MAM
DHL is Manchester United’s first official training kit sponsor
MUMBAI: DHL has become Manchester United‘s first official training kit sponsor.
The new four-year-agreement sees the DHL logo included on the clubs‘ training kit worn by all first, reserve and youth team players during domestic competitions and builds on DHL‘s relationship behind the scenes at the club.
DHL has been the club‘s Official Logistics Partner for a year and played a key role supporting United‘s pre-season tour of the US and will continue to work hard to help deliver success on and off the pitch.
To mark the extended partnership, and as part of United‘s celebrations of its record-breaking 19th top-flight championship win last season, the logistics company will be delivering the Club‘s gift to its fans attending this evening‘s match against Tottenham Hotspur – 73,000 specially-commissioned commemorative scarves.
DHL Express (Europe) CEO John Pearson said, “We‘re delighted to be extending this strategic partnership which will see DHL getting more involved in the behind the scenes operations of Manchester United and supporting the club in its continued success Building on our current relationship with the world‘s biggest football club reflects our ability to provide unparalleled logistics services for customers across the globe”
Manchester United CEO David Gill said, “This deal breaks new ground in the English game. We are delighted that DHL has extended its partnership with the Club to include the training kit. DHL‘s global presence and international standing are a perfect fit for the world‘s most popular football club.”
Commercial Director Richard Arnold said, “This is a deal that continues to demonstrate the Club‘s position as the most innovative and successful in the game. DHL have been a great partner to work with and have integrated with the Club‘s operations seamlessly. The work they did around this summer‘s US tour was striking and we are looking forward to developing a broader relationship in the future.”
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.
