MAM
Team Pumpkin Ropes in Nirav Lalan as Global COO
NEW DELHI: Team Pumpkin has appointed Nirav Lalan as their COO. Lalan brings in nearly a decade of experience across digital strategy and sales. He will oversee global operations for the agency and continue the growth trajectory of Team Pumpkin.
Team Pumpkin serves clientele across Asia, Americas, Europe and Africa and Nirav’s key goal will be to have sustainable long term brand partnerships, strengthen existing relationships and build new service lines.
Team Pumpkin co-founder & CBO Swati Nathani said, “We are delighted with Nirav's appointment as COO of Team Pumpkin, as we look forward to an exciting phase of growth this year and beyond. Nirav’s experience across varied roles is valuable, as we continue to expand our service lines and geography coverage over the next few quarters.
Team Pumpkin co-founder & CEO Ranjeet Kumar said, “Nirav’s experience and expertise will be directed towards formulating differentiated strategies and processes across our different lines of businesses. Nirav will also be formulating the strategy to have our first overseas office once Covid2019 situation improves.
Before joining Team Pumpkin, Lalan’s last stint was at ‘IndiaFirst Life’ leading their digital sales channel. Prior to that, he earned his PGDM degree from MICA and played an instrumental role at companies like Infosys and Wipro.
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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.
