iWorld
Yahoo! India promotes Pranesh Anthapur to COO research & development
MUMBAI: Yahoo! India has promoted Pranesh Anthapur to COO of its research and development centre.
In his capacity, Anthapur will head up operations as well as bring new ideas to the company’s R&D center in Bangalore. He will work with the senior management team to put Yahoo! India R&D on a growth trajectory and will spearhead Yahoo!’s move to the new office, which is scheduled for early next year, informs an official release.
Anthapur recently moved to Bangalore from Sunnyvale, the Yahoo! HQ in California. He brings with him experience in talent acquisition, talent development and cross border general management. Anthapur is a seven year Yahoo! veteran and has held several key positions in both the US and other International locations. Prior to moving to Bangalore, he was VP for Yahoo!’s International HR and HR Mergers and Acquisitions group in Sunnyvale.
“The Bangalore Development centre is growing rapidly and currently employs over 800 knowledge workers and plans to cross the 1000 mark in headcount by the end of this year. We welcome the expertise in the field of global talent and operations that Pranesh brings with him to Yahoo! India R&D,” said Yahoo! India Research & Development CEO Venkat Panchapakesan.
“In his new role, Pranesh will provide direction to all the operational areas of the center including business planning and process enhancements,” Panchapakesan added.
Another recent addition to Yahoo!’s Bangalore centre is Pete Deemer who moved from Yahoo!’s Sunnyvale office to become the Chief Product Officer of Yahoo! India Research and Development, adds the release.
Deemer who joined Yahoo! Inc in 2003 till recently held the position of VP – product development, overseeing Yahoo!’s product development practices, product quality and integration efforts under the chief product officer.
In his new role, Deemer is closely aligned to the CPO office in Sunnyvale, USA. He is helping the Bangalore office define the strategy for the products being built and evolving the product development process besides incubating some new product initiatives. He will also be a player in the India specific initiatives recently started by the company.
iWorld
WPP Opendoor and Snapchat launch AI Lens for Prime Video India
Generative AI Lens personalises content discovery with real-time user integration.
MUMBAI: In the age of main characters, Prime Video is handing users the script and the spotlight. WPP Opendoor, WPP’s dedicated Amazon unit, has teamed up with Snapchat to roll out an India-first generative AI-powered Lens for Prime Video’s latest campaign, ‘Stories for Your Every Era… it’s on Amazon Prime’. The activation taps into the rising “era-core” trend, where identities shift with moods, moments and mindsets and content is expected to keep up.
The Lens does exactly that. Using generative AI, it places users directly into the worlds of popular Prime Video titles such as Maxton Hall, Beast Games, The Boys and The Traitors, embedding their faces into key visuals in real time. The result is less browsing, more becoming.
The idea is rooted in a behavioural shift: audiences increasingly see themselves as the centre of their own narratives, especially on social platforms. By turning viewers into participants, the campaign blurs the line between content discovery and content experience.
It also introduces a layer of personalisation that goes beyond algorithms. Whether someone identifies with a “trust no-one era” or an “infinite aura era”, the Lens curates recommendations that align with that evolving identity making discovery feel intuitive rather than instructed.
This marks a shift in how streaming platforms approach engagement. Instead of pushing titles, the focus is on pulling users into the story itself transforming passive scrolling into interactive storytelling.
The collaboration also underscores how platforms like Snapchat are becoming key playgrounds for content marketing, particularly when paired with emerging technologies like generative AI. The format is native, immersive and built for participation three things traditional discovery often struggles to deliver.
In a crowded streaming landscape, where attention is the real currency, Prime Video’s bet is clear, if viewers feel like the story is about them, they are far more likely to press play.
