AD Agencies
Goafest 2025 kicks off with AI, stardom and Gen Z in a high-octane creative melting pot
GOA: : Goafest 2025 opened its gates with more than just confetti. On 21 May, the industry’s most awaited gathering lit up the Taj Cidade de Goa with provocations, predictions, and panels that sparked sharp thinking and bolder storytelling. The event, themed ‘Ignite ___’, kicked off with performances, power panels, and provocative conversations that challenged status quos and invited fresh perspectives.
Hosted by The Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) and The Advertising Club (TAC), GoaFest 2025 began with a ceremonial champagne pop, a lamp lighting, and a high-voltage performance by Mika Singh. Amazon MX Player, Mediakart, and other partners set the tone with a theme of momentum, celebration, and transformation.
Publicis Groupe senior advisor Rishad Tobaccowala opened with a riveting session presented by Set India and Sab TV, titled ‘Staying Relevant in an Age of Machines’. Moderated by Publicis south Asia Anupriya Acharya, the keynote decoded AI’s future impact on creativity. Tobaccowala called AI “underhyped” and said the true differentiator will be “HI” — human ingenuity, intuition, and inventiveness. “Agencies must embrace AI to rethink storytelling and business models”, he warned, adding, “It’s time to burn the old ways of thinking and upgrade your mental operating system”.
The spotlight then shifted to Hindi cinema royalty. Kareena Kapoor Khan took the stage in a session presented by Amazon MX Player and powered by Times Network. In conversation with Atika Farooqi, she reframed her iconic line “Main Apni Favourite Hoon” as a life philosophy. “Self-love is not just a phrase—it’s the foundation of everything”, she said, while speaking about motherhood, reinvention, and resilience in cinema.
The final session of the day, ‘Swipe Right for Relevance’, tackled gen z brand affinity. Powered by Whisper World and Eenadu, and moderated by journalist Anuradha Sen Gupta, it featured Amarjit Singh Batra (Spotify), Geetika Mehta (Nivea India), and Vikram Mehra (Saregama). All three echoed the same beat: Gen z wants authenticity, not advertisements. Batra said, “More than 50 per cent of our audience is under 25. Gen z values experiences, honesty, and wellness”. Mehta added, “They’re not distracted, they’re discerning. Sustainability, purpose, and credibility are expectations, not bonuses”. Mehra called it straight: “They see through gimmicks. Micro-influencers and social listening trump celebrities.”
AAAI president and GroupM south Asia CEO Prasanth Kumar, anchored the day, saying, “Goafest 2025 is about igniting transformative ideas. With 60+ speakers, 35+ sessions, and 20+ masterclasses, we’re not just discussing the future — we’re creating it”.
The Abby Awards 2025 Powered by One Show saw 4,076 entries from 233 companies, marking its fourth year in collaboration with The One Show. The day wrapped with a sunset Sundowner powered by Truecaller & Big Live, followed by the Publisher & Media Abby awards, co-powered by Amazon MX Player, Mediakart, and Zee. DJ SLG and JioStar lit up the After Hours Party.
Day one ended on a high, as Goafest reaffirmed its reputation as the pulse of India’s creative economy.
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.
