MAM
Adstream appoints Dipali Mahesh as managing director for India
MUMBAI: Adstream has announced the appointment of Dipali Mahesh as managing director for Adstream India effective from 9 May. Mahesh joins from HIT 95 FM where she served as national sales head.
A global provider of media delivery, digital asset management and analytic technology, the company is headquartered in London and helps brands and agencies to manage the creation, optimization, storage and delivery of content.
“After a comprehensive search process, Adstream is pleased to have found the best individual to assume leadership of our world-class operations in India.” said Adstream Asia CEO Christine Sterk. “Dipali has a track record of strong leadership and innovation. This combined with her deep industry knowledge across television, cinema, radio and print makes Dipali uniquely qualified to lead Adstream India successfully into the future.”
“I’m honoured, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to lead this exceptional organisation of dedicated and talented professionals.” said Mahesh.
She added further, “Adstream globally delivers every type of media including tv, cinema, radio, print, digital and out of home advertising. Our end-to-end advertising solutions impact customers by increasing efficiency, reducing costs and improving quality. Right now in India we deliver a small part of Adstream’s global solutions. My target is to bring all of Adstream’s extraordinary offerings to India. This is a terrific opportunity that any leader would welcome.”
Adstream currently works with over 6,000 global agencies and brands. They claim to manage over 25 mn creative assets and delivering 2 mn assets per year to more than 125 countries. The Adstream Technology Platform is a all-in-one digital asset management solution which allows agencies and brands to collaborate, review and store all forms of marketing content as well as delivery across multiple channels in a single system and enables seamless workflows and unparalleled advertising and marketing transparency.
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.
