MAM
Leo Burnett India bags creative duties for part of Bajaj Auto’s international biz
MUMBAI: Leo Burnett India has won a part of the creative mandate for the Bajaj Auto International business. The agency will have its Mumbai office handle the account.
Bajaj Auto vice president – international business Milind Bade said, “Leo Burnett joins us at this crucial juncture to strengthen our marketing efforts in markets across Latin America, ASEAN, and South Asia. Bajaj has a leadership position in the sports motorcycle segment across 26 countries. We needed a partner who understands our growth curve and ambition, and Leo Burnett India has proved its mettle to us repeatedly over the course of our long association. It was only natural that we would bring them on board this time, too.”
In its new mandate, Leo Burnett India will harness its Power of One philosophy for Bajaj Auto International, bringing together the best of traditional advertising, digital content creation, website build, social media, and experiential marketing expertise to the table.
Leo Burnett MD – India and chief strategy officer, South Asia Dheeraj Sinha said, “With this win, we have only strengthened our fruitful relationship with Bajaj Auto. The brand’s growing global presence needs a strong communication support plan and effective business solutions backed by the Power of One. We aim to pull all the stops on this one, and this journey will be great thanks to Bajaj’s support.”
Leo Burnett India executive vice president Sanju Menon added, “A successful relationship between Bajaj domestic and Leo Burnett India has existed for several years, and we are glad Bajaj Auto has trusted us with another chance to do more iconic acts. We have done some of our best Humankind work for this brand and hope to transcend that magic across borders.”
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.
