MAM
Samsung ties with Warner for Matrix sequel promotions
MUMBAI: Samsung India has tied up with Warner Brothers for a worldwide campaign around the two sequels to the blockbuster hit Matrix.
The electronics major will launch a series of contests and promotions and a whole lot of road shows that will cash in on the Matrix name beginning this May. The first sequel, titled Matrix Reloaded is scheduled for a worldwide release in May and is slated to be premiered at the IIFA awards weekend in Johannesburg, South Africa in the third week of May. “The Matrix concept fits in very well with Samsung’s brand image of evolving technology”, Samsung India director Ravinder Zutshi told indiantelevision.com on the sidelines of an IIFA media conference last weekend.
Samsung is part sponsor of the IIFA awards, the fourth edition of which is to held in S Africa next month. Matrix Reloaded will hit cinemas in India by June, a month before which Samsung will have road shows, merchandise, Net contests and several other promotions in major metros in India. Samsung products are also woven into both sequels, although subtly, says Zutshi.
Matrix Revolutions, the second sequel, is expected to be released by November 2003, and will appear in Indian cinemas within a month thence. Six weeks prior to the India release, a host of promotions will be launched in the country, Zutshi says.
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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.
