MAM
Sony finalises Fame Gurukul sponsors
MUMBAI: One month prior to launch, Sony has managed to rope in five associate sponsors for its upcoming reality series, Fame Gurukul, which is slotted at 8:30 pm Monday to Friday.
Associate sponsors finalised for Fame Gurukul are as follows:
1) LG CDMA
2) Pepsi
3) HLL (Clinic)
4) Johnson & Johnson
5) Idea (Telecom operator)
6) In the process of finalisation
Industry estimates have pegged the amount each sponsor has pumped in at about Rs 30 million.
Commenting on the same, SET executive vice president (ad sales & revenue management) Rohit Gupta states, “Based on the strength of the format, we have reduced the number of sponsors to six. This will allow for focussed branding opportunities that can be woven in well into the show which would have been limited if we had brought in more sponsors.”
Sony usually follows a nine associate sponsor format.
Gupta also pointed out, Indian Idol was the launch pad for branding synergies on Indian television. Citing the example of the Nokia Hindi SMS as well as the Rejoice Shampoo branding with ‘Rejoice moments’ he stated that the benchmarks had been set, and now the endeavour was to raise the bar further.
Coming to the what the format offers to advertisers, Gupta reiterates, “The format of the show is so tight, that it is literally a high paced reality soap. Also, now that our 8-8:30 pm band has firmed up with the launch of Kaise Ye Pyaar Hain, it will act as an excellent funnel for Fame Gurukul at 8:30 pm.”
What is noteworthy about the likes of LG CDMA, Pepsi and Idea that have come on board is the fact that they have not been very aggressive spenders on the channel.
Also, if one looks at LG CDMA, this is it’s first big spend the brand has indulged in apart from the normal FCT buys on television. Similar is the case with Idea, says Gupta. A clear indication, according to him, that the channel has managed to divert some new monies onto its stable.
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.
