MAM
Tista Sen bids adieu to Wunderman Thompson after 21 year stint
Mumbai: After spending 21 years at the agency, Wunderman Thompson South Asia regional creative director Tista Sen has called it a day. Her next destination remains unknown as of now.
Talking to Indiantelevision, Sen says, “It feels like I’m leaving my home because WT has always been a home, a comfort place for me. I just thought it is time for me to get out of my comfort zone and do something different.”
Commenting on her leave, a spokesperson from Wunderman Thompson said, “Sen now wants to embark on a new career journey that takes her away from WT India that has been home to her for the past 22 years. We wish her all the best in her next adventure.”
Sen started her career with Whitelight Productions, one of India’s leading ad film production companies, after which she joined Lowe Lintas as a writer. Five years down the line, she moved to Ogilvy for a brief stint and returned to Lowe Lintas. In 2001, Sen joined Wunderman Thompson (previously J Walter Thompson) and had been there ever since.
She has assisted on over 60 commercials, and has worked on brands such as Johnson’s Baby, Stayfree, Cadbury Eclairs, Cadbury Five Star, Oberoi Hotels, Asian Paints, Sunlight, Comfort, Cadbury’s Dairy Milk, Fair & Lovely and Pepsodent for Unilever. In her most recent role, her portfolio included GlaxoSmithKline, ITC, Unilever, Godrej, and many other brands.
Sen has been ranked among the 20 most creative people in Asia, and has worked on campaigns that have won numerous metals across the world including at Cannes, Clio and Spikes Asia. Her recent wins include a gold, silver, bronze, finalist at AdFest; gold, finalists & merit awards at One Show; gold, finalist at Cannes, gold at Clio; Grand Prix, gold, silver at Spikes Asia, etc. The campaigns that are close to her heart include sunsilkgangofgirls.com, campaigns for Aditya Birla Financial and the Lux Abhi-Ash commercial.
The Mumbai office of Wunderman Thompson (the erstwhile J Walter Thompson) has won over 40 metals at Goafest 2014 and 57 in 2015 including the Grand Prix under her creative leadership. Over the years she has sat on the jury of several advertising festivals in India and abroad, including Cannes and D&AD. In 2015, she had the pleasure of being the only Asian on the inaugural Glass Jury at Cannes, which honours gender diversity in communication.
As per her LinkedIn profile, a student of English literature and life, and having worked on global brands, Sen believes that an idea and insight can cut across geographies and connect with culture. Her ability to simplify things and find a human connection is what makes her approach to communication relevant and meaningful.
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.
