MAM
Are brands ready to ride on Mumbai Metro?
MUMBAI: Over 1.5 million Mumbaikars have already taken the metro in its inaugural week. Mumbai Metro One Private (MMOPL), an arm of Reliance Infrastructure and Mumbai Metro’s operator, has already grabbed the attention of commuters with the one month promotional fare of Rs 10. According to a national daily, MMOPL has so far mopped up a revenue of 1.15 crore.
It won’t be wrong to say that the metro has added an interesting transit media options for brands. It is known that Times OOH has the advertisement rights of metro for a period of 15 years. It can be noted that the agency also has the advertising rights of Delhi Metro.
There are multiple advertising opportunities available currently at the first line of Mumbai metro. With 147 digital signboards, 375 static units at the 12 stations along with pillar wraps brands can also opt for train wraps and naming rights for the stations.
Ultra Tech cement and Jenburkt pharmaceuticals are first takers of Mumbai metro’s in-metro and train wraps advertising inventories.
Times OOH managing director Sunder Hemrajani said, “Our learning from Delhi metro has been enriching. We will be taking key insights while executing strategies for the new Mumbai metro line.”
There are conversations between the outdoor concecossionaire and brands to offer customised packages to capture the right target audience and achieve maximum impact. The agency has also pointed out that BSFI, FMCG and local retail brands are showing the maximum interest in advertising on these available inventories.
It is for the first time in India that digital screens will be used to its maximum in a transit media set up. The agency is in talks with digital screen suppliers and these are expected to go up in two months time.
Is it worth the money?
According to industry sources, though Times OOH is providing customised ad packages for brands, a few inventories are highly priced. For instance, source have said that for naming rights for the stations, rates are that are being negotiated are around Rs 25 lakh 50 lakh per month with a five year lock-in.
A marketing head of a real estate brand mentions that though a few inventories look promising, conversations are still going on to get a reasonable rate for short term campaigns.
Also, while Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and Reliance are still disputing over charging higher fare rates, many marketers believe if ticket prices do move north, the move might dissuade commuters from taking the Metro. And if that happens, Times OOH could well end up taking a bumpy ride.
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.
