MAM
Antony Rajkumar is the new planning head for Leo Burnett Delhi
MUMBAI: Leo Burnett Group India has announced the appointment of Antony Rajkumar as the planning head at Leo Burnett Delhi.
With this new assignment, Rajkumar will work closely with Rajeev Sharma, national brand planning head for the company to lead strategic planning and brand management and will be stationed at the agency’s Delhi office.
Welcoming Rajkumar to the company, Sharma said, “Antony will be a key contributor towards taking our HumanKind philosophy forward. His track record of providing outstanding business solutions to brands, over a career of over 18 years, speaks for itself. I am looking forward to his rich and varied experience in consulting, research, integrated communications, content marketing and brand storytelling in providing strategic depth to our client’s businesses.”
Agreeing with Sharma, Leo Burnett Delhi executive director Samir Gangahar added, “I am delighted to have Antony on board. As a genuinely integrated thinker I see him adding tremendous value to our clients’ businesses and the agency itself. Channeling this ability to create a compelling purpose and relevant participation platforms for our portfolio of brands will help us become an even stronger HumanKind agency.”
Prior to Leo Burnett, Rajkumar was working with J Walter Thompson (JWT) as VP and strategy planning director since 2011. During his tenure there, he was also a part of the WPP Blue Hive leadership team on the Ford Motor Company relationship for the region.
Thrilled about his new engagement, Rajkumar said, “My conversation with Leo Burnett helped me see a very young agency keen and ready to lead the evolution that our industry is going through. I’m excited to be part of this plan in taking Leo Burnett even further and higher, which is why I’m here!”
“Planning’s focus here is in finding purpose for products and participation from people to engage with that purpose. HumanKind, the agency’s global philosophy and approach, which I personally connect with, provides a great context to doing that,” he added.
Rajkumar began his career in January 2004, in planning with Maa Communications Bozell. He joined as branch manager and was soon promoted to vice president – strategy and planning. He then moved to Equitor Management Consulting as regional director before moving to JWT in 2011.
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.
