MAM
Volvo & Mindshare launch ‘Volvoverse’ campaign to provide 3D experience to customers
Mumbai: Volvo Car India has announced the launch of its first-ever electric vehicle in the Metaverse called ‘Volvoverse.’ The campaign launch is conceptualised by Mindshare India. This is the first-of-its-kind collaboration on Metaverse across WPP India agencies.
The Volvo XC40 Recharge is being launched in a virtual world by Volvo Car India managing director Jyoti Malhotra, while ushering in a new era of digital platforms for Volvo customers with accessible 3D experiences.
Mindshare collaborated with other WPP agencies including Hogarth, Yonder, Grey, and Genesis BCW to deliver ‘Volvoverse’, realising the group’s ambition for customers to efficiently access specialist companies in the group to achieve their objectives with a single point of contact.
Mindshare South Asia CEO Amin Lakhani said, “We at Mindshare strive to provide our clients with tech-enabled, creative branding solutions. The concept behind launching the XC40 Recharge in the metaverse was to launch the EV in a sustainable ecosystem, following the vision of Volvo. The metaverse is evolving the internet by bringing people closer. Using virtual worlds, we are looking to reach out to the maximum audience. We are excited to do the first-ever EV launch in the metaverse with a campaign that appeals to our audience in an exciting new environment, which is the first of its kind.”
Speaking about this unique experience, Malhotra said, “Volvo has always been at the forefront of innovation and technology, and we, as a company, are also globally known for our commitment to sustainability. The launch of the XC40 Recharge on the metaverse platform is a pioneering moment leveraging digital technology in the marketing sphere. The metaverse launch also contributes to our sustainability mission as it leaves a negligible carbon footprint as compared to conventional launches.”
Hogarth India CEL Gopikaa Davar added, “Hogarth is committed to reaching net zero by 2030, and we are excited to partner with Mindshare and Volvo on a project which brings together both our focus areas of sustainable production and the metaverse. Launching an electric vehicle in the virtual world is only befitting as a conscious alternative to a physical event where an average conference attendee would have produced around 170 kg of CO2 emissions in a one-day event. This is a great example of how we are all reducing and mitigating the environmental impact by using virtual studios and green screen shoots as a driving force, removing the need for location shoots and events (reduces carbon footprint) and maximising the utilisation of the content we capture.”
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.
