MAM
David Jones is Euro RSCG Worldwide CEO
MUMBAI: Havas CEO Philippe Wahl has announced that a new international team is being formed to lead Euro RSCG Worldwide operations
David Jones is RSCG Worldwide CEO. Mercedes Erra and Stephane Fouks are Euro RSCG Worldwide executive co-chairmen. Remi Babinet is Eurp RSCG Worldwide chief creative officer. The appointments are effective immediately.
Wahl said, “Mercedes, Stephane, David and Remi respectively have helped their agencies achieve tremendous momentum. Given their commitment to excellence and dedication to their clients, it is a natural evolution for Havas to elevate them to new responsibilities and challenges. I am confident this terrific management team will together lead Euro RSCG Worldwide through a successful turnaround and beyond.”
These announcements follow the resignation of Euro RSCG Worldwide chairman and James R. Heekin who will pursue other opportunities in the industry. This decision follows a mutual agreement between the two parties.
Wahl added, “Over the last two years, Jim installed the necessary groundwork to help guide Euro RSCG through a period of transition. We thank Jim for his contributions and wish him well in the future”. Heekin says, “My time with Euro RSCG Worldwide has been a valuable experience. Today Euro RSCG is headed in a positive direction both
professionally as well as from a business standpoint. I am quite proud of our accomplishments, and will miss many of the talented people there.”
Jones was appointed to the position of CEO for Euro RSCG Worldwide’s flagship New York office in September 2004. Since joining, he has led the agency to win both the global Jaguar car business and the North American Charles Schwab account. These wins, on the back of major new business awards from Heineken, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, and Schering-Plough, have turned the agency into one of New York’s hottest shops.
Stephane has been with Euro RSCG Worldwide since 1988, when he co-founded RSCG Public, a corporate communications consultancy. He served as the CEO of the company until 1995 when it merged with Euro RSCG Consultants and became Euro RSCG Institutional, where he remained CEO. In 1999 Euro RSCG Institutional and Hiex Reus Patner merged to form Euro RSCG Corporate. In
2001 he initiated a cross-working relationship between Euro RSCG Corporate and Euro RSCG Omnium, which then became Euro RSCG C&O.
The Paris headquartered Havas is a global advertising and communications services group. Havas has three principal operating divisions: Euro RSCG Worldwide which is headquartered in New York, Arnold Worldwide Partners in Boston, and Media Planning Group in Barcelona.
A multicultural and decentralised Group, Havas is present in 77 countries through its networks of agencies located in 44 countries and contractual affiliations with agencies in 33 additional countries. The group offers a broad range of communications services, including traditional advertising, direct marketing, media planning and buying, corporate
communications, sales promotion, design, human resources, sports marketing, multimedia interactive communications and public relations. Havas employs approximately 14,400 people.
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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.
