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Kolkata advertisement industry cashes in on Sachin frenzy
KOLKATA: As Sachin Tendulakar got ready to draw the curtains on his glorious international Test cricket career of 24-years, the fervor started building up. And the people who gained the most from this fan frenzy are the advertisers in the City of Joy, who have increased the ad rates by approximately 30 per cent according to analysts.
Interestingly, companies like Allahabad Bank, Century Ply, Exide, Hero, Rupa, Pincon, Ultra Tech Cement among others didn’t have an issue to cough up extra for the cricketer’s 199th match that kicked off at the Eden Garden on Wednesday.
According to sources, Kolkata-based advertising company Sporting Frontier has charged around Rs 30 lakh for a package that includes two billboards and site-screen.
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“Advertisers did not mind in coughing up the extra amount being demanded,” said analysts, who think that the interest of the advertising fraternity around the event has been really high.
Arun Sign Service director Ashif Kumar Biswas, said that it may be not be a very good time for the advertising industry but since the viewership has shot up drastically, companies are ready to spend extra. “However, ad rates are generally higher for cricket matches,” he added.
And it’s not just the advertisers, many others too have benefitted from this interest-driven event. Arun Sign Service signed a deal with the Kolkata Police and the Cricket Association of Bengal to put up directional and way-finding signage and road direction campaign in and around Eden Gardens.
Sources have confirmed that for the 50 signage that the company has put up, they have charged Rs 20 lakhs.
Since the analysts believe that Sachin’s last competitive Test match in Kolkata has the same appeal as a world cup match with India in the finals, advertisers in Kolkata have not negotiated much. It seems when it comes to Sachin, money isn’t a big concern
Biswas recalls the condition of Out of Home advertising in Kolkata a few months ago. Most of the billboards were just white spaces with telephone numbers, he said. “The advertising industry suffered because of the subdued economy. Usually, with the onset of the festive season, Kolkata’s advertising business awaits new opportunities. But it wasn’t the same this year,” said Biswas, also bringing to fore how as compared to last year, the clients this time reduced their ad spends by more than 40 per cent because of weak economy.
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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.
