AD Agencies
Goafest 2024 – day 1 sets the stage for adaptation and innovation with speakers
Mumbai: South Asia’s most definitive advertising, media, and marketing festival, Goafest 2024, is all set to bring together stalwarts from across the industry with a focus on adaptation and innovation. Co-hosted by The Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) and The Advertising Club (TAC), Day 1 of the festival will feature key industry experts exploring the diverse aspects of the theme ‘The Age of Adaptability’.
The festival will kick off with keynotes from industry leaders. The opening session titled Adapt To Thrive Not Just Survive, will witness Harit Nagpal, Managing Director & CEO of Tata Play, emphasize on the importance of adaptability as a key to thriving rather than merely surviving. Following this, an insightful session on Navigating The Age Of Adaptability by Sanjiv Mehta, Executive Chairman of L Catterton India will explore the essential components of leading with vision, flexibility, and purpose in today’s rapidly evolving market landscape.
Thereafter, in an impactful session titled From Setbacks to Comebacks: The Power of Persistence, acclaimed Writer and Film Director Tahira Kashyap in conversation with Atika Farooqui, Anchor/ Creative Director, Viacom18 will captivate the audiences with her inspiring journey, underscoring the transformative power of perseverance in turning obstacles into stepping stones.
Concluding Day 1 with what adaptability means in real life, a session titled Embracing Failure to Touch Success, will feature Indian actress Medha Shankr, and actor Vikrant Massey. Moderated by the multifaceted Actor, Producer & Entrepreneur Neha Dhupia, the session will witness Medha and Vikrant, the cast of the acclaimed film 12th Fail, enlighten the audience with their insights on embracing failure as a stepping stone towards triumph.
Scheduled to take place from 29 to 31 May, 2024, at The Westin Mumbai, Powai Lake, the stellar speakers and sessions on Day 1 will serve as a poignant reminder that even in the face of adversity, there is potential for extraordinary growth and achievement.
Stay tuned for Day 2 and Day 3. To know the agenda for Day 2 and Day 3, please log on
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.
