MAM
Duroflex launches sleep marathon with Milind Soman
MUMBAI: We are living in the time of the gig culture where staying up all night to meet project deadlines is celebrated. However, long term effects of lack of sleep are hardly discussed. Keeping this in mind, Happy mcgarrybowen, the creative agency from Dentsu Aegis Network, has conceptualised the #7HourMarathon campaign for Duroflex.
The campaign launched when Milind Soman rolled out a tweet saying how he planned on doing a 7-hour-marathon every day. But little did his followers know, the marathon he was talking about was seven hours of continuous sleep. This digital stunt was initiated to bring attention to the cycle of disrupted sleep that has taken over this generation.
Seeing the response, a subsequent video was released a day later where Soman clarified the confusion on #7HourMarathon and discussed the importance of good sleeping habits.
The campaign was conceptualised by Happy mcgarrybowen and executed in collaboration with Isobar, SKREEM, and Greenroom.
Duroflex director of marketing Mathew Joseph says, “As a company, we have a strong lineage in this industry and understand the importance of sleep. We really wanted to raise awareness around the importance of sleep. In Milind Soman, we found a credible voice to drive this message across. The #7HourMaratahon initiative was a great conversation starter to get people to make a very important lifestyle change. We believe in energising India.”
Most of the audience they spoke to consumed about 2.5-3 hours of social media on an average every day, making it evident that social media must be the activation area.
While talking about looming sleep crisis and the need to commit to seven hours of sleep, Soman mentions, “Having been involved in sports all my life, I understand the importance of sleep. Sleep is essential for the body and mind and restful sleep is one of the foundations of good health. Recharging and rejuvenating body and mind sufficiently every night is important for better quality of life. My own health resolution this year has been to sleep more and better.”
The tweet got picked up and shared by multiple media channels generating a range of reactions from awe to confusion. While some applauded Soman on pushing his limits, others expressed blatant confusion deeming it an unachievable task. This bag of mixed reactions instantly blew up the campaign making it trend at fifth position on Twitter nationally.
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.
