Applause Entertainment, the Sameer Nair led Content Studio from the Aditya Birla Group, has announced the appointment of Ashok A Cherian as their Head of Marketing and Revenue. At Applause Entertainment, Ashok will lead integrated marketing and brand building and drive revenue for the brand.
Ashok has over 19 years of rich and varied experience across Print, Television, Consulting and Retail.
Prior to Applause, Ashok was the CMO at SMAAASH Entertainment for four years, where he was part of the core team that helped expand the company and its revenues, by rapidly multiplying to 27 units across India and one at the Mall Of America, the largest mall in the USA. He also helped grow the brand swiftly via effective digital marketing and leveraging of brand ambassadors Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli.
Ashok’s repertoire of work comprises of: a seven year stint at MTV India, which also included three seasons of marketing, monetizing and “picking” Roadies as a judge/casting-director on the hit show MTV Roadies; followed by the launches of UTV Broadcasting’s Bindass channels (now Disney); award winning integrated marketing of the first Coke Studio India while at Naked Communications; as well as an insightful domain widening entrepreneurial consulting venture, where he provided strategic and digital solutions for clients ranging from real estate to music bands.
It all started in 1999, when after completing engineering from Mumbai University, he responded to creativity’s call and started off as a writer at JAM – India’s most loved campus magazine.
Sameer Nair, CEO – Applause Entertainment, commented –“The world of entertainment in India is in the midst of a perfect storm. We want to channelize all our energies and experiences into building and creating a strong ecosystem of talent, concepts and execution; we want to create excellence at scale. Ashok has a deep understanding of the entertainment business and is known and respected in the industry. With his experience in marketing, digital and retail, he will be a great addition to Team Applause.”
Speaking on his appointment, Ashok A Cherian shared “OTT video content is one of the most exciting spaces to be in. Sameer Nair is the man who changed the face of Indian television, and with Applause Entertainment, Sameer’s vision of a premium content studio is set to change the game in the digital space as well. India is in the midst of this super shift in content consumption and media habits, I’m excited to join Applause and to help redefine digital and social experiences.”
Ashok joins Applause to help tap into the enormous opportunity of a potentially 500 million strong mobile-internet-smartphone consumer base which is looking for binge worthy, local, premium populist content.
Applause Entertainment is currently creating over 25 premium drama series in Hindi and in regional languages. Some of the exciting Applause shows are: The Scam with Hansal Mehta, Criminal Justice (starring – Jackie Shroff, Vikrant Massey, Pankaj Tripathi and directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia & Vishal Furia), The Office with BBC, City of Dreams (starring – Atul Kulkarni, Sachin Pilgaonkar, Eijaz Khan, Priya Bapat, Siddarth Chandekar and directed by Nagesh Kukunoor), Hasmukh with Vir Das and Nikkhil Advani and Rasbhari with Swara Bhasker.