MAM
OgilvyOne defends its ‘Agency of the Year’ title at DMAi Awards
MUMBAI: OgilvyOne Worldwide has successfully defended its title as ‘Agency of the Year at the DMAi Awards 2014.’ The DMAi which brings to India the DMA International Echo awards is spearheading the response marketing movement in the country.
The agency bagged a total of eight gold, seven silver and five bronze on its way to the title. Metals were won across categories ranging from effectiveness and craft to innovative use of technology and loyalty.
Commenting on the agency’s performance, OgilvyOne worldwide president and country head Vikram Menon said, “To be ‘Agency of the Year’ twice in two years feels truly wonderful. Needless to say we couldn’t have managed this without a set of clients that are not just supportive, but always pushing us to do better. What makes each of these wins even more special is that they are awarded by a jury that comprises not just agency veterans but CMOs and brand managers from some of India’s most revered marketing companies. Heartiest congratulations to all our clients and special thanks to the DMAi.”
Focus will now shift to the DMA International Echo awards that are ranked among the oldest and most revered effectiveness awards on the calendar. Last year, OgilvyOne Worldwide had spurred India to its best ever performance at the show winning five out of the eight metals.
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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.
