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Dentsu buys 95% stake in Swedish analytics co Outfox Intelligence
MUMBAI: Dentsu, Inc. has announced that its global business headquarters Dentsu Aegis Network has reached an agreement to acquire a 95 per cent stake in Outfox Intelligence AB, an analytics and conversion optimization company in Sweden. The agreement also gives the Dentsu Group the option to make Outfox a wholly-owned subsidiary.
Established in 2010 in Stockholm, Sweden, Outfox comprises 14 top class consultants, including its two founders, and has steadily improved business performance since its establishment. In addition to being authorized as a Google Analytics Certified partner and a leading sales and service partner for Google Analytics 360 Suite1, Outfox is also a certified partner of Optimizely, earning a strong reputation as the largest corporate authorized reseller in the Nordic region.
Following the acquisition, Outfox will be integrated into iProspect, one of the Dentsu Group’s global network brands2 with strengths in the digital performance domain. With this new acquisition the Dentsu Group will deepen the collaborative relationship with Amnet, which provides trading desk services delivering more timely digital advertising to more accurate targets, heightening the synergy effects within the Group in the Nordic region.
The impact of this transaction on Dentsu’s consolidated financial results for the fiscal year ending 31 December, 2017 is expected to be minimal.
1. Google Analytics 360 Suite is a comprehensive service providing data collection and analysis, decision-making and actions that can be utilised through a Google Analytics 360 certified reseller or by directly contracting with Google. All certified resellers meet stringent requirements, providing the same services as when used directly from Google. In Japan, seven companies, including Dentsu Digital, are authorised resellers.
2. Dentsu Aegis Networkm the Dentsu Group’s global business headquarters based in London, is expanding the Group’s business worldwide through ten global network brands–Carat, Dentsu (Dentsu Brand Agencies), Dentsu media, iProspect, Isobar, mcgarrybowen, Merkle, MKTG, Posterscope and Vizeum–as well as through several specialist/multi-market brands.
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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.
