MAM
Publicis Media unveils Spark Foundry India
MUMBAI: When Publicis Media struck the match, it lit more than a spark. The network has officially launched Spark Foundry India, a full-funnel media agency built on data, AI and a future-first mindset, marking another bold step in its rapid growth across the Indian media landscape.
Announced in Mumbai on 17 November 2025, the new agency strengthens Publicis Media India’s already diverse portfolio and reinforces its position among the top two media players in the country. Spark Foundry India enters the market with a modern, AI and data powered model that connects brand building, performance and commerce to deliver measurable growth from discovery to conversion and loyalty.
Niti Kumar, formerly chief growth officer at Publicis Media India, has been appointed chief executive officer of Spark Foundry India. Known for strategic clarity and strong client relationships, Niti now leads the mandate to shape the agency into a high performance, future looking media brand.
Meanwhile, Ravi Bhaya has stepped into the role of chief growth officer at Publicis Media India to build further momentum across the network.
Zenith and Starcom will continue to be led by Jai Lala and Rathi Gangappa, who take on expanded responsibilities under Publicis Connected Media. Jai will sponsor Connected CRM while Rathi will helm Connected Influence, bolstering the network’s integrated, data driven capabilities.
All four leaders will report to Lalatendu Das, chief executive officer, Publicis Media South Asia, who welcomed the moves and praised the strengthened leadership bench. He noted that the refreshed structure will deepen client partnerships and open new avenues for innovation in India’s fast evolving media ecosystem.
Publicis Groupe South Asia chief executive officer Anupriya Acharya, highlighted India’s decade of strong double digit growth and its emergence as a strategic centre for talent, innovation and transformative media solutions. She credited the leadership team for driving impact and reinforcing Publicis Media’s role as a growth engine for the Groupe.
With Spark Foundry India now officially in play, Publicis Media appears ready to turn this spark into a blazing streak of momentum.
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.
