MAM
10th AdFest announces agenda, lines up 14 sessions
MUMBAI: With the 10th AdFest just around the corner, the Asia Pacific Advertising Festival president Jimmy Lam has announced the agenda for this year consisting of 14 speaker sessions. The festival will kick off on 14 March and culminate on 17 March at Peach, Royal Cliff Beach resort, Pattaya in Thailand.
“This is the laregst AdFest ever and I am delighted that we have been able to provide such a rich content for our delegates. This year’s speakers and topics are simply too good to be missed,” says Lam
Confirmed creative speakers at the event include David Droga speaking on how ‘The future isn’t what it used to be’, John Hunt will talk about how ‘If it ain’t got that swing, it don’t mean a thing’ and Benjamin Palmer giving advice on ‘Learning by doing’. Peter Souter valiantly tackles the unpredictable with ‘The future of advertising.’
This year, the AdFest has invited speakers to throw some light on consumer insights. David McCaughan runs McCann-Erickson’s Pulse survey. His topic is ‘Don’t call them consumers’. Daniela Krautsack’s from Mediacom Vienna will throw light on the influence of ambient media in ‘Cows in Jackets’.
The panel discussions that are popular at AdFest have been brought back and include Paul Kemp-Robertson from Contagious leading a panel discussion on “Brand Utility” with creative leaders from the Asia Pacific region. Lewis Blackwell advises delegates to ‘Look, don’t read”, and will lead a panel discussion with some of AdFest judges.
Japan Advertising Federation will share with delegates ‘The Practical Guide to Planet Japan’. Three speakers from Dentsu, Hakuhodo and ADK will be joined by moderator Chris Kyme, informs an official rekease.
Japan Association of Commercial Film will present its all time favourite ‘Remarkable Five’, introducing five young TVC directors from Japan, Philippines, New Zealand, Singapore and Bangladesh. Each budding director will present his or her short film based on the “Turning Ten” theme of AdFest 2007.
AdFest has invited festivals from other regions to showcase the best work. Among these, Daniel Marcet will present FIAP – the Latin American advertising festival with its winning ads. Jure Apih will present the award winners from Golden Drum – the new Europe advertising festival. Michael Conrad will talk about the mission of the first ever, InterContinental Advertising Cup to be held in Spain in November 2007.
Last but not least, Donald Gunn will release the Gunn Report for the year 2006 and reveal the tally of most awarded ads, the most awarded agencies, clients and countries.
Last but not least, Donald Gunn will release the Gunn Report for the year 2006 and reveal the tally of most awarded ads, the most awarded agencies, clients and countries.
Among the Indian representatives at the AdFest this year, Ogilvy & Mather India, Mumbai executive chairman and national creative director Piyush Pandey has been invited to preside over the Press Lotus category chairperson, he has also been roped in as a speaker on 16 March.
Leo Burnett India, Mumbai executive creative director Nitish Tiwari has been invited to join the judges panel for the Outdoor Lotus category, while McCann Erickson, Mumbai creative director Raghu Bhat will be on the panel of judges for the TV Lotus category.
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.
