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WPP’s Always to acquire Singapore-based marketing company 3ree
MUMBAI: Sir Martin Sorrell led WPP is on an acquisition spree. The company’s China-based field and shopper marketing unit Always Marketing Services has acquired Singapore based has integrated marketing company 3ree.
Financials of the deal were not disclosed.
Founded in 2010 by Tan Li Li and Isabel Cheong, 3ree offers event management, sourcing and production of marketing premiums, project management for exhibitions and activations, and design and creative services, as well as digital marketing.
3ree has implemented projects in key Asian markets, including India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan, Korea and Australia. Clients include Microsoft, Mitsubishi Electronic, Seagate and StarHub.
Always, which is majority-owned by WPP’s J. Walter Thompson, offers trade marketing, including merchandiser management and retail audit; retail marketing, including promoter management, in-store activation and retail environment designs; as well as shopper marketing, including point of sale design, events and road shows, as well as premium design and production.
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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.
