MAM
Kyoorius opens call for entries for 2015 Kyoorius Advertising & Digital Awards
MUMBAI: Entries to the 2015 Kyoorius Advertising & Digital Awards will open on 2 March 2015.
This year the Kyoorius Advertising & Digital Awards introduce a series of new categories that acknowledge emerging and under-recognised areas in advertising and digital communication. These include Branded Film Content & Entertainment, TV Cinema & Title Sequences, Show Programme Promotion, and Tactical Advertising for Press & Film. Recognizing the popularity of last year’s Design for Good category, Kyoorius has created Advertising for Good, to recognize campaigns and movements aimed at promoting social awareness. A complete list of categories and pricing is available at awards.kyoorius.com.
Kyoorius also revealed the jury for the 2015 Advertising & Digital Awards. These include a diverse mix of the top creative minds from international, regional and Indian agencies. Voting is always done in private, never by a show of hands, and unlike other advertising awards, all jury members gather in India to review, discuss and elect the best of the best over an intensive three-day session in Mumbai which will be open to the public.
Advertising
Jury Foreman: Nils Leonard – Chairman & Chief Creative Officer, GREY London
Andy Greenaway – Executive Creative Director, SapientNitro APAC
Arun Iyer – National Creative Director, Lowe Lintas & Partners
Bobby Pawar – Director, Chief Creative Officer, Publicis South Asia
Joji Jacob – Group Executive Creative Director, DDB Group Singapore
Juhi Kalia – – Executive Creative Director, JWT Singapore
Malvika Mehra – National Creative Director & Executive Vice President, GREY India
Nik Studzinski – Executive Creative Director, Droga5
Rajiv Rao – National Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather India
Digital
Jury Foreman: Andy Sandoz – Creative Partner, Havas Work Club / Deputy President of D&AD
Kunal Jeswani – Chief Executive Officer, Ogilvy & Mather India
Melanie Clancy – Creative Director, BBDO Proximity Singapore
Tim Doherty – Chief Creative Officer, Isobar China
Vassilios Alexiou – Creative Partner, DARE
Rajesh Kejriwal, Founder CEO of Kyoorius, commented: “The Kyoorius Awards recognize the wealth of talent that exists in the country. Last year we were overwhelmed by the support from the creative communications and digital industries. In 2014, the Kyoorius Awards received 2131 entries across all categories. This year, we hope to see a wider participation, with many more innovative and impactful campaigns and ideas from all sizes of agencies and all corners of the country. Show us what creativity can do!”
Key dates for Advertising & Digital Awards
Call for Entries open: 2 March 2015
Call for Entries close: 10 April 2015
Jury Session: 29 April – 2 May 2015 in Mumbai
Awards Night: 22 May 2015 at NSCI Stadium, Mumbai
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.
