MAM
Hari Krishnan joins Cheil Worldwide SW Asia as COO
MUMBAI: Hari Krishnan has joined Cheil Worldwide SW Asia as chief operating officer.
Krishnan joins from WPP where he was head of the global team on the Ford account. The team members were drawn from JWT, Mindshare and Wunderman.
Krishnan will start his new role from January 2013 and lead Cheil Worldwide SW Asia’s growth agenda. He will aim at enhancing the agency’s record for delivering diverse communications solutions and make it a strong integrated agency.
Krishnan’s career in advertising and communications spans over two decades during which he has held senior leadership roles with JWT India, Grey Worldwide and Bates India, among others. As the head of WPP Global Team Ford he set up the first co-located office of three different specialist agencies for WPP in the Asia-Pacific Region.
Cheil Worldwide SW Asia president and head of regional HQ John Koo said, “We are delighted to have Hari take charge as the COO for the region. He has a proven track record in developing corporate strategy while managing on ]going operations. His strength in building teams and people development is a perfect fit for Cheil. Moreover, his extensive knowledge and experience will go a long way in driving the business forward.”
Cheil Worldwide global CSO Bruce Haines added, “Having Hari on board demonstrates our resolution to take the Indian market, which we identified as strong growth prospects. Our team in India has been very successful in both attracting new clients and providing good creatives. I am thrilled to have Hari lead the winning team.”
Krishnan said, “Cheil is an innovative, forward thinking communications agency which has carved out a niche for itself through its integrated service offering. The recent acquisitions of The Barbarian Group, Open Tide and its partnership with the iconic Beattie McGuiness Bungay make it a powerhouse solution provider for brands across categories in India. Also, 12 Cannes Lions this year demonstrates the Agency fs commitment to idea excellence. I see exceptional potential for leveraging Cheil fs credentials for growth and look forward to working with the stellar team to make this vision a reality.”
Prior to establishing WPP Global Team Ford India, Krishnan was at JWT India as executive business director, PepsiCo Beverages, where he led agency teams on the PepsiCo portfolio comprising Pepsi Cola, Slice, Mountain Dew, Mirinda, Tropicana and Aquafina. At Grey, Krishnan led the agency as general manager and branch head of its New Delhi office. Prior to that at Bates India, he played a pivotal role in consolidating the teams after the Bates takeover of Clarion. Preceding this, he was with Ogilvy & Mather, and Anthem (now TBWA).
AD Agencies
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.
