AD Agencies
Platinum Guild celebrates friendship between couples
MUMBAI: We are living in transient times, where this search for novelty and individuality has taken precedence over building or even preserving an emotional connection. Today, the smallest hiccup in a relationship has the ability to conjure up thoughts of giving up and letting go. We are so busy chasing our individual goals and responsibilities that we become unmindful of the strong foundation that we had once created with our partner.
So, this Friendship Day, Platinum Days of Love, PGI’s flagship brand wants you to pause and remember, amidst your mind faltering thoughts about your relationship, that you were #FriendsFirst. For the first time ever, an endearing campaign that celebrates friendship between couples.
Developed and conceptualised by Dentsu Webchutney, the digital campaign features three short and three long digital videos that bring out little instances of pure friendship that exists among couples. The stories beautifully exhibit rare relationships which have honesty, vulnerability, companionship, and mutual respect because it has friendship at its core. The love that results from such a partnership is truly one of a kind and deserves to be celebrated with an equally rare and precious metal – platinum.
“Our research has shown that ‘friendship’ is extremely aspirational in a couples’ relationship both before and after marriage. Finding a best friend in your partner is rare, retaining friendship in your relationship even rarer. With this campaign, we aim to encourage couples to remember and aspire to be #FriendsFirst. Mark this friendship day as your Platinum Day of Love,” says Platinum Guild International India director consumer marketing Sujala Martis.
Commenting on the campaign, Dentsu Webchutney executive creative director Pravin Sutar adds, “Friendship should outlast other emotions in a couple’s relationship, but more often than not it takes a backseat. Through #FriendsFirst, we are starting a conversation that highlights the importance of friendship in a relationship through highly relatable and alluring scenarios. We are asking viewers to ponder and eventually revisit this rare bond that once was the initiator of their relationship.”
This campaign will further give couples an exciting opportunity to share their #FriendsFirst story along with the picture to win celebration vouchers.
In addition to the digital videos, from 2-11 August, the campaign will also run an in-store reward program where every customer will receive exciting gifts on purchase of platinum love bands.
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.
