AD Agencies
DDB Mudra appoints 11 specialists in GOB
MUMBAI: As a part of its endeavor to build a future ready marketing services organisation, DDB Mudra Group has reconstituted the executive board and has announced the formation of The Group Operating Board (GOB). Consisting of leaders with a proven track record within the group and the industry, GOB members bring together diverse skillsets in marketing services and technology from across geographies.
The GOB will advice and assist the Group CEO and MD, Chairman & CCO and CFO on various aspects related to leading and growing the organisation. The GOB will focus on achieving the group’s People and Product goals to deliver client excellence.
The Group Operating Board will include:
• Aditya Kanthy- Chief Strategy Officer, DDB Mudra Group
• Anurag Bansal- Chief Financial Officer, DDB Mudra Group
• Gour Gupta- Executive Director, DDB Mudra Group & CEO, DDB Mudramax (OOH, Events & Experiential)
• Madhukar Kamath, Group CEO & MD, DDB Mudra Group
• Ranji Cherian- President, DDB Mudra South&East
• Rajiv Sabnis- Executive Director, DDB Mudra Group & President, DDB Mudra West
• Rita Verma- Executive Vice President- Organization Development, DDB Mudra Group
• Sathyamurthy Namakkal- Executive Director, DDB Mudra Group & President, DDB Mudramax- Media
• Sonal Dabral, Chairman & CCO, DDB Mudra Group
• Vandana Das- President, DDB Mudra North
• Vineet Gupta- Chief Digital Officer, DDB Mudra Group and MD, 22feet Tribal Worldwide
Quoting on the development, Madhukar Kamath said, “I am thrilled that each one of them is also a specialist in his / her field. The Group Operating Board will help lead collaborations with external partners in Technology, Data Analytics and Content.”
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.
