MAM
Publicis Groupe announces top management rejig at BBH India
Mumbai: Publicis Groupe India on Tuesday announced that it has appointed Dheeraj Sinha as chairman of BBH India, in addition to his existing mandate as Leo Burnett South Asia CEO and CSO. Partnering with Sinha will be Russell Barrett as BBH India CEO and chief creative officer. Subhash Kamath moves into an advisory role for the group on other strategic initiatives.
Russell Barrett has been with BBH for 12 years now and has been instrumental in making BBH India a creative powerhouse, winning several accolades including Cannes Lions, One Show Pencils, Andys, Spikes, D&ADs and London Internationals. Dheeraj Sinha comes in with 22 years of experience and under his leadership, Leo Burnett India has become one of the most recognised and awarded agencies on the world stage, said the agency in a statement. The new appointments signify the Group’s focus and investment on its creative brands.
“I would like to thank Subhash for his leadership and contributions to BBH. Today BBH India is synonymous with truly world-class advertising,” said Publicis Groupe South Asia CEO Anupriya Acharya. “We will further accelerate the agency’s spectrum of capabilities and creative product to deliver unmatched value to clients. Dheeraj comes with an impeccable track record on growth, and this is also a testament to the strong leadership talent we have.”
“It’s been a fantastic journey of 13 years, having founded this agency from scratch in India,” Subhash Kamath commneted. “It’s an agency built on a very strong people’s culture with creative excellence & strategic thinking at its very core. But I’ve been doing this for a very long time and as I enter the twilight of my 35-year career in advertising, I believe it’s time to hand over the baton to the next generation of leadership as I transition into an advisory role for Publicis Groupe. I’ve known Dheeraj for many years, and I know his passion for strategy & creativity. Along with Russell and Sanjay and many of the talented ‘black sheep’ in the organization, I know I’ll be leaving BBH in very safe hands.”
“BBH is a dream brand amongst creative agencies. The brand has always believed in great work powered by sharp thinking,” said Dheeraj Sinha. “I have been a great admirer of its philosophy and the work that BBH has done globally. I am very excited with this opportunity. We have some great work, clients, and teams at BBH. Our goal will be to be one of the topmost agencies in the BBH network globally, creating work for our clients that brings them growth and glory.”
Russell Barrett added, “BBH is an amazing brand, and this is an exciting new chapter in the exceptional story that has been scripted so far. I’ve enjoyed an enriching partnership with Subhash, Sanjay and Arvind, as we’ve done some proper black sheep work together. I now look forward to partnering with Dheeraj, who I’ve worked with before, and I can say from experience, that he brings a lot of energy and dynamism to every interaction and piece of work he touches.”
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.
