AD Agencies
ASCI fortifies guidelines for qualification of brand extension of restricted categories
Mumbai: The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has updated its guidelines for ‘Qualification of Brand Extension-products and services’ under the restricted category prohibited from advertising by law. These modifications have been detailed in Chapter III Clause 3.6 (a) of the ASCI code, and specifically target brand extensions associated with restricted categories such as liquor and tobacco.
While ASCI had in place specific guidelines for brand extension, which were modified a few months back, it was felt necessary to further strengthen these in view of mega-budget celebrity campaigns during high-profile sporting events in India. ASCI’s current guidelines provide for brand extensions to cross certain thresholds of business, investment or distribution criteria for them to be considered genuine extensions. ASCI has now added specific criteria also for advertising spends in relation to turnover of the said extension.
Key Features of the New Code for Brand Extensions:
1. Advertising spends have to be in proportion to sales turnover of extension: ASCI has mandated that the advertising budget for genuine brand extensions of restricted master brands has to be commensurate with the extension’s sales turnover. The proportions for the ad budgets are capped at 200 per cent (ie. not more than 200 per cent) of the turnover in the first two years of launch of the extension, followed by 100 per cent (i.e. not more than 100 per cent) of revenue in the third year, 50 per cent in the fourth year, and 30 per cent thereafter. The advertising budget includes media expenditure across all forms of media in the previous 12 months, payments to celebrities for brand endorsements on an annualised basis, and the annual average money spent on advertising production for the brand extension in the previous three years.
This measure will ensure a balanced approach to advertising investment in alignment with the extension’s sales performance over time.
2. Treatment of Variants under Brand Extension: For clarity, any variants launched under the brand extension will not be considered as a fresh extension. The original date of the first brand extension will apply.
3. Certification by Reputed CA Firms: To ensure genuine compliance, all evidence supporting the brand extension’s qualifications for advertising must be certified by a reputed and independent CA firm.
4. If a brand extension of a parent brand that is under one of the restricted categories don’t meet the updated qualifications, ASCI will not consider it to be a genuine extension, but a surrogate created to advertise a restricted category. ASCI’s updates will contribute to maintaining the integrity of advertising in India, upholding ethical standards, and protecting consumers from misleading practices.
Throwing more light on the amendment to the fresh changes to the Brand Extension Guidelines ASCI CEO and secretary general Manisha Kapoor said, “As part of our ongoing commitment to consumer protection and ethical advertising, ASCI has introduced these new additions to the brand extension guidelines. These measures are essential to prevent the misuse of brand extensions as surrogates for advertising in restricted categories. We believe that these guidelines will strengthen the integrity of advertising in the industry.”
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.
