MAM
Meru partners with loyalty & rewards programme, InterMiles
Mumbai: Meru Mobility has partnered with loyalty and rewards programme, InterMiles. The tie-up will provide access to a host of Meru services including airport transfers, car rentals and point-to-point transfers on the InterMiles platform.
InterMiles programme members will be able to book these services at the click of a button. The collaboration will guarantee them a safe, sanitised and hassle-free overall point-to-point travel experience. Additionally, they will be eligible to earn 10 miles on every Rs 100 spent on top of the base fare and a special offer of 50 per cent off for their first ever booking.
Meru Mobility Tech founder and MD Neeraj Gupta said, “Safe end-to-end transport solutions have assumed new importance amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The tie-up with InterMiles means any programme member can now book flights, hotels and surface transport all in one place and as a part of one overall trip. Further, the credibility of our two brands will inspire trust among programme members and reassure them at a stressful time for travel. Moreover, it will expand Meru’s footprint and potentially open the company up to a much wider customer base.”
InterMiles MD & CEO Manish Dureja said, “InterMiles, today, is a valuable new digital currency that unlocks exciting, meaningful and relevant experiences – both essential and aspirational – for our members. Our members can now earn Miles, accelerate their growth of tier status and gain from new tier benefits of the programme through their daily commute. Through our association with Meru, we reiterate our commitment towards broadening our programme partner portfolio to make our members’ experiences with us more rewarding and meaningful.
InterMiles will showcase the Meru services on the Intermiles app and website. The cabs provided by Meru will all be thoroughly sanitised and will come with further safety guidelines issued by the company. Meru Mobility Tech is accredited to be the only Indian cab company providing seven-tier safety measures during Covid2019 pandemic and is the first to introduce ozone treatment of its cabs.
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.
