MAM
WATConsult wins 19 awards at CMO Asia
MUMBAI: As more and more brands use the digital medium to find solutions to reach out to their target audience, the Indian media agencies are seeing an upward trend.
The latest was when WATConsult, won 19 awards at the recently held ‘CMO Asia – Social Media & Digital Marketing Excellence Awards’ in Singapore on 31 July 2014. An APAC level award which witnessed participation from 12 countries in the Asian region; the landslide win has made WATConsult, the highest awarded independent digital media agency in India.
The digital media agency was conferred the ‘Best progressive digital marketing company’ title. The win is a reflection of the fast growing nature of WATConsult, both, from a business and credibility stand point.
Among other wins, the ‘Best social media campaign of the year’ award was shared by Godrej master brand’s campaign and bestseller group’s Super Saturday campaign. The ‘Best social media integrated campaign’ award was shared by Radio Mirchi’s ‘Mirchi Music Awards’ campaign and SAP India. The campaign for SAP India also won the ‘Best use of Linkedin’ award. Colors TV’s ‘India’s Got Talent twitter’ campaign won the ‘Best use of social media’ and the ‘Best use of twitter’ award. Mother Dairy’s Mother’s Day Video campaign won two awards including the ‘Best viral marketing campaign of the year’ and the ‘Best online video’ award. Sony DADC won two awards with their app ‘Jarvis’ winning the ‘Best social app of the year’ and their ‘Beerpacity’ campaign winning the ‘Best use of gaming and animation’ title.
Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable Milk SBU business head Sandeep Ghosh said, “It’s a moment of pride for us as our social media campaign has won the award for ‘Best Viral Marketing Campaign of the Year’ and ‘Best Online Video’. The credit goes to WATConsult for creating the campaign as well as the successful connect with the users online. We would like to congratulate them for the awards as well as for achieving this feat of bagging 19 awards from a single award ceremony.”
Multiple awards winning campaign from TATA Chemicals – The Human Touch of Chemistry campaign continued its winning streak with the ‘Best in online content’ award. WATConsult, also, ventured into the social cause marketing segment winning two awards for Dr. Reddy’s Laboratory and Nuclear Friends Foundation earning the title of ‘Best use of social media for social cause’. Bajaj Allianz general life insurance company won the ‘Best online marketing campaign’ award for its lead generation campaign. India’s leading FMCG conglomerate, Godrej won two more campaigns including the ‘Best integrated campaign award’ for their work on ‘The use of digital for ROI’ by Godrej Security Solutions and the ‘Best rich media online ad’ for the Godrej Masterbrand campaign.
Tata Chemicals VP and CHRO R Nanda said, “We are happy to note that our ‘Partner in Progress’, WATConsult have been awarded a Gold in the category – Best in Online Content for our website Human Touch of Chemistry at the CMO Asia (Singapore) awards. Thanks to the efforts of the individual team members at WATConsult in making the Human Touch of Chemistry campaign a success. Our aim is to increasingly strive to provide relevant and updated content related to science and chemistry which would help create a positive impact on the minds of millions of people around the globe.”
Godrej Security Solutions asst VP and marketing head Mehernosh Pithawalla added, “This award stands testimony to our strategy and I’m glad we have won an award in a category linked to return on investment. Digital marketing which is strongly aligned to your marketing strategy can result in great marketing return on investment.”
The icing on the cake for WATConsult, however, was their founder & CEO, Rajiv Dingra, winning the ‘Young Social Media Entrepreneur of the year’ title. Dingra, who is all of just 29, is now one of the leading thought makers in the digital market circuit in India.
Dingra said, “19 Awards in one night is a huge achievement. We have shown that our work in FY 2013-14 was above industry standards and with 28 awards in total across eight award ceremonies, we have only made sure that we set our standards and sights higher for FY 2014-15. WATConsult is, now, undoubtedly the most awarded independent digital agency and we look forward to owning that no. 1 spot in the years to come.”
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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.
