MAM
Styched launches its new portal Styched Life with exclusive merchandise for Indian audience
MUMBAI: Styched, a youth fast-fashion brand has launched its exclusive merchandise platform Styched Life. They aim to be a one-stop-shop for fan merchandise across all sectors including comics, music, sports and arts. Styched Life collaborates with brands, artists, performers, influencers, TV shows and non-profit organizations to create co-branded exclusive fashion merchandise.
The current set of collaborations that the brand has is extremely diverse– music bands, dance groups, comics, athletes, sports franchises and charitable organizations. Some of these include Underground Authority, M-Zee Bella, Agsy, Hip Hop India, High on Dance, Diamond Comics, Amar Chitra Katha, Bengaluru Raptors and Cricket Association for the Blind in India and more.
Satyajit Hoskote, the Head of Business Development at Styched says, “Styched Life is a platform to promote talent across the country. We are tying up with not only the well-established brands but also with smaller and upcoming artists and influencers to create and sell co-branded merchandise.”
To revive the declining popularity of Indian comic culture, Styched.life and Diamond Comics have joined hands to promote Indian comics and super-heroes through fashion. On this tie-up, Satyajit says “The majority of Indian publishers are facing stiff competition from international comic powerhouses such as Marvel and DC in terms of survival. In a bid to reach the millennials and retrieve the forgotten characters of the likes of Chacha Chaudhary and Shaktimaan, we are creating an exclusive range of t-shirts in partnership with Diamond Comics. All this while keeping the fashion comfortable and affordable”
Speaking about the initiative, Gulshan Rai, founder of Diamond Comics added, “There is a huge market for Indian comic merchandise. Most of us have grown up reading and watching characters like Chacha Chaudhary, Shaktimaan, Vikram Betal and so on. They remind us of our childhood and evoke a strong sense of nostalgia among every one of us. When Styched approached us, we were delighted that a fashion brand has chosen to go the Indian route. We couldn't be more excited about this.”
Styched Life has also tied up with the Bengaluru Raptors who are the defending champions of the Premier badminton League. The PBL boasts big names such as PV Sindhu, Sai Praneeth, Tai Tzu Ying, Parupalli Kashyap to name a few.
Prashanth Reddy, owner of the Bengaluru Brawlers and Bengaluru Raptors is optimistic about the scope of merchandising in India. He says "Sports merchandise in India has not taken off yet as compared to countries like the US. But the seeds are being sown now with so many national leagues getting widespread popularity. The Bengaluru Raptors who won the 5th edition of the Premier Badminton League already have a strong fan base. Sports merchandise is a way for the fans to express their affection and support to the team and the sport."
Sritheren Pillai, Founder of Hip Hop India and a movie choreographer says, "HipHop culture is not just an art of expression, it's also a fashion & trendsetter. StreetStyle dancers have been at the forefront of fashion for years. Bringing the fresh look of creative collection for the dance & HipHop lovers is what we aim to do with Styched Life."
Talking about the future plans, Satyajit says, “We are projected to ship more than 10,000 orders per month and the aim is to sell at least 1 million fan merchandize in the next one year. We aim to become the destination shop for all fan merchandise across all categories. In addition to tie-ups with the known brands, through Styched Life we wish to promote local talent and social initiatives.”
The brand Styched is an affordable and fast fashioned ecommerce brand started by Soumajit Bhowmik.
Started in February 2019, Styched uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to enable ecommerce without incurring the losses common to most ecommerce brands. The company has currently scaled to 10,000 monthly orders, and is expected to reach 25,000+ orders in June with a 60% month-on-month growth.
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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.
