MAM
Cheil Worldwide to handle Deutsche Bahn account
MUMBAI: Cheil Worldwide has been appointed by Germany‘s national rail operator Deutsche Bahn as its advertising partner.
The mandate includes strategy, creative concept, execution and long-term strategy in these fields.
Cheil will be advising Deutsche Bahn on mobile marketing and complex digital projects such as management of portal site (bahn.com) to engage consumers online.
Deutsche Bahn is a leading local public transport and rail freight in Europe. It has 27,000 trains that carry 7.3 million passengers every day.
Cheil Germany COO Volker Selle said, “This is the victory of the whole agency and our spirit of Tuhon, the relentless drive to succeed, is alive in Germany. One of our strongest characteristics is definitely our Korean background, meaning that we actively focus on and incorporate huge enthusiasm for technology and the constant will to improve into all of our processes. We aim to help Deutsche Bahn rise above the communications clutter creatively in order to reach their digital audience.”
The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has assigned Cheil to handle their advertising, strategic planning and communication requirements. The DEWA provides electricity and water for the Emirate of Dubai. Cheil will support the consumer relations, corporate marketing strategies and CSR initiatives for DEWA .
In China Cheil has been chosen to provide marketing services for CITIC Guoan wine. Cheil‘s raft of new clients are varied in terms of industry and region includes Net4India (ICT) in India, Jaguar (automotive) and Sorgenia (power and natural gas) in Italy, Estee-Lauder (cosmetics) in France, Intel (semiconductor) in Turkey, Audi (automotive) in Singapore, Volvo (automotive) in Thailand, Baltika (beer) in Russia and China Mobile Communications Corporation (telecommunications) in the Middle Kingdom.
These wins are in line with Cheil‘s efforts to become relevant to their clients on a local level. It has also indulged in the recruitment of local executives to run local offices. Cheil also has investments in other agency brands that retain their own identities and distinct service offerings. These include acquiring a stake in Beattie McGuinness Bungay, a London-based agency as well as scooping US-based McKinney and Bravo in China. All in all, it has won 60 global clients this year.
Cheil Worldwide president and CEO Nack-hoi Kim said, “This year, we have achieved our best performance ever at the Cannes Lions by winning 12 Lions and the world is recognizing our creativity. We will continue to bag local clients in various markets, through the synergy of Cheil and acquired agencies, to position as a global top player.”
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.
