AD Agencies
Jack in the Box Worldwide and Tidal7 merge to form J7
MUMBAI: Independent agencies Jack in the Box Worldwide and Tidal7 have sealed a merger, creating a new entity called J7 that aspires to be a “future-ready” marketing powerhouse. The combined agency will pool strengths in creative storytelling, branding, data intelligence and technology-led marketing to deliver integrated solutions for clients in India and beyond.
Jack in the Box Worldwide, founded by Roopak Saluja, has built its reputation on social media campaigns, design and consumer research. Tidal7, launched by Venkat Mallik, carved out its niche with data-driven branding, digital analytics and multi-channel creative services. Together, the two outfits aim to position J7 as a partner that can blend cultural insight with measurable business outcomes.
“This is a major inflection point in Jack in the Box Worldwide’s trajectory,” said Saluja, who will continue as founder and chairman. “By joining forces with Tidal7, we are enhancing our culture of creativity with world-class data intelligence and strategic depth. J7 is not just a new name — it is a manifestation of our shared commitment to solving our clients’ most complex challenges.”
Mallik, who becomes J7’s founder and chief executive, underlined the agency’s growth ambitions: “We have always believed that the most powerful marketing solutions emerge when brand thinking, creativity and data intelligence work hand-in-hand. With J7, that belief takes on a new dimension. The aim is not just to create campaigns but to build growth ecosystems for clients, empower teams with advanced tools and lead in an AI-driven future.”
J7 will place particular emphasis on AI-led innovation, new media formats and tech-integrated tools. Plans are under way to expand service offerings, develop industry-specific solutions and pursue growth both within India and overseas.
The leadership bench will include Farhatnaz Ansari as managing partner, Sivaram Subramaniam as executive creative director and Vikram Srivastava as director of data and strategy. Both agencies’ existing clients will continue to be served without disruption, now aligned under the J7 vision.
By marrying Jack in the Box Worldwide’s creative flair with Tidal7’s analytical rigour, J7 is betting that the next era of advertising belongs to agencies that can move as fast as technology — and as imaginatively as culture.
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.
