AD Agencies
Havas brings Play to belgium with Digizik acquisition
BELGIUM: Havas has tuned into Belgium’s cultural pulse with the acquisition of Digizik, officially launching Havas Play in the market. The entertainment and culture specialist will now operate as Digizik by Havas Play, strengthening the group’s push into passion-led marketing built around music, sport, gaming, fashion and lifestyle.
Founded in 2011 by François Charles and Grégory Lefillatre, Digizik has carved out a reputation as a cultural connector, using music and entertainment to shape stories that resonate beyond the screen or stage. The agency works with around 30 active clients and brings with it a close-knit network spanning Belgium’s cultural scene and key international players.
Its client list reads like a playlist of big brands and cultural heavyweights, including Universal Music, BNP Paribas Fortis, Red Bull, Warner Music, Campari Group’s Picon, Orange’s Hey!, John Martin Brewery and Casio’s G-Shock. Digizik has also produced event content with artists such as Stromae, Angèle, Bigflo and Oli, Major Lazer and Justice, alongside rising talent.
By folding Digizik into Havas Play, the group sharpens its integrated village offering in Belgium, bringing cultural creativity alongside media, creative, advisory and public affairs services. The move also plugs local expertise into Havas Play’s global activation network, supported by the group’s Converged.AI technology platform.
Havas chairman and CEO Yannick Bolloré, said the acquisition reflects the group’s strategy of blending creative excellence with data and AI-driven capabilities, while giving Belgian brands a powerful new way to connect with audiences through culture.
For Digizik’s founders, the deal marks a new chapter. François Charles and Grégory Lefillatre said joining forces with Havas Play opens the door to transforming audiences into engaged communities and creating experiences that live at the crossroads of entertainment and culture.
Havas Belgium co-CEO Hugues Rey added that the move firmly anchors the group in entertainment marketing, turning cultural insight into measurable impact and giving brands a more meaningful way to join the conversation.
The launch of Havas Play in Belgium signals a clear intent from the group to place culture at the heart of brand building. By combining Digizik’s deep-rooted entertainment credentials with Havas’ global scale and technology-led approach, the group is positioning itself to help brands move from simple visibility to lasting cultural relevance in an increasingly experience-driven market.
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.
