AD Agencies
Founder and MD Ambika Sharma becomes the sole equity stakeholder of Pulp Strategy
MUMBAI: In a massive top-tier overhaul, the reins of Pulp Strategy have been taken over by its Founder and Managing Director Ambika Sharma. Ambika Sharma the Majority stake holder acquired an the balance equity stake of 22% for an undisclosed amount from the brand’s exiting minority shareholder and Director CFO Raj Vikram Singh, to become the sole equity owner of the multi-award winning full-service marketing agency.
The restructuring has helped Pulp Strategy tide over vision mismatch and improve its agility to consolidate its domain leadership position as a leading independent Digital creative agency in India redefining the brand-consumer interaction in today’s dynamic business landscape.
With the management overhaul that was finalised in Q3 of the Fiscal Pulp Strategy has experienced accelerated growth in H2, as it gears up for large-scale business expansion, with a singular focus on innovation driven by an in-depth understanding of the industry.
With new client acquisitions including brands like Tupperware, Barco, Hero Electric, Proburst and Philips Avent, The agency is now looking to increase its focus on content marketing, digital engagement, while simultaneously leveraging interactive new-age technologies for its expanding client portfolio.
On the development, Pulp Strategy, Founder and Managing Director, Ambika Sharma said, “As a young business it was important for us to maintain our agility as well ensure that our talent contributes towards the improvement of our offerings as well as our commitment to our clients. This decision to re-haul management has been taken with an aim to augment the growth trajectory of Pulp Strategy and to consolidate the agency’s market position. It will enable us to further our aggressive growth plans while strictly maintaining an industry-focused and innovation-driven approach.”
Incorporated in 2011, Pulp Strategy at present drives revenue worth Rs. 443 million and is eyeing forward-thinking product and service offerings to support its market ascension and client base expansion. Its current and previous clientele includes the likes of Google, Philips, Microsoft, Michelin, Canon, Rolls Royce and Yahoo!, amongst others.
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.
