AD Agencies
Leo Burnett India onboards Anirban Roy as chief strategy officer
Mumbai: Leo Burnett India, part of Publicis Groupe India has strengthened its senior leadership team by appointing Anirban Roy as chief strategy officer. Anirban will report to Leo Burnett – South Asia, CEO Amitesh Rao. The appointment comes from the agency’s unprecedented growth and success in India.
Commenting on the announcement, Leo Burnett, South Asia CEO Amitesh Rao shared, “The appointment of Anirban is a significant milestone for the agency as it brings together cohesive strategic leadership to Leo Burnett which will play a critical role in our growth ambitions. Anirban brings a wealth of experience, great leadership acumen and a tenacious commitment to excellence which will not only benefit our existing brand partners but help us drive our new business growth plans. He has a proven track record of success, and I am sure that given our diverse set of brands, partnered with his expertise, will set the bar high for the future.”
Leo Burnett, South Asia CCO, Publicis Groupe, South Asia & chairman Rajdeepak Das added, “What sets Leo Burnett India apart is our approach to creativity – which has always been rooted in people and purpose. Anirban’s appointment reinforces our commitment to our strategic approach to creativity. I would like to welcome Anirban to the Leo Burnett family.”
Commenting on his appointment, Leo Burnett India chief strategy officer Anirban Roy said, “Leo Burnett is a remarkable brand which has steadily built a pool of top tier talent, creative momentum and has earned a reputation for doing award-winning work that moves the market. These ingredients, along with the stellar leadership team & the enviable client roster is what drew me to Leo Burnett. I am excited to see what we can do together to unlock fame and growth for the brands we serve.”
Anirban is known for his ability to challenge the status quo & steer brands by keeping things simple yet impactful. He has worked for 21 years across some of the biggest organisations including Ogilvy, McCann and most recently Wieden & Kennedy where he served as head of strategy, India.
During his career, he has steered brands such as Amazon, Maggi, Jio 5G, Titan, BMW, Yum Foods, Coke, Sprite and Bingo! – to name a few. His writings have been published in WARC, Economic Times & The Drum. His work has brought in awards at Effies, Cannes, AMEs and D&AD.
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.
