MAM
Man-U, Aon extend partnership by eight years till 2021
MUMBAI: Manchester United and Aon, the world’s leading provider of risk and human resource solutions, have extended their relationship by an additional eight years to 2021 and see the Club’s renowned training centre renamed the Aon Training Complex.
The new partnership, which begins from 1 July, will see Aon become the first ever partner of the Club’s training facility at Carrington, providing best-in-class advice to the Club on talent development, risk management, health and wellness.
Manchester United and Aon designed this extension to showcase how Aon “Empowers Results” for its clients and to provide the Club with greater access to Aon’s leading risk and human resource solutions. This new phase will be focused on helping Manchester United drive greater business performance and deliver results on and off the pitch.
Consistent with Aon’s emphasis on training and talent management, United players and coaching staff will also wear Aon-branded training kits at all friendly and competitive domestic fixtures, as well as during training sessions.
Aon, which has its global headquarters in London, will also be the Presenting Partner of all Manchester United pre-season tours for the next eight years, including Tour 2013 presented by Aon in Asia Pacific.
Manchester United Commercial Director Richard Arnold said, “I am delighted that this cements our relationship with Aon for a further eight years. They are a great partner and I am very excited about the possibilities for sustainable advantage this provides the Club as we build our global presence.
“Aon knows that every employee, including the first team, drives the success of our Club. The Aon Training Complex is all about winning and preparing individuals, identifying talent and performing at the highest level to achieve success. Aon serves clients with unwavering focus on high performance, training and execution, an approach that mirrors the way we prepare here at Manchester United.”
Aon’s Global Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Phil Clement said, “The first phase of our relationship brought Aon an explosion in brand awareness. This phase of our partnership is a more holistic approach where we can use our expertise and create a global dialogue and knowledge share around the fields of talent, healthcare, risk, retirement, and data and analytics to help deliver great performance and great results.
This year’s Tour 2013 presented by Aon will focus on engaging with the Club’s 325 million followers in Asia Pacific and regions where Aon has a strong base of operations. The Tour 2013 involves matches in Bangkok, Sydney, Yokohama, Osaka and Hong Kong as Manchester United and Aon continue to take their partnership to every corner of the world.
In addition, Aon and Manchester United will be dedicated to extending the principles of the work at the Aon Training Complex by innovating with partners and sharing ideas through The Manchester United Business Network, a global programme of research projects, exclusive business events and seminars for senior executives, addressing critical issues in the economy.
Aon’s work with the Manchester United Foundation engages both organisations in a shared mission to help communities at risk and empower people across the globe.
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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.
