AD Agencies
Dentsu Aegis Network rebranded as Dentsu International
After six years of its establishment in 2014, Dentsu Aegis Network has decided to rebrand itself as Dentsu International. Agency CEO Toshihiro Yamamoto announced the news in a notice to Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The move places more than 66,000 people globally within the Dentsu brand. As per the agency, the rebranding will allow all Dentsu employees to deliver on the group’s philosophy of true client-centricity through 'open teaming'—the concept of all employees realizing innovation for clients from anywhere.
Dentsu International operates in over 145 markets worldwide with more than 48,000 specialists under nine key brands: Carat, Dentsu X, iProspect, Isobar, Dentsumcgarrybowen, Merkle, MKTG, Vizeum and Posterscope.
This follows a transformational period for the international business, focused on simplifying its offer to deliver world-class services and integrated marketing solutions that are data-driven, tech-enabled and ideas-led, tailored around clients’ needs. This simplification has seen three lines of business established across media, CRM and creative, making it easier for clients to navigate its services and allowing them to win, keep and grow their best customers. This transformation has positioned Dentsu international as the market leader for data, analytics and CRM.
The move marks a new chapter for the international business, following the arrival of Wendy Clark earlier in September as global CEO.
Clark said: “This represents an important milestone in the evolution of our international business as we build on Dentsu's rich legacy of innovation and industry leadership along with the dynamic growth story of Dentsu Aegis Network. Our business provides our clients and our people with the best of both worlds, helping them to achieve meaningful progress against a backdrop of unprecedented change and disruption.”
The business will be registered as Dentsu International Limited with UK Companies House and is expected to be in use from early October 2020.
Japan-based Dentsu acquired UK-based Aegis Network in 2013, leading to the subsequent establishment of Dentsu Aegis Network, representing the global operations of the group, outside Japan, in 2014.
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.
