MAM
Publicis acquires mobile agency Monterosa
MUMBAI: Publicis Groupe continued with its shopping streak by acquiring global mobile agency Monterosa.
The newly acquired entity will report into Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH), providing the network with a core specialty in mobile communications and a team of dedicated specialists around the world.
The move follows Publicis Groupe‘s pioneering expansion into the mobile advertising market with its acquisition of Phonevalley in 2007. Like Phonevalley, Monterosa is exclusively committed to mobile marketing and communications, one of the high-growth digital sectors in which Publicis Groupe is committed to expanding its footprint.
Monterosa will retain its name after the acquisition. It will also continue to work with its own clients in addition to other advertising agency partners throughout BBH and Publicis Groupe.
The deal will enable Monterosa to grow its footprint to other areas in the world and work more closely with its clients. Carl Norberg, a co-founder of Monterosa, will continue to manage the agency and will report to BBH Group‘s CEO, Gwyn Jones.
Monterosa was founded in 2009 by four Swedes — Johan Hemminger, Johan St?hle, Anton Holmquist and Carl Norberg and has offices in New York, Singapore. It is headquartered in Stockholm and has a team of 30 that works with brands like Carlsberg, Google, Mercedes Benz, Samsung and Vodafone. Its work for Mini Cooper‘s ‘Getaway‘ campaign (2011) and a number of global apps such as Buick Encore‘s ‘Hide and Seek’ in China, Lufthansa‘s ‘Anywake’ in Scandinavia, AT&T‘s ‘Daybreak’ in the US and the Pan-Asian Axe ‘Dare’ app for Unilever have won the agency accolades and awards.
BBH Group CEO Gwyn Jones said, “The ubiquity and intimacy of smartphones make mobile campaigns an entirely new way to communicate with consumers. Mobile ads can be uniquely useful and pertinent — but they can also be perceived by consumers as disruptive. It‘s vital that we help our clients develop campaigns that are not just technically seamless, but also friendly and relevant. We‘ve been working with Monterosa for 18 months now. They have a great team, and a culture and approach that fit well with ours. We‘re very excited about the potential for this strategically important move.”
Monterosa Stockholm CEO Johan Hemminger added, “Our two companies share a passion for producing highly creative, disruptive ideas with a dedication to craft. This deal will enable us to take our work to the next level. ”
The interactive and mobile advertising and communications sector is currently experiencing spectacular growth as it benefits from convergent technological developments and the massive spread of smartphones. According to eMarketer, worldwide mobile-ad spending will reach $6.4 billion in 2012 and more than $23.6 billion by 2016. Monterosa‘s strong expertise in mobile and its multi-region profile will provide BBH with a core specialty in this key sector, which is one of the fastest growing media channels.
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.
