MAM
Dentsu Webchutney brings back ‘90s nostalgia with Logitech’s Friendship Day campaign
MUMBAI: Inspired by the ‘90s era, Dentsu Webchutney, the creatively led digital agency from Dentsu Aegis Network, has launched the ‘Logitech Buddy Board’- a keyboard innovation that lets two to five friends play a game together on just one single keyboard. The campaign went live on Friendship Day with a unique microsite www.logitechbuddyboard.com.
The game is a throwback to the iconic ‘90s with the classic 8-bit art style and multiplayer arcade gaming. Players have to team up and control their individual avatars in the game while trying to score as high as possible. A leaderboard tracks the rankings with prizes being given to the top teams.
From an initiative started by the ‘greeting cards’ industry to a monumental event that is celebrated by brands and people from all over the world, Friendship Day has evolved into something that’s much more than just tying brightly coloured wristbands. However, the concept of friendship itself has changed over the years due to the rise of social media, smartphone addiction and phubbing (snubbing someone in favour of a mobile phone). Heartfelt bonding and intimacy have turned into friend requests – a far cry from the way people bonded over trump cards, board games and arcade gaming back in the ‘90s.
Gurbaksh Singh, Chief Creative Technologist, Dentsu Webchutney says, “Hectic work schedules and social media have changed the way we perceive friendship. Things were very different back in the ‘90s. We took this nostalgic hook and decided to hack into the keyboard interface so that at a time five players can play independently with their avatars. With this fun game, we hope to evoke the spirit of friendship the way it was in the ‘90s.”
Abbas Zaidi, Creative Director, Dentsu Webchutney explains, “The ‘90s for many of us were making friends over furious button mashing on Nintendo and Sega systems. So, this Friendship Day we decided to tap into nostalgia and make old friends revisit that era. Through Buddy Board we made it possible for multiple friends to come together (literally, on the same keyboard) to play an 8-bit game like the old times and score some sweet loot too.”
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.
