MAM
McCann Delhi appoints Sambit Mohanty as ECD
MUMBAI: McCann Delhi has appointed Sambit Mohanty as the executive creative director.
His last stint was with Bates- New Delhi as creative head where he worked for clients like Hitachi and Virgin Mobile.
McCann Worldgroup chief executive officer Prasoon Joshi said, “I am extremely happy to have Sambit join us at McCann. I have not worked with him earlier but in my interaction with him sensed that he brings in a unique dimension. It‘s rare these days to find people with craft. Sambit has honed his craft and is a superb writer. I am positive that the creative prowess of McCann will get further strengthened with Sambit on board.”
Mohanty has over 12 years of experience in advertising and design. Starting out as a copywriter at McCann Erickson, he‘s worked in agencies such as Lowe, Publicis, Leo Burnett and Elephant Design.
He was also behind the ‘Where‘s the Pulp?‘ campaign for Minute Maid Pulpy Orange – a juice drink from Coke. His film for MMPO – ‘deflating oranges‘ – is a part of the Leo Burnett showreel and has been aired internationally in countries like Indonesia, Philippines, Kazakhstan and Mexico.
Mohanty has worked for clients like Dettol, Mortein, Harpic (part of Reckitt-Benckiser), Tanishq, Britannia, Nestle (Maggi), HP, Indian Express, BBC World, Religare and Chevrolet.
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.
