MullenLowe Lintas Group enters content and entertainment business

MullenLowe Lintas Group has announced the launch of a content business unit under the Lintas C:EX (Lintas Creative Executions) brand. 

 

The unit called Lintas C:EX Entertainment will aim to create content and IPs that entertain and engage. The group wants to develop, create, produce and distribute curated and original content across genres, languages and formats. 

 

Yogesh Manwani has been appointed as president to lead the unit. He moves from Applause Entertainment where he was head - revenue and marketing.

 

Virat Tandon, group CEO, MullenLowe Lintas Group, said, “We are seeing a huge surge of digital content, platforms, creators as well as viewers and this space is only going to grow in the coming years. Lintas is uniquely poised at the intersection of powerful ideas that shape pop culture, master creative storytelling, extraordinary video production ability and ambitious brands and clients. Lintas C:EX Entertainment is the logical next step for us to unlock the huge potential that lies ahead of us. In the past, we’ve had a few tactical brushes with this space. The memorable ones were when Alyque was involved with producing the pilot for 'Karamchand' and then later when we conceptualised the show 'Smart Shrimati' for brand Wheel. This time, Lintas C:EX Entertainment is a deliberate and a strategic foray into original and branded content space. There couldn’t be a better person than Yogesh Manwani to lead this venture. He comes with a deep experience in the original content business. He is a big believer in our vision for Lintas C:EX Entertainment and I am sure he will make it a success.”

 

Amer Jaleel, group CCO and chairman, MullenLowe Lintas Group, said, “We are breaking the shackles of the ad agency descriptor that we had imposed on ourselves. There has been such an abundance of talent that has sprung from Lintas and gone on into the world of entertainment, I have no clue why we did not give it the shot it deserved up until now! With Yogesh at the helm of this completely separate and independent initiative, we are opportunising the era of original content and content for brands, that’s landed smack in our lives! Yogesh will spearhead, shape and structure Lintas C:EX Entertainment into possibly an equal or bigger rival to our brand and marcomm business. He has both the relationships and the experience in building channels, platforms, intellectual properties which will now propel the Lintas group into a full-blown media and entertainment powerhouse.”

 

Manwani said, “MullenLowe Lintas Group enjoys a strong reputation of building and successfully transforming many popular and strong brands across various categories thanks to its ability of understanding, forecasting and leveraging consumer behaviour. Backed by strong, fearless and visionary leadership, the Group is on a critical self-transformational journey. Entering the content business is an integral and important part of this journey and with the acceleration of the creator economy it could not have been better timed. The long term vision that Group’s leadership has for this independent and specialised business under the Lintas C:EX brand is what excites me to lead this mandate. I look forward to bringing my experience and learnings to the table that could help in building this content company as the magic glue that binds content creators with brand owners and platform partners.”