MAM
Sunaina Jairath joins RPG group as VP – group brand & communications
MUMBAI: Communications professional Sunaina Jairath has been appointed as vice president – group brand & communications at RPG Group. In her new role, she will oversee brand management, corporate communications, CSR, employer branding, and reputation management.
Sunaina brings extensive experience to this role, with a career spanning over two decades across diverse industries, including corporate communications, policy advocacy, marketing strategies, and social impact campaigns. She has previously held senior positions at organizations such as Bencos Research Solutions, Cred, Aliaxis, and Dentsu Creative, where she contributed to building robust communication protocols, spearheading digital campaigns, and mentoring cross-functional teams.
A graduate of Delhi University with a Postgraduate diploma in communication from Xavier Institute of Communication, Sunaina is known for her leadership, strategic acumen, and expertise in branding, stakeholder engagement, and market intelligence.
A big Calvin & Hobbes fan, the first things she looks out for in any newspaper is the comic strip. of her favorite characters And of course she loves her cuppa – nothing like coffee to freshen her up.
She expresses her enthusiasm for the new assignment: “Excited to join RPG Group and contribute to its legacy through impactful branding and communications strategies.
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.
