MAM
JWT & Group SJR launch content marketing unit – Colloquial
MUMBAI: J. Walter Thompson and Group SJR, a unit of Hill+Knowlton Strategies have joined hands to launch a content marketing unit called Colloquial.
The joint venture brings together the creative talent and strategic rigor of J. Walter Thompson with the publishing and audience development experience of Group SJR.
Colloquial will build publishing environments for brands, specializing in content that builds loyalty and audience over time – short articles, infographics and visual stories for brands that are quickly conceived, made and shared. It is a content marketing unit that shows brands how to act like publishers and benefit from an always-on digital narrative, helping them build passionate and monetizable communities.
Colloquial will embody the intersection of advertising, publishing and public relations, with storytelling and creativity at its core. The new unit will share locations and draw on talent from J. Walter Thompson in key global markets including Australia, Brazil, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United States.
“The launch of Colloquial is another piece of our strategy to continue building on J. Walter Thompson Company’s many assets to create solutions that build enduring and winning brands, while driving business growth for our clients. Content is the new currency. Colloquial will deliver both authentic narratives and the creative visual storytelling that brands are demanding and consumers want,” said J. Walter Thompson Company global chairman and CEO Gustavo Martinez.
Group SJR managing partner Alexander Jutkowitz will serve as Colloquial’s CEO.
“Successful brands innovate. Not only is that what J. Walter Thompson and Group SJR are doing with the creation of Colloquial, but it’s what we’re going to do for our clients — ensuring they have the ability to continuously reach targeted, ‘always on’ audiences with an array of engaging, high quality content that moves them,” said Jutkowitz.
In addition to Jutkowitz as CEO, Colloquial will be led by William (Billy) Sind as editorial lead; Jinal Shah as strategy lead; and Gillian Melrose as marketing lead.
“With the creative and strategic rigor of J. Walter Thompson, the creation of our digital agency network Mirum and now the launch of Colloquial, the J. Walter Thompson Company offers the full spectrum of content marketing to clients. We’re fortunate to have such great talent from across the advertising, public relations and publishing spaces, and know they’ll make a formidable team,” said J. Walter Thompson Company head of digital worldwide Stefano Zunino.
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Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
