AD Agencies
IndIAA Awards 2024 sees nation’s leading brands & agencies bag top awards
Mumbai: The 9th edition of the IndIAA Awards presented by the India Chapter of the International Advertising Association saw the finest minds of advertising converge to celebrate creativity and excellence in the industry.
OPEN was the associate partner, while Teads, Mobligent Media Pvt Ltd, The Indian Express, Dinamalar and Bobble AI were Supporting Partners for the illustrious event.
An annual endeavour to identify, encourage and honour storytelling at its unique and creative best, the IndIAA Awards 2024 once again set the benchmark for unearthing stellar campaigns from the advertising industry’s finest.
Spread across 19 different segments and categories, more than 15 agencies were rewarded for their bold ideas, fresh concepts and gripping content during the event.
Chosen from a select list of more than 300 nominees, the year’s awards saw a tough fight in many categories, with judges also awarding joint awards in one special segment.
Creative agencies like Ogilvy fetched 4 trophies, while Moonshot fetched 3. Other agencies to win were MullenLowe Lintas, tgthr, Talented, Manja, Enormous Brands, Toaster, BBH India, The Script Room, Havas Media and McCann Worldgroup.
On the brand side, Colgate-Palmolive snagged an award in the ‘Personal Care’ category, while Swiggy won in the ‘Online Classifieds, Commerce and Services’ segment.
Google fetched a trophy for its ‘Dhoondenge Toh Milega’ campaign, while TVS Motor Company won an award for its ‘Protect Little Riders’ campaign.
IndIAA Awards ‘Voice of Change’ category saw two joint winners take home the trophy as Ogilvy and Talented shared the coveted trophy.
‘Tempest Advertising’ was honoured with the esteemed IAA Cause Related Award for their compelling and transformative Awareness Campaign on Autism.
IAA IndIAA Awards chairman Abhishek Karnani said, “This is the 9th edition of the IAA IndIAA Awards, a unique creative award show that recognizes advertising excellence. The esteemed presence of the country’s top marketers, creative agencies, media agencies, production houses, PR agencies and industry leaders here tonight is a testament to the significance of this occasion.
Unlike traditional award shows, the IndIAA Awards do not rely on entries. Instead, the work has to speak for itself, just as it speaks to the consumers it aims to persuade. Another distinguishing feature of the IndIAA Awards is that the judging is carried out by senior marketers who own and invest in the brands. This brings a valuable perspective from those who truly understand the challenges and objectives of effective advertising. As we gather to recognize the best from July 2023 to June 2024, let’s also celebrate IAA’s unwavering commitment to demonstrating how creativity can be a force for good.”
Hindustan Unilever Limited jury chairman, and CEO & managing director Rohit Jawa said, “As we celebrate the ninth year of this remarkable event, I am truly honoured to have served on the jury. The IndIAA Awards continue to stand out for their commitment to recognizing campaigns that genuinely impact consumers. Today’s marketing landscape is brimming with dynamic and fresh creative thinking, and it’s inspiring to see how big ideas and storytelling drive not only commercial success but also cultural influence.”
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.
