Move and win roundup: Week of April 19, 2021 | Advertising

Skincare brand Aesop selected Gusto Luxe as its retained strategic communications partner in mainland China, following a pitch. The agency will support the brand in driving awareness and commerce through a dynamic, digital-led communications strategy.

Integrated PR agency Ripple8, the public relations arm of DDB Group Philippines, promoted Michelle ‘Mich’ Ople to managing partner. She joined the agency about four years ago, after several years as a television and radio journalist, as media relations and activations director. She also plays a role on Ripple8’s crisis management team. Recently she helped expand media coverage internationally for the Department of Tourism (DOT), helping build strategies to keep the country’s tourism sector relevant to targeted emerging markets.

Hospitality and destination design firm WATG appointed hospitality and lifestyle specialist PR agency GHC Asia as its communications representative for Asia Pacific. GHC Asia’s brief will be to raise the firm’s profile in the region. The firm specialices in hospitality, entertainment and gaming, urban and mixed-use, and high-end residential design. It has five studios: strategy, master planning, architecture, landscape architecture and Wimberly Interiors. In Asia it has worked on projects including the St. Regis Singapore, The Garden Wing of The Shangri-La Singapore, and the debut of the new InterContinental brand in Halong Bay in Vietnam.

Effie Asia Pacific announced Sindhuja Rai, global media investment and Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa (AMEA) CX lead at Mondelez International, and Takashi Takeda, country manager and representative director at DoubleVerify Japan, as heads of jury for the APAC Effie Awards 2021. The full jury lineup can be found here.