MAM
The Minimalist bags top honours for Tata AIG’s digital experience transformation
Mumbai: Creative solutions group The Minimalist was recently awarded three top awards at the Drivers of Digital Awards and Summit (DoD) and BFSI Stallion Awards. Of these, the agency bagged two golds in the ‘Best User Interface’ and ‘Best User Experience’ categories for Tata AIG at DOD Awards, and one gold for the Best UX in General Insurance Category at the BFSI Stallions Award event.
The Minimalist co-founder Sahil Vaidya said, “We at The Minimalist are extremely elated with our triumph. It is an honour to be recognised for our work by the DOD and BFSI Stallion Awards and acknowledging it on this significant platform. We would also like to extend our gratitude to our client Tata AIG, who believed in us and provided us the opportunity and complete support to build something exciting for the brand.”
He further added, “2021 kicked off with a great start for us at The Minimalist with this prestigious recognition and I would like to dedicate this award to the entire team, who have unceasingly contributed towards offering the best of our services and led us to this win. We look forward to continuing to serve our clients with new and exciting methods in the digital space.”
Tata AIG General Insurance COO Amit Ganorkar added, “I would like to convey our heartiest congratulations to the team at The Minimalist. We are tremendously proud to partner with them on our digital journey. The team successfully brought to life a mobile-first, simple and modern website that will anchor our e-business.”
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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.
