MAM
Dual honours awarded to brand IndiaFirst Life stand testament to its evolution
MUMBAI: Sonia Notani, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) – IndiaFirst Life, was named among the ‘Super 30’ – CMO Honor Roll by IAMAI and iProspect, at a ceremony in Mumbai on September 13, 2019. The handpicked list aims to recognise the contributions of marketing leaders across industries in charting the course of the respective brands they are at the helm of.
The recognition comes as a validation of the company’s approach to redefine the manner life insurance is perceived, which is all about life’s welcome possibilities insurance helps prepare for, or a “life that is full of certainties”. Over a last couple of years, the organisation has run multiple, quirky yet relatable campaigns under this positioning.
Days earlier, IndiaFirst Life was recognised as the “India’s Most Admired Brand 2019” at the Ideas Fest 2019 in Delhi for a whole new perception infused into the idea of life insurance. The honour is testament to the growth, innovation, goodwill and trust the brand has built in its just close to decade-long existence, among brands in the life insurance sector with a vintage.
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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.
