MAM
Kevin Pietersen is the new brand ambassador for Citizen in India
MUMBAI: Cricketer Kevin Pietersen has been appointed as the brand ambassador of Citizen watches in India.
Pietersen had been the brand ambassador for the brand in the United States and Europe, and therefore it was a natural extension, according to Citizen Watches (India) marketing manager Aditya Sengupta.
The budget for marketing, promoting the renowned ‘Citizen‘ watch brand in India will be 10-15 per cent of its revenue, up from between 8 – 10 per cent last year.
However, Sengupta told Indiantelevision.com that the emphasis of advertising will be on out of home, banners, and social media, apart from the print media and media meetings.
He said there was no plan at present to go in for television commercials, though he did not rule that out at a later stage.
Sengupta said it was generally known that the target for Citizen was the urban male and female, and therefore Pietersen fitted that image. The watch has a global heritage, and Kevin has a global image.
Earlier in the press meet, it was announced that Pietersen‘s sophistication and style superbly personifies the brand.
Citizen Watches (India) MD Katsusuke Tokura said, “We are delighted to have Kevin Pietersen here. Citizen has always been associated with sports, personifying the spirit of sportsmanship, confidence and independence of the Eco drive collection.”
He further added, “Citizen has always considered India as an important market. Our target-consumer in India is the ‘new rich young generation‘ who is financially independent, style-conscious, as well as seeks real value and appreciates new technologies. Citizen has plans to bring out several contemporary designs year on year.”
Pietersen said, “I am delighted to join as the new face of Citizen in India. Citizen has always had a strong association with sports in the past and I am greatly honoured to be a part of this great global brand”. He added, “Cricket is all about timing and only with timing does a cricketer fulfill his full potential. Citizen has also grown with time; I see my association with them noteworthy, as I see Citizen in me”.
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.
