MAM
DDB Mudra Group makes senior appointments
MUMBAI: The DDB Mudra Group has appointed 22feet Tribal Worldwide MD Vineet Gupta as its chief digital officer and, its planning head Aditya Kanthy as chief strategy officer. Gupta and Kanthy will be reporting directly to Group CEO & MD Madhukar Kamath.
Also joining DDB Mudra Group is an industry veteran and OOH specialist, Gour Gupta. He takes over DDB MudraMax’s portfolio of OOH, Events and Experiential as its CEO. Gupta will also be an Executive Director of the DDB Mudra Group.
“In our endeavour to partner our clients towards profitable growth, we have observed that every aspect of the DDB Mudra Group’s work from brand building to promotions design, from developing media strategies to event management is being transformed. These appointments recognize the strategic importance of data and digital technologies to our business. Vineet and Aditya will now work with me alongside Sathyamurthy Namakkal, President, DDB MudraMax Media and my other senior colleagues to build the organization for a future where business results, data and digital are at the heart of creativity, strategy and execution.” said Kamath.
Quoting on his new role, Aditya Kanthy said, “Digital technologies are transforming every aspect of our client’s business from brand building to buying. I’m looking forward to help build the DDB Mudra Group for the future, where Data and Digital are at the heart of creativity and strategy. We’re already seeing glimpses of this in the composition, structure and work of our teams that are partnering J&J, Royal Enfield, VW, Future group, SAP and USL among others. As a Group, we are constantly exploring new ways of working together and learning new skills. It’s a massive opportunity and we’re ready to take it.”
Gupta, who will be taking up his new role as CDO, in addition to his existing position as 22feet Tribal Worldwide MD said, “Data & Digital offer tremendous growth opportunities for our own business and for our clients. I look forward to collaborating with teams across the DDB Mudra Group to help identify and strategically scale these opportunities. The DDB Mudra Group is well poised to offer a strong and differentiated point of view and I am excited.”
Gour Gupta said, “DDB Mudra Group is truly a well-diversified Marketing Services Group. The growth plans for the OOH, Events & Experiential businesses are both interesting and challenging. In Sanjay Shukla, the President in DDB MudraMax, I have a very able ally. I look forward to leading a very strong and committed team that is already in place. This is one journey that I will cherish.”
Madhukar Kamath added “Gour Gupta started his agency career with Mudra. I am thrilled to welcome him as the ED of the DDB Mudra Group and the CEO of our OOH, Events & Experiential businesses. He has been a wonderful partner in our Joint Venture. With the entrepreneurial zeal and experience of Gour in the OOH business and with the proven expertise of Sanjay Shukla in the Events and Experiential space, DDB MudraMax will be a formidable agency to reckon with. Welcome Gour.”
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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.
