Execs & Accounts: AOL, Starcom, Rockett

AOL hires Googler Jeff Levick to lead AOL as head of global advertising and strategy. Levick replaces Greg Coleman, the former Yahoo sales guy hired three months ago to succeed Lynda Clarizio at Platform-A’s helm. Levick’s role is an expansion of the position filled by Coleman.

Levick held several positions during his eight years with Google, and was most recently VP of industry development and marketing, the Americas. He worked closely with Tim Armstrong, who recently left Google to lead AOL as CEO. Separately, AOL’s Chief Financial Officer Nisha Kumar will also leave the company after a transition period. (Read ClickZ’s complete coverage)

Starcom promotes Kelly Twohig to EVP. Twohig, Starcom’s EVP, digital activation director, works with the agency’s digital product, talent, and media partner relationships. Rob Davis and Kif Ward were also promoted.

Entertainment Cruises selects Rockett Interactive. Rockett Interactive, a Cary, N.C.-based interactive advertising agency was selected to be Entertainment Cruises online media agency of record.

Agency Magma picked up two travel brands. Visit Britain and Tucker’s Point Hotel and Spa in Bermuda selected the start-up agency for integrated campaigns and to create interactive experiences for the brands.

Fanscape created a game using Twitter for MTV. Digital word of mouth marketing agency Fanscape was hired by MTV to build awareness for the Justin Timberlake-produced reality show “The Phone.” The game is an interactive Twitter-based game, similar to the game telephone where a message is passed from one person to another. Users can follow the tweets at twitter.com/mtv. (Read the full story.)

Imagination opens in Shanghai. Global integrated marketing and communications agency Imagination opened an office in Shanghai. The new outpost joins a network of 11 offices worldwide. Philip Best, managing director of Imagination Asia, will spearhead the team in Shanghai.

Wetpaint powers MSN Entertatainment fan sites. MSN will start rolling out more than two-dozen entertainment-focused fan sites powered by fan site creation platform Wetpaint this quarter.

CheckM8 hires Dan Scherer. Scherer was named senior vice president, sales and marketing, a newly created position for the ad management provider. Scherer was VP of publisher relations at Tremor Media since 2006, and headed global sales for On2 Technologies before that.

Definition 6 wins four accounts. Carters, Cox Enterprises, Safeguard Self Storage, and Square 1 Art gave digital business to the agency.

HipCricket sores with sports radio. Sports radio stations signed up with mobile marketing provider HipCricket. The stations include The Ticket Dallas, WEEI-AM Boston, KJR Seattle, KESN-AM Dallas, KTKR-AM San Antonio, and ESPN Seattle. Syndicated sports radio host Jim Rome is also a client.