MAM
FCB Kinnect names Neville Shah as the new CCO
Mumbai: FCB Kinnect, part of FCB Group India, welcomes Neville Shah as its new chief creative officer, representing a pivotal moment in the agency’s continuous creative progression.
As chief creative officer, Neville will partner closely with FCB Kinnect’s CEO Rohan Mehta and COO Chandni Shah to lead the offices for FCB Kinnect and FCB/SIX across the country. He will also be a key member of FCB Group India’s creative leadership, collaborating with leaders across agencies to continue elevating the work across the network.
With over twenty years of experience, Neville emerges as a profound creative leader for the modern era, consistently advocating for curiosity. He has worked on brands like Mondelez, Bajaj Auto, Chevrolet, Standard Chartered Bank, Star Sports, Amazon, and more, embracing uniqueness and steering them toward the quest for creative brilliance.
On his appointment, Dheeraj Sinha, FCB Group CEO of India and South Asia, said, “Neville joins us at such an exciting time for the FCB Group in India, where we are forging a new phase of growth and glory. His passion for modern creativity and adeptness at leveraging data and technology make him an exceptional addition to our team. Under his leadership, we will continue to foster an environment that celebrates creativity as an economic multiplier, empowers talent, and produces globally benchmarked work that sets the standard for innovation and excellence in our industry.”
FCB Kinnect and FCB/SIX India chief executive officer Rohan Mehta said on the appointment, “Neville’s professional journey has been truly remarkable, marked by outstanding growth. We are excited about the opportunity this presents for our young creatives to enhance their craft under his mentorship. In today’s advertising landscape, humour serves as a powerful catalyst, and with Neville, we anticipate leveraging this element even more effectively for our brands. With him at the helm, we aim to foster a unified creative culture at FCB Kinnect, where innovation is a collective pursuit that spans across verticals, to deliver unparalleled digital-first creative solutions to our clients.”
FCB Kinnect chief creative officer Neville Shah added, “I am very excited to be part of FCB Kinnect. Every conversation has been about driving great creative work and strengthening creative culture. There is so much talent, so many resources to make great things happen here. We are in the business of ideas and great ideas are what we will chase. It’s what will help our clients win and put us on the global map. The agency and the group are rife with ambition and there’s no better time to start this journey.”
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.
