MAM
Kyoorius Designyatra kicks off with IAA Kyoorius Digiyatra, 2015
MUMBAI: Kyoorius Designyatra being held from 10th until 12th September, 2015 concluded the first day dedicated to digital – IAA Kyoorius Digiyatra, 2015.
The third edition of IAA Kyoorius Digiyatra brought together some of the world’s most influential experts to showcase the future of digital and explore this year’s theme, ‘What pumps your heart’.
As digital marketing has grown to be one of the most effective platforms to create brand awareness and brand engagement, this day dedicated to the digital age brought together industry stalwarts who participated in talks, workshops and breakout sessions.
Moderated by Laura Jordan Bambach (Mr President) and Kevin Finn (TheSumOf), the day of talks explored the immense and untapped possibilities in the digital space, and many of the speakers touched on ways in which it can touch people’s lives and make them a little easier. Nick Law kicked off the day, explaining R/GA’s model of combining narratives with systematic thinking, or data and story to create impactful campaigns. Daan Lucas and Mike Pelletier (Random Studio) wowed the audience with beautiful imagery and installations created for brands that combine art, technology and design. Laura Jordan Bambach followed with her philosophy on how to keep work interesting rather than following the norms. She touched on Mr President’s take on social media through the Bacardi campaign.
Satya Raghavan (YouTube) entertained audience’s post-lunch with his insights into what people are really watching online. In a special session called “What can digital do?”, Mukesh Jha and Janardan Prasad, co-founders of Autowale, showed us how an app can provide a sustainable income to rickshaw drivers. Nishant Patni, founder of CultureAlley talked about his app, Hello English, which is teaching millions of Indians how to speak English by localizing the experience for different languages and contexts. Lydia Winters from Mojang, makers of the incredibly successful game, Minecraft, talked about how the game is building communities online and effecting change in real life, through their collaboration with UN Habitat, Block by Block.
John McHale took the audience through his journey from college football to band member to designer and the four pillars that keep him inspired.
IAA Kyoorius Digiyatra will be followed by Kyoorius Designyatra from 11th and 12th September, 2015, which culminates with the 2015 Kyoorius Design Awards on the 12th evening.
Rajesh Kejriwal, Founder CEO of Kyoorius, commented, “We had a packed house on the first day at IAA Kyoorius Digiyatra, both intellectually and at the conference. Delegates will hopefully leave today with many ideas and insights on how to make the most of digital, and one of the themes today was the need to humanize it and bring it into the physical world. I’m looking forward to the next two days ahead, with many more great ideas to come as we continue our 10th Anniversary festivities.”
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.
