MAM
Promax&BDA launches Road Show 2005 in six US cities
MUMBAI: Encouraged by its memberships’ growing demand for more local market educational and networking opportunities, Promax/BDA is launching a new 2005 edition of its successful Road Show touring seminars event.
The announcement was made today by Promax/BDA CEO Jim Chabin.
Culling participants from the best and most popular speakers from its June conference, Promax&BDA has organised a series of intensive one-day seminar events chalk full of tips, tricks and inspiration for professionals working in electronic media. This year, the Promax/BDA Road Show will run from 18-28 October and visit New York, Atlanta, Dallas, Toronto, Chicago and Los Angeles.
“We’ve designed the Road Shows so that promotion managers will learn long-term strategies and ideas for communicating to wide and sometimes disparate demographics. Broadcast designers will be inspired by a review of the best of what works in design for broadcast promotion. Local affiliates will learn strategies for making their on-air talent famous. Cable and network promotion teams will learn best practices in combating viewer erosion and loss of allegiance. And all Promax&BDA members attending the Road Show events will also have the chance to network and discuss new trends and issues impacting the business of promotion. By increasing our members’ skills set the Promax&BDA Road Show 2005 will also help increase ratings and revenues for those companies that recognize the value of ongoing education and the association’s return on their investment,” said Chabin.
Each stop of the Promax&BDA Road Show will feature a morning “Best Practices” session conducted by Lee Hunt, one of the world’s foremost strategists for media companies. The session will have Hunt presenting an array of outstanding and adaptable practices and techniques as well as a review of the best current promotion and design work in the local marketplace.
Hunt, who has pioneered a new marketing discipline — “break architecture and audience management” — conducts training workshops for television networks in the US, Europe, Latin America and Asia. He has launched and branded networks such as Lifetime, VH1, and TNT. Hunt will also present a second morning session focusing on building a strong collaborative process for promotion executives and designers, a long-term goal of the Promax&BDA association.
Afternoon sessions will vary by location, featuring one of the following speakers: Graeme Newell, Karen Vigurs-Stack and Richard Ayoub.
Among the other topics covered in the afternoon sessions are: Combating viewer erosion and loss of allegiance to your station or network; Review of the best in design for broadcast promotion; Communicating to wide and sometimes disparate demographics; Making your show hosts and news anchors stand out from the pack; Specific techniques for building talent recognition; Promoting talent and show content at the same time, while growing ratings; Long-term promotion planning strategies; Forging local and national alliances; Combating poor lead-ins to your newscast; and Embracing podcasting and other wireless trends.
The Promax/BDA Road Show 2005 will visit New York City on 18 October with Lee Hunt and Graham Newell; Atlanta on 19 October with Lee Hunt and Karen Vigurs-Stack; Dallas on 21 October with Lee Hunt and Karen Vigurs-Stack; Toronto on 25 October with Lee Hunt and Richard Ayoub; Chicago on 26 October with Lee Hunt and Graham Newell; and Los Angeles on 28 October with Lee Hunt and Richard Ayoub.
Registration for the Promax/BDA Road Show 2005 is $299 per day for members and $600 per day for non-members.
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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.
