MAM
ZenithOptimedia creates new worldwide client leadership team
MUMBAI: ZenithOptimedia has created a new worldwide client leadership team as part of the network’s programme to drive business growth and enhance communication solutions for clients.
The move, led by ZenithOptimedia global managing partner Belinda Rowe, will see a series of senior appointments at ZenithOptimedia’s London-based Worldwide division.
Tamina Plum and Christian Lee have both been appointed managing partners, client solutions, worldwide and will take joint operational responsibility for all ZenithOptimedia’s Worldwide client teams in London.
Plum was previously global client services director, and Lee was group managing partner, at ZenithOptimedia UK.
Fraser Heaviside moves from worldwide business director to global client partner, and Grant Millar, who recently joined ZenithOptimedia Worldwide, will have global responsibility for the agency’s growing partnership with RB.
Gordana Buccisano, currently global client services director, takes up the new role of head of client solutions at ZenithOptimedia’s performance marketing network Performics. Buccisano will work with Performics MD Jon King to establish a new service offering for international clients at Performics.
Driving business growth and developing new solutions for clients is a key global priority for ZenithOptimedia. This focus on developing the network’s client leadership capability is part of a broader investment programme, which is seeing ZenithOptimedia develop its product offering in key areas including: data & technology, strategy, performance marketing and content.
All of these appointments reflect ZenithOptimedia’s investment in the network’s leading talent. Plum joined the network in 2012 from Starcom to lead Oracle. Lee has worked at ZenithOptimedia for 14 years, and has held several senior roles. Heaviside first joined ZenithOptimedia in 2001 and has held several roles within the network. Buccisano joined the network in 2001, and has played role in the growth of ZenithOptimedia’s international business.
“ZenithOptimedia has one of the biggest central operations dedicated to managing global clients. Having the right talent to help drive business growth and lead our client solutions is critical, so I am absolutely delighted that we are creating this new leadership team by promoting some of our most experienced and successful leaders,” said Rowe.
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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.
