MAM
Kalyan Jewellers appoints ex-L&K Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Anil Nair as independent director
NEW DELHI: As part of a move to expand its board of directors, Kalyan Jewellers today announced the appointment of two new directors and named a new chief executive officer. With this announcement, marketing guru, Anil Nair, joins the company’s board as independent director. A veteran of the advertising and digital industry for over 24 years, Nair’s experience includes serving as CEO & managing partner of L&K Saatchi & Saatchi as well as a member of the global leadership team of Saatchi & Saatchi, McCann and DDB. With this appointment, the company aims to continue developing a stronger brand position while entering the post Covid2019 era.
Kalyan Jewellers chairman and managing director T S Kalyanaraman said, “We are extremely delighted to welcome Anil Nair to Kalyan Jewellers. He brings to the table unmatched expertise in advertising and brand building, which will be critical to the company’s growth despite the challenges in the Covid2019 era. At Kalyan Jewellers, we aim to continue our successful journey and expand our footprint to cater to newer audiences.”
With the Covid2019 outbreak, digital has fortified its position as the most convenient medium for companies to connect with its customers. Kalyan Jewellers has strategically realigned resources to support its digital-first strategy and build a distinctive brand identity. Earlier this year, the brand has rolled out digital campaigns on occasions such as Valentine’s Day, Gudi Padwa, Mother’s Day and the recently launched #MuhuratAtHome digital campaign.
Nair said, “Kalyan Jewellers is one of the most trusted brands in India today and has built a strong and extremely loyal customer base across the country. The Hyper-Local strategy of catering to the needs of the consumer with local preferences and tastes has been the success mantra of the brand, according to me. Their campaigns have always resonated with the masses, and played a key role in creating a unique brand voice. It’s a great honour to be on Kalyan’s board and I look forward to an exciting journey with Kalyan Jewellers.”
In addition to Nair, Kalyan Jewellers has elevated Sanjay Raghuraman to chief executive officer from his earlier position as the chief operating officer at the company. Salil Nair, who was previously the CEO of the retail chain, Shoppers Stop, has also been appointed as a non-executive director on the company’s board.
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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.
