam Bisley as community manager.

Reprise Media in Australia has seen its social media business grow 126 percent from Q2 2011 to the same period this year.

Mickey Zhang is now GroupM China head of search responsible for overall search strategy and partnership for the holding group. She replaces Sara Ye who has left for personal reasons. Zhang was previously VP, marketing and sales at LvPing.com. Her past experiences include working at Baidu, Google, and eBay China. Based in Shanghai, Zhang reports to Tony Chen, president at GroupM Interaction China.

Mickey Zhang, head of search at GroupM China

Publicis Groupe acquired Resultrix, a performance marketing agency from India in August. It will operate within Performics, the group’s search unit. Resultrix founders Vidur Luthra (CEO) and Gulrez Alam (COO) will continue to lead the agency and report to Daina Middleton, global CEO for Performics and Gareth Mulryan, MD for Performics in Asia Pacific. Resultrix has more than 100 employees with presence in New Delhi, Mumbai, Singapore, Seattle, and Dubai. Its client portfolio includes Corbis, Standard Chartered Bank, Airtel, DBS, and Emirates.

Aegis Group also announced its acquisition of Communicate 2 (C2), an India-based search agency that is merged into iProspect’s India operations. C2 was established in 1997 with more than 130 employees with offices in Mumbai, Delhi, and Pune. Vivek Bharghava was heading up C2 as MD. He will continue to lead the agency as CEO following the merger with iProspect.

In July, iProspect Asia Pacific hired Rosemary Lising as regional MD, search and performance for General Motors International Operations (GMIO). Prior to iProspect, she was with GroupM for six years overseeing search and marketing operations across the region. A week later, Carat, Aegis’ media unit, also appointed Lee Walsh as regional MD, digital media for the GMIO account.

Omnicom Media Group Asia has expanded Lee Smith’s role from digital platforms lead to Asia Pacific president for Annalect, the group’s data marketing division. In addition to his current focus in search, display, social, and mobile, Smith will also be involved in data and analytics in the region. In Asia, Annalect Group includes search agency Resolution and Accuen, the group’s trading desk providing real-time bidding services led by Matt Harty.

In Japan, WPP’s Wunderman International has appointed Vincent Ota to a newly created role as executive creative director. Based in Tokyo, he will be responsible for driving creative across digital, mobile, and CRM for clients that include Expedia, Levi’s, Microsoft, and Xbox.

UM Japan has bolstered its digital efforts with the appointment of Yoshihisa Senga as head of digital. Senga was previously VP of sales at Glam Media Japan. He has also worked as director of GroupM Interaction, senior director of CRM at Alba, and MindShare Japan over the past decade. Senga reports directly to CEO Joe Nakamura.