AD Agencies
Tempest Advertising bags three Big Bang Awards, lights up Mumbai debut
Agency wins silver for Dave & Buster’s launch, plus two for Syngenta
MUMBAI: Tempest Advertising has marked the start of its Mumbai innings with a podium finish, picking up three honours at the Big Bang Awards 2025 organised by the Ad Club.
The agency won a silver Big Bang Award for creative excellence in the consumer services category for the launch campaign of Dave & Buster’s in Mumbai. It also secured a silver and a bronze for two Syngenta campaigns, underlining its ability to move seamlessly from lifestyle brands to the heart of Indian agriculture.
For the Dave & Buster’s launch, the team leaned into the brand’s American roots while tuning the message to Mumbai’s high-energy pulse. Built around the line “Eat, Drink, Play & Watch,” the campaign used neon-lit visuals and dynamic storytelling across key outdoor sites in Andheri West, quickly catching the attention of both locals and the advertising fraternity.
In the agriculture category, Tempest’s work for Syngenta NK’s 25-year milestone campaign, “25 साल से सफल, NK फसल,” earned a silver. The brand film celebrated the company’s long-standing relationship with Indian farmers and was well received across its India teams.
The agency also took home a bronze for “Har Kisaan Ka Samadhan,” a product film for Syngenta’s tomato hybrid range. The campaign positioned the brand as a dependable, science-led solutions partner for farmers across the country.
Together, the wins highlight Tempest’s broad creative range, spanning entertainment, consumer services and agricultural brands. Over the years, the agency has collected accolades across platforms such as Pepper, IAA, IMA, AAAI, e4m, Big Bang and Maddys.
With established offices in Hyderabad, Pune and Bengaluru, Tempest continues to expand its footprint while managing a diverse mix of clients across sectors.
Tempest Advertising managing director Turab Lakdawala, said the wins reflect both creative momentum and the agency’s ambitions in the country’s most competitive market. He added that the focus ahead would remain on crafting tailored communication that delivers relevance, impact and long-term value for clients.
As Tempest steps into Mumbai with fresh momentum and a shelf of new silverware, the agency signals that its growth story is not just about geography, but about sharper insights and bigger ideas. If the Big Bang Awards are any indication, this is only the opening act.
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.
