AD Agencies
Havas India goes green with swanky eco-certification
MUMBAI: Havas India has polished its environmental halo after scooping the coveted ISO 14001:2015 certification, positioning itself as the advertising world’s unlikely eco-warrior in a notoriously wasteful industry.
The certification – which required a full year of scrutiny by the rather stern-faced British Standards Institution (BSI) – covers six agencies under the Havas umbrella, including its creative, media and design outfits across multiple locations.
“We believe the future of business lies in responsible and sustainable growth,” declared Havas India group chief executive SEA & North Asia Rana Barua presumably while sitting under an energy-efficient light bulb. “This milestone sets a new benchmark in the industry, reinforcing our position as the most future-ready advertising network in India.”
The rigorous certification process subjected the agency to a forensic examination of its environmental policies, carbon footprint and sustainable resource management – a far cry from the champagne-soaked, private-jet lifestyle traditionally associated with advertising bigwigs.
Havas India chief HR officer & Havas APAC chief inclusion officer Vandana Tilwani was quick to emphasise this wasn’t just a “tick-box exercise” – corporate speak for “we’re actually serious about this” – while hinting at even more ambitious green plans ahead.
Industry insiders suggest the eco-certification could give Havas a competitive edge when pitching to increasingly environmentally conscious clients, allowing them to smugly flaunt their green credentials while rivals desperately recycle their plastic water bottles in meetings.
“Reducing environmental impact not only contributes to a healthier planet, but also inspires stakeholder trust,” said BSI India managing director Theuns Kotze carefully avoiding mention of the mountains of foam board, vinyl banners and promotional material that advertising agencies typically churn out.
With this certification, Havas has thrown down the biodegradable gauntlet to competitors, suggesting that in tomorrow’s advertising world, the ability to save the planet might be just as important as the ability to sell fizzy drinks and luxury watches.
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.
