MAM
bates unveils new corporate identity
MUMBAI: WPP‘s marketing communications network, bates, has unveiled a new corporate identity with changengage as the philosophy for the new agency model.
The new logo features the bates typeface in contemporary Helvetica and three speech balloons (in original bates pumpkin, red and blue), replacing the former eye mnemonic.
bates regional executive creative director and India chairman Sonal Dabral explained that the cluster of speech blurbs above the name is symbolic of vibrant conversations and debates that agency aims to provoke through their work. The overlapping blurbs are also a subliminal reminder of tag clouds, the language of now and the future.Lastly the vibrant colours represent the new bates – the younger, more nimble, exciting and sparkling bates, ready to create path breaking and engaging work for clients.
The new agency model is based on the troika of anagement, creative and planning leaders, supported by young and hungry digital natives. The agency said that its embracing technology across all disciplines to drive the strategies that will deliver new engagement ideas and provoke new conversations.
“By understanding the larger shifts in people‘s lives, our new
positioning and thinking readies us to engage this world in new ways, to provoke new conversations with people,” said bates regional planning director Dheeraj Sinha.
In terms of solutions, a large part of the agency‘s revenue currently comes from engagement (e.g., OOH, online, interactive, shopper marketing, activation, etc). bates says that it will continue to strengthen these pockets of expertise by enriching its talent mix with technologists, shopper marketing planners and designers to deliver more sparkling engagement solutions.
It will also continue to bolster its Cluster operating model (Greater China, India and Southeast Asia) which provide the means to leverage pockets of category and discipline expertise across markets and offices.
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.
