MAM
Cake it till you make it as Myntra M-Now serves India’s first edible billboard
MUMBAI: If you’ve ever wondered whether advertising is getting too real, Mumbai just took a bite out of the answer literally. In a marketing stunt that melted the line between illusion and indulgence, Sociowash created India’s first fully edible billboard to mark Myntra M-Now’s first birthday. The six-foot installation at Maxus Mall, Borivali blended so seamlessly into its surroundings that shoppers couldn’t tell whether they were staring at a display or dessert.
Inspired by the viral “Is it real or cake?” trend, the activation didn’t just attract attention; it arrested it. People stopped mid-stride, circled the installation, argued, poked, filmed and whispered. The deliberate ambiguity delivered exactly what the brand had signed up for: chaos, curiosity and a crowd.
“We wanted to create a moment of pure disbelief,” said Sociowash co-founder Raghav. “Today, consumers scroll past thousands of ads without blinking. To make them stop, question and engage that’s the modern marketer’s jackpot. The look on their faces when they realised the billboard was cake… that’s organic engagement money can’t buy.”
And Mumbai took its time believing. But once the first brave mall-goers tasted the truth, the floodgates opened, the entire six-foot cake vanished in just 40 minutes, devoured by delighted onlookers eager to be part of the moment.
The team behind it insists the execution was anything but simple. “Offline innovations are always a gamble,” said Sociowash business head Shubham Chawla. “After pulling off a flying billboard, this idea was equally demanding. Creating a cake this big was the toughest task. Then came the constant ‘what if?’ what if it collapses, melts, breaks? As we always say: 99 things can go wrong, and only one can go right. And that one is getting it done perfectly.”
As part of M-Now’s first-birthday celebrations, the edible billboard embodied what the quick-commerce brand stands for instant gratification. The installation disappeared almost as fast as it went viral, with social media flooded by videos of disbelief turning into delight.
Beyond its sugar-coated spectacle, the activation proved a larger point, the best campaigns don’t just stop you from scrolling, they make you stop and think. They spark confusion, stir conversation and invite participation. They turn passive audiences into co-creators of the moment.
Sociowash’s billboard didn’t just advertise a birthday. It gave Mumbai a slice of it.
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.
