MAM
Aegis Media and Dentsu Network join hands to create Dentsu Aegis Network
MUMBAI: From 1 January 2014 Aegis Media and Dentsu Network combined to form the Dentsu Aegis Network. Together they form the first truly global communications network for the digital age, in 110 countries worldwide with over 22,000 dedicated specialists.
Nick Waters will lead Dentsu Aegis Network in Asia Pacific and will be responsible for the management of the business and the development of network, specialist and local brands across the region.
With over 5,500 employees in China including associates, full integration in China will begin in 2015. Until then, Aegis Media and Dentsu Network will continue to work in parallel, managed by Phil Teeman CEO Aegis Media China and Motohiro Yamagishi CEO Dentsu Network China. KF Lee will take the role of Chairwoman Dentsu Aegis Network China working across the two businesses. Motohiro Yamagishi will additionally lead the Dentsu agency brand across North Asia. Rohit Ohri will lead the Dentsu agency brand across the rest of the region – Asia Pacific South.
Luke Littlefield will lead Dentsu Aegis Network Australia and New Zealand as CEO and Rob Hughes, Dentsu Aegis Network North Asia. Ashish Bhasin is appointed CEO Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia and Dick van Motman takes leadership as CEO for the group in Southeast Asia.
Brand leaders:
Motohiro Yamagishi CEO Dentsu China & North Asia
Rohit Ohri Chairman Dentsu India & CEO Dentsu Asia Pacific South
Sean O’Brien CEO Carat Asia Pacific
Jean Lin CEO Isobar Asia Pacific & Global Chief Strategy Officer
Ruth Stubbs CEO iProspect Asia Pacific
Kristian Barnes CEO Vizeum Asia Pacific
Nick Waters, CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network Asia Pacific said: “With our brand and leadership structures confirmed we have the opportunity to develop the Dentsu Aegis Network, and our client base, by delivering a wider range of distinctive products and services across the region. The new Dentsu Aegis Network has a unique position in the market, and with this brings the opportunity to grow our clients’ businesses with our own.”
The Dentsu Aegis Network will be headquartered in London. Carat, the Dentsu agency brand, iProspect, Isobar, Posterscope and Vizeum will work together for the first time under the operating model of one P&L per country alongside growing multi-market specialist and local brands.
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.
