AD Agencies
IAA Conversations on role of polls and media in influencing voters
MUMBAI: Election wave is on and is not sparing anyone. In the same context, International Advertising Association (IAA) in its next IAA Conversations will see political party representatives Ram Naik (BJP), Prem Shukla (Shiv Sena), Sanjay Jha (Congress) and political analyst Kumar Ketkar debating.
The panel discussion moderated by Anand Rathi will deliberate on ‘Do Opinion Polls and Media Reports Influence Voters?’ between 4pm and 6pm on 10 April at the Nehru Centre, Mumbai.
IAA India Chapter president & development Asia Pacific region of IAA vice president Srinivasan Swamy said, “Our objective at the IAA India Chapter is to bring about discussions on key issues concerning advertising, media and allied sectors. This edition of IAA Conversations is an attempt to deliberate on an issue that has generated much discussion in the run-up to the general elections.”
Zee Media group CEO and chair of the event Dr Bhaskar Das said, “The role of the media in influencing public opinion cannot be denied and hence this discussion with key stakeholders will bring to the fore issues and concerns on how opinion polls and media reports can influence the masses at election time.”
“Many senior members of the advertising, marketing and media fraternity are invited to be present at the engaging event,’ added Swamy.
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.
