MAM
Vivaki’s Mona Jain joins Zee Entertainment
MUMBAI: In December last year, Vivaki Exchange Mona Jain had put in her papers. The move came in after Lodestar UM and Cheil won the Samsung account from Starcom MediaVest Group.
Jain, who has more than two decades of experience in marketing communications, was tight-lipped about her next move. Her joining Zee comes as a pleasant surprise to many.
In-line with its plans to strengthen the senior sales team, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) today announced the appointment of Jain as EVP-cluster head and Rahul Sharma as sr. VP-national sales head.
Speaking on both the appointments, Zeel chief sales officer Ashish Sehgal said, “We are extremely happy to have two media stalwarts join us from the industry. Mona brings with her an immense experience and understanding of the industry. She has been instrumental in key media launches and her knowledge will be really valuable in reinforcing our relationship with agencies & clients. Mona will play a key role in developing brand solutions, setting up a business model for geo-targeting & agency relationship management. She will also head the North region leading the Business Development team, new initiatives and niche channels.”
“Rahul comes with a digital background, which will add a new dimension in selling traditional media. His proven skills in establishing start-up operations and successful launch of channel brands will play an integral role in helping the Company achieve its business objectives”; Sehgal further added.
Commenting on her joining, Jain stated, “I am extremely pleased to be stepping into this position. ZEE looks poised for huge growth and it will be very exciting to be a part of this journey.”
With over 20 years of experience in media and FMCG, Sharma said, “I have been a part of Television and it’s home coming to me. I am excited to join ZEE and be a part of the biggest Television Network.”
Both the appointments are with effect from 5th March, 2014.
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.
