MAM
Quick Heal ropes in Quadrant as creative partner
MUMBAI: Following a multiagency pitch involving as many as 25 contenders, Quadrant Communications has bagged the creative mandate for Quick Heal Technologies. The agency‘s Pune office will be handling the account.
Industry grapevine pegs the size of the account in the range of Rs 100 to 120 million. The computer anti-virus had never hired an agency to handle its creative duties before.
It has been learnt that Adfactors PR will be in charge of the public relation duties for the brand and the search is still on for Quick Heal‘s digial and media partners.
Quick Heal is headquartered in Pune and was founded in 1993. It manufactures anti-virus software and as of today employs more than 450 people in 22 branches across India while also operating through a network of dealers and channel partners in more than 50 countries globally.
MAM
Sameer Nair shares heartfelt note as he exits Applause Entertainment
After nine years building the streamer’s content engine, one of India’s best-known TV men is moving on
MUMBAI: Sameer Nair is out. The chief executive of Applause Entertainment, the content studio backed by Kumar Mangalam Birla’s media empire, has announced his departure after nearly nine years at the helm, closing the chapter on one of Indian entertainment’s more quietly consequential careers.
Nair, who built Applause from the ground up in its current avatar, oversaw a slate that spanned Indian originals and international adaptations, threading together a hub-and-spoke business model that partnered with streaming platforms, broadcasters and production houses alike. The results were uneven, as they always are in content, but the ambition was not.
In a post on LinkedIn, Nair was generous to his outgoing patron. He thanked Birla for being an “inspirational boss and a great patron of the arts,” and signed off with a cheerful “Au Revoir” and a promise to remain Applause’s biggest cheerleader. Whether that sentiment survives the next chapter remains to be seen.
No successor has been named. Applause Entertainment did not immediately comment.
Nair built the machine. Now someone else has to run it — and in a streaming market that is simultaneously consolidating and convulsing, that is no small ask.
