MAM
BIAL, Karnataka Tourism and Thomas Cook India to launch Brand ‘Kaapi Trail’
BENGALURU: Taking a cue from the success of Scotland‘s ‘Scotch Trail‘, GVK‘s Bangalore International Airport (BIAL) in partnership with the Ministry of Karnataka and tour operator Thomas Cook (India) Ltd., announced the launch of ‘Kaapi Trail‘ (‘Kaapi‘ is the colloquial term for coffee) to attract tourism into South India and more specifically the places between Chikmaglur and Coorg in Karnataka.
The Kaapi Trail is a voyage of discovery of South India via the ‘Journey of the Coffee bean‘. Three travel packages for the tourist covering Leisure, Heritage and Adventure Trails have been created.
Thomas Cook India managing director Madhavan Menon said, “Kaapi Trail is different from ‘Incredible India.‘ South India has much to offer today‘s traveller who is hungry for unique and meaningful experiences. Thomas Cook will endeavour to implement ‘Kaapi Trail‘ in the travel brochure of every tour operator in the world.” he added.
“We believe that Kaapi Trail will help increase the popularity of the region as a much sought after travel destination. It is an attempt to put the coffee growing regions of South India on the global map, exposing travelers from across the world, to the taste, culture, heritage and overall rich experience associate with coffee,” said Karnataka State Tourism additional chief secretary Arvind Jadhav.
“We have so much to showcase to the world and make them aware of an entire new side of the region. It has been our intention to play a significant role in the economic development of the state by becoming a gateway to the South of India,” said BAIL managing director Sanjay Reddy.
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.
