MAM
CARS24 rolls out prank to educate customers with its ‘Dates or Best Rates’ ad
MUMBAI: CARS24, an e-commerce platform for pre-owned vehicles has rolled out its latest digital film ‘Dates or Best Rates’ that aims to create awareness for benefits of organised car buying and selling.
The film, conceptualised by Mind Your Language! humorously showcases how the platform makes the tedious and tiresome process of buying and selling cars convenient and hassle free by taking it online.
Set at a traffic signal, the ad film in Tamil language with English captions features a cyclist with a megaphone driving across cars with a mischievous agenda in mind. As a prank, he persuades the car owners stationed at the signal to sell their cars in exchange for dates. The dramatic breaks and sound effects in the music further elevate the scene capturing honest reactions to the hoax. And the final voice over- ‘With CARS24, you will never have a chance of being pranked’ brings the scene together, delivering the essence of the film.
The ad attempts to drive across the point that at CARS24, consumers not only get the best price but also the best quality capturing the true condition of the car for an enhanced consumer experience. With doorstep delivery of cars, friendly return policies and warranties, the brand aims to provide its customers with an efficient and reliable platform for their used vehicle requirements.
Commenting on the film, CARS24 head of brand Nida Naushad, said, “At CARS24, we aim to showcase relatable scenarios and experiences of the everyday consumer and this set up of a traffic signal is extremely powerful and resonating. Also, Tamil Nadu is an important market for us and through this light-hearted fun film, we wanted to bring light to how CARS24 is transforming the Indian pre-owned car industry and it is time for everyone to reap the benefits of this transformation.”
Mind Your Language! founder Deepan Ramachandran said, “Mind Your Language! helps national brands connect to South India. We identify relevant insights and cultural connections to create brand stories that strike an emotional chord with the South Indian consumer. In Tamil Nadu, there is a popular practice of exchanging scrap metal for dates. Thanks to a few comedy scenes in Tamil cinema, this fading custom has been preserved in the hearts of Tamilians. For CARS24, we gave this age-old custom a modern makeover and made it into a light-hearted and engaging film.”
The film has been released on CARS24’s social media platforms including Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn.
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.
