Asda has shaken up its marketing department with the appointment of several new figures, including the man behind the advertising campaigns for Cadbury's drum-playing gorilla and the Skoda cake.

Mark Sinnock has been poached from Asda's advertising agency Fallon where he was chief strategy officer. He will join Asda in September as marketing director in charge of strategy. "Mark Sinnock is extremely famous in the ad industry," said chief marketing officer Rick Bendel. "He is one of the leading practitioners in customer insight. He has worked with Asda for the past three years and has fallen in love with the company."

Simon Eyles is also to join Asda from McCain, where he was marketing director and was instrumental in developing the manufacturer's It's All Good campaign. When Eyles joins Asda in April he will take up the role of head of Asda brand marketing, developing Asda's own-label offer.

Bendel described Eyles as "world class" and said he was a major coup for the company. "For most people, chips are just frozen potatoes, but with McCain it is different," he said. "Eyles has built a brand that has a strong place in customers' hearts. He obviously has huge experience in building strong brands with real points of difference and he has even managed to tackle areas such as health in relation to those products.

"To be able to attract the marketing director of such a well-run business to come and run the Asda brand is a major coup for us and it shows that retailing is now attractive for a lot of very high quality people."

In another shift, Jon Owen has been promoted to director of new business marketing from his previous role in marketing strategy. His appointment is "in recognition of the growth potential still remaining within the new business and digital areas", according to Asda.

Next week, Asda's famous pocket tap adverts will hit screens after Bendel announced their resurrection earlier this year. "Customers and colleagues were asking me to bring them back," he said.