MAM
Ants Digital appoints Sai Krishna as South branch head
Mumbai: Ants Digital, a Gurugram-based tech-led marketing agency, has appointed Sai Krishna as branch head for the southern region. Krishna will be based out of Hyderabad and overlook the operations for all the key markets in the South, said the agency.
Krishna comes with over 15 years of experience in the field of marketing, creative and advertising and has worked extensively across the corporate, social, and government sectors. He joins Ants after working at E&Y where he was responsible for strategic business consulting. In the past, he was associated with Ogilvy, where he worked on crafting key communication for the state of Andhra Pradesh through creative, digital, and electronic media.
Commenting on the new appointment, Ants Digital CEO Sanjay Arora said, “Ants has been consistently moving forward and with his appointment, the company will reinforce its operations in the southern region. Sai brings a good understanding of the South market and has vast experience in digital, creative strategy, and planning, which will add immense value to our clients and the team while exceeding service levels and client delivery. The South region has great potential and our current client base has given us a lot of confidence to invest more in this market. For Ants, both North and West markets have been performing very well and now South is emerging as a potential market to grow.”
A post-graduate from Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Krishna has also worked for the Government of Andhra Pradesh scaling up the communication initiatives to give a fillip to the medical technology sector in the state.
Speaking on his new role, Krishna said, “Ants has been scaling its business in the South market and I am really excited to build and grow this further. South has some very interesting brands and corporate houses. The digital prowess and unique mix of service offerings of Ants will bring value to clients here.”
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.
