MAM
Arijit Ray moves to Dentsu Communications as CEO
MUMBAI: The Dentsu India Group has appointed Arijit Ray as CEO of Dentsu Communications. Ray‘s mandate will be to enhance and reinforce the agency‘s competencies and output including overall creative, strategy and services along with strengthening media synergies and driving growth.
Ray comes in from the DDBMudra Group where he was president DDBMudra West.
Dentsu India Group executive chairman Rohit Ohri said, “I am delighted to have Arijit join the leadership team at Dentsu India. Arijit‘s experience across diverse product categories and in traditional as well as new media is what will help us drive Dentsu‘s ambitious plans for India. I look forward to working closely with Arijit and Taira Kimura, COO, Dentsu Communications, to create a world-class integrated communications agency in India.”
Ray added, “Dentsu in India is the midst of a serious expansion agenda led by Rohit‘s vision of building a top-notch integrated communication network. The Group is well into the phase of building a quality talent and client base and this will only get more impetus in the endeavour to shape enduring client relationships, conceive and execute cutting edge communication mandates that are not only award worthy but more importantly worthy of recognition in the market, in the consumers mind resulting in enhanced desirability and image/ market shares.”
“What is also heartening in being a part of the Dentsu India team at this juncture, is the new benchmarks it is creating in the global context. Not many people are aware of Dentsu‘s leadership position in a large and important market like the US and the strides it has made in the digital space. I look forward to working closely with Rohit and support him in the aggressive plans he has for Dentsu in India.”
Ray has also worked with agencies like Alfred Allan Advertising, Triton Communications, Rediffusion DY&R, McCann Erickson, O&M Mumbai and Saatchi & Saatchi prior to joining DDB Mudra in 2008.
During the course of his career, he has worked with a diverse range of brands across sectors like Geep Batteries, Salora TV‘s and Fax Machines, Flurys Tea, Fanta, Kinley Soda, Excelcia Foods, Braun and Duracell.
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.
