MAM
Digitas appoints Amaresh Godbole as CEO India biz
MUMBAI: Digital agency Digitas, a Publicis Groupe brand, has announced a change in its country leadership.
Himani Kapadia, CEO Digitas and SapientRazorfish, who has been with the company for 11 years, is stepping down to pursue other interests. Amaresh Godbole, currently MD India for Digitas, takes over the reins as CEO of the brand.
He will report to Publicis Communications India CEO Saurabh Varma and to Digitas APAC CEO Annette Male for the brand. He will also join the Publicis Communications country leadership team.
Saurabh Varma comments, “Himani has done an incredible job, building the country’s largest digital agency, and she could not have left it in a better place, with strong client relationships and a seasoned leadership team. I’m excited about Amaresh’s elevation. He is one of the few people in our industry who truly understands the power of combining data, creativity, media and technology to deliver successful marketing outcomes. I look forward to the next chapter of Digitas’ ascent.”
Says Annette Male, “Himani has been the architect of the India story for Digitas and a champion of our unique culture. She will be dearly missed, all across the network. In Amaresh, she has had an able partner through this journey, and she has mentored him to take on the mantle of country leadership. I am confident he will deliver the next phase of growth for the brand in India.”
Says Himani Kapadia about her plans, “It’s been an exhilarating ride, taking the company from its inception as a startup to a recognised A list agency. It was a rewarding journey with stories, learnings and relationships that I will carry with me for a lifetime. I feel I’m now ready for a new challenge. In Amaresh and the Digitas leadership team, I feel assured knowing that the company is in safe hands.”
Amaresh Godbole commented on his new role, “I’m about to step into an industry giant’s shoes. What gives me confidence to take this on are the lessons learnt from Himani over the last decade, where we’ve seen the company through myriad circumstances. I look forward to working closely with Saurabh to learn new lessons. I am a big believer of the Publicis Groupe vision and the Power of One philosophy. Digitas has extremely unique capabilities and talent, and I hope to deploy these towards continued growth for the brand and the Groupe in India.”
Digitas India is one of the leading digital agencies in the country, with 400 experts across data, strategy, creative, media and technology spread across four cities. Digitas works with some of the top-drawer clients in the country such as Nestlé, Hewlett Packard, FCA (Jeep & Fiat), Reliance Jio, AbinBev (Budweiser), TVS Motors, Parle Agro, HUL, Tata CliQ, Tourism New Zealand and JK Tyres among others.
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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.
