MAM
Wondrlab appoints Sameet Ali Soni as content lead
Mumbai: A data-driven influencer marketing platform, Wondrlab has appointed Sameet Ali Soni as content lead. He joins from Wunderman Thompson Bangalore, where he was assistant vice-president (AVP) and senior creative director.
At Wondrlab, Sameet will oversee the creative integration and content creation on a large set of key accounts. He will report to the What’s Your Problem’s (WYP) co-founder and CCO Amit Akali. For the record, Wondrlab has acquired WYP in 2020.
Sameet comes with nearly 17 years of experience in advertising, having worked on brands like ITC Foods, Kingfisher, Sony ESPN, Lifestyle, Britannia (digital), Rohan Builders and McDowells.
Speaking in this context, Akali said, “We’ve done away with the 13/14 designations that other agencies have. Our senior-most creative positions are our ‘content leads’ and ‘content directors’. Sameet is someone I’ve worked with at the beginning of his career. Even then, he was a special talent creating the iconic Bingo Mad Angles ‘Board Room’ film.”
“While he brings many more skills with him now, he brings the same love for advertising. The last year (our first at Wondrlab) has been amazing with us winning some of the biggest and most exciting brands. That is looking for the platform first, new-age, truly integrated work. The coming days are full of opportunities and I am sure someone senior and experienced like Sameet and Rahul will help us make the most of it,” he added.
“What’s Your Problem and WondrLab have been doing some wonderful integrated work for all its brands with fresh platform-first ideas. I am excited as I set a path on a new journey and of course, working with my old boss and mentor Amit Akali,” Soni added further.
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.
