MAM
S Yesudas launches Y&A Transformation
MUMBAI: S Yesudas, former MD and co-founder of Triggerbridge and MD Vizeum (Dentsu Aegis) has launched his new venture, a business transformation company, Y&A Transformation.
Y&A is a pureplay business transformation company and works with the vision of helping enterprises erase the legacy #BestPractices mindset to build the #NextPractices in the areas of digital, tech, data, content, customer centricity, marketing ROI, organisation culture and CSR/sustainability.
Talking about the road ahead, Yesudas said, “We are very fortunate to have the support of clients who believe in our philosophy, from day one. As a result, the operation kickstarted with some revenue; unheard of, otherwise. We are building very agile, collaborative, innovative and adaptive framework, tools and processes, which are detailed on our website www.ynatransformation.comWe will help forward-looking clients with all the necessary support to get the very best out of the ever dynamic digital ecosystem where speed is the necessity. We don’t believe data in its current avatar allows clients to take bold and beautiful decisions on customer centricity. And we believe, most attributions being tracked to paid efforts are contrary to the reality of the testimonial economy. We find it funny when “targeted” and “exposure” are used in the same breath. We are here to make a big difference to clients and compel the agencies to re-think.”
S Yesudas has spent over two decades in the media business, where he helped launch agencies, for Lintas, Dentsu Aegis; scaled up existing ones, for TrikayaGrey, RK Swamy BBDO and Initiative Media, both in India and overseas markets. He added immense value to his clients, built front-running managers, two youngsters from his team even represented India at the Cannes way back in 2008 and he also received many industry recognitions. He has been a jury member for various industry awards including the Festival of Media and Spikes Asia.
Yesudas is an avid cyclist and a marathon runner.
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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.
