MAM
‘KBC2’ campaign to float on ‘hope’
MUMBAI: “Umeed pe to duniya kaayam hai.” (The world survives on hope.) The theme of this oft repeated optimistic phrase is just what Star Plus and its ad agency O&M have hooked on to for the campaign of the big crowd and moolah puller KBC2. The show’s second edition with Big B at the helm hits the small screen on 5 August.
The ad campaign, primarily television centric, will be rolled out in five phases, the first of which began on 16 May. Star India senior vice president marketing and communications Ajay Vidyasagar says, “The first phase of the campaign will urge viewers to participate in KBC2 with the promise that in return what they will get will be ‘Umeed Se Dugna’ (Double of what one hoped for).” This directly implies the doubled prize money of Rs 20 million and also hints subtly at the hopes people have of meeting Amitabh Bachchan, appearing on television and the fame attached to it. This phase will also create hype on the return of KBC.
The second phase, which rolls out on 23 May, will stress on the time period during which the phone lines for the show will be open, i.e. 6 – 19 June. This campaign will push viewers to be prepared to participate in KBC2 with the tagline – ‘Kya Aap Tayaar Hai?’ (Are you ready?)
The third phase will delve into the logistics and detailed mechanisms of how one can participate in the show with the Chaudhary Makhan Singh TVC. “The initial entry process for KBC2 is different from what it was for KBC. Last time round, viewers got the question that would qualify them to participate in KBC, via the phone. This time however, the entry level question will be flashed on Star Plus during prime time and viewers can answer via SMS,” says Vidyasagar.
Next, the viewers will be educated on how to participate in the show via the telephone. While these promos will run in May and June, the concluding part of the campaign – the ‘Tune In’ phase – comprising three TVCs and 10 countdown films – will be rolled out in July, informs Vidyasagar.
All in all, 11 different TVCs featuring the Big B will be rolled out in the coming months before the show goes on air. Two TVCs in the first phase, four TVCs in the second phase, one TVC each for the third and fourth phases and three TVCs in the concluding phase of the campaign is what’s in store.
Talking about the KBC2 campaign, O&M business director Meenakshi Bhalla says, “While thinking on the theme of the campaign, what we came across was that KBC was a realization of every Indian’s dreams. The campaign rests on ‘umeed’ (hope), which is what drives the viewers. KBC has a lot of equity in the market, the question in front of us was how to encash that equity.”
While print, outdoor, Internet campaigns and direct marketing will be rolled out in a few weeks, the ground activation will start only in July, informs Vidyasagar.
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.
