MAM
LifeCell emerges as the Regional Award Winner of Google SME Heroes Challenge 2015
MUMBAI: LifeCell, India’s largest private umbilical cord stem cell bank won the regional award at the Google SME Heroes Challenge 2015 for innovative use of internet to expand its business. LifeCell was also among the top 5 national finalists, shortlisted from 25 SMEs from different regions.
LifeCell is the first company in the industry to have taken early strides in the digital medium to take the concept of umbilical cord banking across expectant parents in the country. Over the years the company has established significant presence in digital advertising to create awareness around the concept, educate the customer, generate interest and help them to actively consider umbilical cord stem cell banking as a wise investment for their children.
LifeCell’s digital innovations and initiatives include content marketing campaigns, product discovery & purchase journey enabled by a robust technology platform that integrates its web properties, customer contact center and mobile applications to create a delightful experience for customers. LifeCell’s digitally driven content marketing innovations such as pregnancy properties, events, offers from its brand partners in the lifestyle and mother & baby sectors are hugely popular among expectant couples.
LifeCell received the award in Delhi at a grand finale organized by Google, presided over Amitabh Kant, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) – Ministry of Commerce & Industry.
Speaking at the event, LifeCell’ chief marketing officer V.Ravi Shankar said “LifeCell was established in 2004. Until 2008, the service was largely a prescribed one by medical practitioners to expectant parents. We found that our audience of expectant parents was turning to digital media and especially Google to get information on pregnancy best practices including nutrition, fitness, do’s and don’ts. This was a big opportunity for LifeCell to reach out to pregnant couples across the country. We have been hand holding our audience in their journey towards parenthood by providing engaging content and online & offline infotainment programs. Digital media began our innings by providing a gateway to reach out to our audience directly. Today digital media serves as the one of the significant channel for expectant parents to reach out to us, catapulting the growth of our business and brand.”
Earlier in November 2014, at a grand event organized by Google in Chennai, LifeCell was selected as one of the five finalists from Chennai to compete at the national level against leading SMEs across the country.
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.
