MAM
CupShup launches BTL activation across 3000 corporates for edtech major upGrad
MUMBAI: CupShup, an independent advertising start-up, has joined hands with upGrad to help corporates upgrade their skills in today's fast-changing technology landscape. upGrad is one of India’s largest online higher education company, which provides online programs in Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Digital Marketing, MBA in collaboration with some of the most reputed universities in India and internationally, like IIT Madras, IIIT Bangalore, BITS Pilani Deakin University, Liverpool Business School among others. The company’s core differentiator is its deep investment in technology and the learning experience, as well as a high-touch model to ensure the highest rates of completion by any online player in the world and a focus on successful career transitions for its learners.
With CupShup’s support, the team distributed more than 3 lakhs cups in 10 cities including Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai earlier this year. The team plans to successfully tie-up with 1000+ corporates by the end of this quarter. The cups were distributed with some unique and innovative taglines, in major corporate & tech parks, motivating corporate employees to take up these programs to ‘rise up’ in their careers.
In addition to cup branding, other branding options like lift, pedal lock were explored to generate brand awareness. Career counsellors from upGrad visited the corporates to interact with professionals and advise them on the need for upskilling.
Commenting on the campaign, CupShup, co-founder Sidharth Singh said, “Corporates now understand the importance of upskilling to grow in their respective careers. Our campaign with upGrad is very relevant as it is targeted at the corporates and focuses on the benefits of upgrading their skills and how can one select the right path to sustain themselves in the corporate."
upGrad chief business officer Abhishek Arora said, “Discussing career choices and growth prospects becomes more contextual in workplace than in an informal environment. CupShup has helped us to reach our core TG in the right context, which has helped us to scale our business. While we have started with a 10-city campaign, we plan to scale the activity to more cities in the coming quarters.”
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.
