MAM
Havas appoints Joji Jacob as regional CCO for Southeast & North Asia
Mumbai: As a creative partner and co-founder at BLKJ Havas Singapore, Joji Jacob has been appointed regional chief creative officer for Southeast Asia and North Asia.
Joji will take on comprehensive responsibility for steering the creative direction and ensuring seamless integration into client engagements across the region. Through his role as Chair of Havas’ APAC and member of the Global Creative Council, he will work closely with the council to drive creativity across local offices and explore innovative storytelling approaches while maintaining meaningful connections.
Over the past 20 years, Joji has contributed significantly to renowned agencies in India and Singapore. In addition to co-founding BLKJ in 2016 and joining the Havas family in 2021, BLKJ Havas boasts an impressive client portfolio that includes the likes of Great Eastern, the Economic Development Board of Singapore, and JLL.
The former group executive creative director Joji at DDB has a remarkable track record in the advertising industry. During his nine-year tenure, the agency received numerous accolades and became one of the most awarded in the industry. Joji himself has been recognised as Singapore’s Most Influential creative director and Southeast Asia’s creative person of the Year, consecutively for two years. He has also served as a prestigious juror for global and regional awards shows such as Cannes, D&AD, LIA, One Show, and Spikes Asia. Known for his innovative thinking and ability to create iconic campaigns, Joji is revered for his commitment to excellence and passion for his craft.
Barua shared his opinions regarding the appointment, “As a network, our united focus is consistently directed towards delivering clients a meaningful experience through exceptional work, achieved by investing in the best talent. The region while culturally diverse shares the same purpose. Joji with his extensive experience and creative strength across the region, will enhance our overall creative output, and play a universal role in fostering positive momentum for all markets, building towards the goal of One Asia. This appointment underscores Havas’ commitment to cultivating top-tier creative leadership, driving the creative mandate and signifies a significant stride toward achieving our growth objectives in these dynamic markets.”
Joji Jacob expressed, “I’ve spent 20 years as a creative, with the last ten years spent leading a creative business. So, I step into this role not just with experience but also with a beginner’s mindset. Rana and I have been discussing the many plans and ambitions and my job is to help create the conditions that enable our people make the best work of their lives for our clients, and I find myself at the right place and at the right time. Havas is a place where the entrepreneurial spirit thrives, meaning it’s not set in its ways. We can respond to a rapidly changing marketplace with agility which I find exciting. And Rana’s energy is infectious, that’s one bug I’m happy to catch.”
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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.
