MAM
IPL 2022: Mullen Lintas bags creative mandate for KKR
Mumbai: Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) has appointed Mullen Lintas as a communication partner for the cricket team’s creative mandate for Tata Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022. The creative agency will be responsible for delivering the campaign idea for the latest IPL season.
The IPL is in its 15th season, and as the first runner-up of IPL 2021, it is important for KKR to show their fans that they are ready to return to the pitch with renewed energy, according to the team franchise.
“KKR fans have always been the focus of our campaigns. We are fortunate to have one of the biggest fan communities that passionately root for the team,” remarked KKR CMO Binda Dey. “Our new campaign for this game season, designed by the Mullen Lintas team, aims to capture the frenzy and love our fans have always shown us unconditionally. We look forward to watching our fans cheer us on as they always have and have a great season together.”
Mullen Lintas will be responsible for KKR’s campaign idea for IPL 2022, along with the brand film, on-ground and digital activations, and even KKR’s internal branding and team manifesto. The account will be handled from the Mumbai office.
“IPL is as much about the franchises and players as it is about fans. The game is incomplete without the latter,” commented Mullen Lintas executive director Priya Balan. “IPL is a shared space between the team’s players and their fans. Being the year of change and induction of new team members, our campaign for KKR seeks to strengthen and widen this beautiful bond with its large community of fans.”
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.
