AD Agencies
Zee melt, largest convention forming synergies between mar-comm-tech is back with its 4th edition
ZEE MELT, a pioneering convention forming the cross-pollination of creativity, marketing, communication, technology and digital space since its inception has announced the 4th edition to take place on 30th and 31st May, 2018. The two-day festival will be held at NSCI, Mumbai and features an impressive line-up of keynote speakers, who have established themselves as disruptors and creative thinkers in the global marketing arena.
The speakers include:
· Chuck Porter: Co-Founder & Chairman, CP&B. An American advertising executive, marketer and author
· Fernando Machado: Head of Brand Marketing, Burger King. A global marketer with a passion for growing brands and businesses. Burger King became ‘Client of the Year’ at the D&AD in 2016 and Creative Marketer of the Year in Cannes 2017 under his leadership
· Tom Fishburne: Chief Marketoonist. A veteran marketer and cartoonist.The brainchild behind combining content marketing with a sense of humour
· Tom Goodwin: Executive Vice President and head of innovation, Zenith Media. A self-established marketing provocateur and commentator on the future of marketing and business
· AnindyaGhose: Prof. of Information, Operations & Mgmt. Sciences, Leonard N. Stern School of Business. The youngest ever recipient of the prestigious INFORMS ISS Distinguished Fellow Award
· Mark Shayler: Autho. A public speaker, trainer, a founding partner of the Do Lectures and runs Do Workshops. He also helps run Good for Nothing – a collaborative group that deliver design and strategy work for good causes, for nothing.
· Matthew Quint – Director, Center on Global Brand Leadership – Columbia Business School. Co-producer of the acclaimed BRITE Conference which brings together big thinkers from industry and academia to discuss how innovation and technology help build strong brands.
Speaking about Zee Melt 2018, Kyoorius, Founder and CEO, Rajesh Kejriwal said, “Zee Melt continues to march forward with its focus on bringing the biggest and the creative minds together on one platform and change the way marketing is perceived. Year after year, we look forward to unfold a highly-energized and knowledge driven convention. Having such notable speakers on-board for the sessions fortifies this objective and we are certain this edition will add immense value to all the attendees.”
Over the years Zee Melt has been an all-encompassing arena of 150+ speakers, 280+ sessions, 6000+ delegates and 100+ partners. The convention this year too will be an insightful hub that reverberates with powerful, resourceful ideas, striking content and creativity across keynote sessions, speaker presentations, panel discussions, seminars, workshops and an exhibition.
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.
