Shankar, who also headed the performance agency’s regional centre of excellence, started work yesterday and reports to newly appointed director of digital marketing Miguel Bernas, who previously headed digital marketing at Singtel.
Paypal has been a client of Performics since 2011.
The recent appointments of Bernas and Shankar indicate a restructure within PayPal’s regional digital marketing team. So far the team has seen a small increase in both the number of roles and headcount, said Shankar.
Shankar’s role, for example, is partly newly created. “There was someone in the past who handled digital but not as a head of media and not as a clearly defined digital expert,” explained Shankar. His duties include working with all markets in the region to align paid media goals with business objectives and that all elements integrate.
The team as a whole has a “greater focus on digital marketing and acquisition with big targets in terms of acquiring consumer and merchant-based accounts in Asia,” he added.
At Performics, Shankar has been replaced as general manager of the Singapore office by Vivian Yeo (pictured right), who has been with Zenith Optimedia for 12 years, most recently as executive director of integrated media in Singapore.
“Vivian has been working with regional clients from day one and knows the region very well, she has also been focusing on performance marketing for the past four years,” commented Gareth Mulryan, regional head of Performics Asia-Pacific.
“Her remit is to build on what Hari’s built and to drive further diversification and integration in performance marketing,” he added.