MAM
Dentsu Aegis Network acquires majority stake in WATConsult
MUMBAI: Dentsu Aegis Network today announced the acquisition of WATConsult, one of India’s leading social and digital media agencies, with over 160 professionals in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata. WATConsult will become part of Isobar, Dentsu Aegis Network’s global digital marketing agency and will be referred to as “WATConsult – Linked by Isobar”.
Having evolved from being a social media agency to a full service digital agency, WATConsult also provides its client base with creative and technology services across mobile, digital and video. Other specialist areas include an in-house analytics capability with dashboards and tools for social and digital media. Clients include the Godrej Group, Nikon, Tata Chemicals, Bestseller Group, Bajaj Allianz and more than 70 other national and global brands.
Dentsu Aegis Network Asia Pacific CEO Nick Waters said, “The acquisition of WATConsult marks another significant step for our group in India. This is a high quality award winning market leader specialising in one of the fastest growing and critical segments of the market. Alongside Isobar, iProspect, and WebChutney we have created the largest and highest quality digital services capability in India. We view India as a priority market and will continue to seek scaled and quality investment opportunities here.”
Dentsu Aegis Network chairman and CEO south Asia Ashish Bhasin added, “Having WATConsult, a leader in social media, as a member of our family will further enhance our digital offering to our clients and support our growth in the market. WATConsult, will join iProspect, Isobar and Webchutney in making our digital offering the most comprehensive in India.”
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.
