Brands
Mars snacking names Chinmay Kelkar as Asia media and integrated ecosystem director
Cannes-winning strategist and WPP veteran takes charge of media across key Asian markets
VIRGINIA: Mars has appointed Chinmay Kelkar as Asia media and integrated ecosystem director for its snacking division, handing a sprawling regional mandate to a planner known for mixing data rigour with creative firepower.
Kelkar moves to the role in Singapore after a rapid senior run at WPP Media and EssenceMediacom, where he handled regional clients and transformation briefs across Asia-Pacific. His remit at Mars spans media strategy and integrated ecosystem planning in some of the world’s most complex and competitive consumer markets.
A Cannes winner, Kelkar has been named among IMPACT’s top 30 future leaders of Indian advertising and was earlier singled out as a rising star on WPP’s global Team Procter & Gamble. His career has zigzagged across China, India and wider APAC, covering categories as varied as B2B, sports, telecoms, automobiles and FMCG.
Before Mars, Kelkar served briefly as svp, regional clients at WPP Media. He also spent over four years at EssenceMediacom in Singapore as head of transformation and regional business lead, focusing on capability-building and cross-market integration. Earlier roles at Mediabrands saw him spearhead the ExxonMobil business across 11 Asia-Pacific and Oceania markets, leading cross-functional teams spanning planning, buying and ad operations while chasing incremental growth.
A long China stint with MediaCom sharpened his reputation as a sales-driven strategist. As planning director on Team P&G China, he oversaw media strategy, communications planning and end-to-end e-commerce store management for grooming brands across Shanghai and Guangzhou. Campaigns under his watch delivered 66 per cent higher media-led sales for Gillette at 19 per cent lower budgets. Braun achieved sales at 238 IYA, while Gillette reached 184 IYA through offtake-led e-commerce planning and flagship-store management.
Kelkar also helped build P&G China’s first live media command centre and created what is billed as China’s first branded VR e-commerce experience for Gillette. Earlier, he drove adoption of MediaCom’s 20/20 framework aimed at delivering 20 per cent more effectiveness at 20 per cent better efficiency.
His career began in India with Lodestar Universal, where he planned telecoms and automobile campaigns for some of the country’s biggest advertisers, winning a silver Emvie for Tata Photon in 2010 and a bronze Emvie in 2011 for Tata Nano.
Kelkar describes himself as someone who enjoys “creating order out of chaos” and pushing business outcomes to the front of media thinking. He relishes pitches, product launches and the heat of competitive briefs. On weekends, he swaps dashboards for joysticks as a compulsive gamer and amateur video-game reviewer.
For Mars, the hire adds a strategist steeped in scale, performance and experimentation. For the region’s media market, it is another sign that global advertisers want leaders who can stitch together commerce, content and communications. In Asia’s high-speed attention economy, Kelkar’s brief is simple to state and hard to execute: turn complexity into advantage—and do it at scale.
Brands
Wellbeing Nutrition ropes in Malavika Mohanan as brand ambassador
Actor fronts Marine Collagen and Skin Fuel Glutathione portfolio.
MUMBAI: Malavika Mohanan just became the face of inner glow because when your skincare starts in the bottle instead of the jar, even beauty gets a glow-up from the inside out. Wellbeing Nutrition has appointed acclaimed actor Malavika Mohanan as brand ambassador for its premium Korean Marine Collagen and Skin Fuel Glutathione range. The move signals a deliberate shift in the Indian ingestible beauty segment from surface-level routines to foundation-level nutrition that supports skin health from within.
The campaign positions collagen as the essential “beauty protein” that maintains elasticity and firmness, with daily supplementation reframed as a consistent ritual rather than a quick cosmetic fix. It aims to simplify the science behind collagen and build awareness around long-term skin nourishment.
Wellbeing Nutrition co-founder Saurabh Kapoor said, “In India, collagen is still largely viewed through a cosmetic lens, associated with glow and quick fixes. In reality, it is the primary structural protein of the skin, and we begin losing nearly 1 per cent of it every year in the late 20s. Yet a significant number of consumers remain unaware of its foundational role in long-term skin health. Our goal is to shift the conversation from fixing visible signs to feeding the foundation.”
Malavika Mohanan added, “For me, skincare has always been about consistency and taking care of myself in ways that go beyond just what I apply on my skin. I love the idea of supporting skin health from within, and that’s what drew me to Wellbeing Nutrition’s Marine Collagen and Skin Fuel Gluta.”
The Korean Marine Collagen uses nano-hydrolyzed peptides for better bioavailability, while Skin Fuel Glutathione complements the inside-out approach. The portfolio targets structure, brightness and resilience over time, backed by clinical research.
The ambassador announcement kicks off a broader collagen-focused roadmap for the brand, with planned innovations across formats and functional blends.
In an era where beauty routines are getting deeper than skin, Wellbeing Nutrition isn’t just selling supplements, it’s selling the quiet power of feeding your glow from the inside, one daily scoop at a time.
