MAM
Xiaomi hires Avow as its agency partner
Mumbai: A leading mobile original equipment manufacturer (OEM) Xiaomi has onboarded Avow, the specialist in mobile OEM user acquisition, as its official core agency for the entire regions of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, South-East Asia, and Latam.
Through this representation, Avow will undertake all media sales activities for Xiaomi’s ad platform (Mi Ads) in the awarded regions and will interact as the main point of contact to manage a 360-degree execution of mobile ad campaigns on the platform—including media inventory buying, campaign set up, result measurement, and campaign optimisation. Brands and agencies looking to leverage the Mi Ads platform will now gain access to exclusive ad formats and reach untapped users from Xiaomi’s diverse user base via Avow’s international teams, who will offer managed campaigns as well as brand awareness activities.
In India, this partnership will be crucial for mobile marketers, app developers, and brands looking to use OEM advertisement placement to reach previously untapped user audiences and make inroads into Xiaomi’s massive user base. In the past, Avow has engaged with leading brands in India like Amazon Prime, Unacademy, UpGrad, Byju’s, MoneyTap, Avail, and WazirX.
Headquartered in Berlin, Germany with one of its regional offices in Bengaluru, India, Avow was twice ranked and recognised in the top 10 in AppsFlyer’s Performance Index XII and XIII, including a dedicated growth section: India, South-East Asia, and India, non-gaming finance.
Mi Ads covers 200+ countries and regions, is supported in 70 languages, and offers reach to 280 million+ quality active users across the world. The platform provides a multi-faceted advertising portal through proprietary apps like Mi Browser, Mi Music, Mi Themes, Mi Video, AppVault, and its official alternative app store, GetApps. Through multiple targeting options, Xiaomi allows marketers to accurately locate target audiences and convert their users into the brand’s customers.
Xiaomi’s media sales expansion strategy is to outsource these activities by selecting strong core partners to represent them in specific regions. This partnership comes at a crucial time, as marketers looking to promote apps are bound to rely upon third-party advertising sources with very little or no guarantee of fraud detection, booming costs, and user engagement. Xiaomi’s OEM advertising placements allow app marketers to achieve incremental user growth from customers who are brand loyal to Xiaomi in these local markets.
“We are stoked to enter this new chapter in our cooperation with Xiaomi. Our long-term partnership is based on trust and shared goals for contributing to the mobile advertising industry. This new challenge will strengthen our alliance, and allow us to offer unique opportunities for mobile marketers to access some of Xiaomi’s most extensive markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, South-East Asia, and Latam,” said Avow CEO & co-founder Ashwin Shekhar.
Avow’s reach and ability to deliver growth results for clients have allowed it to expand its global footprint, opening offices in India, Indonesia, China, Vietnam, Brazil, Philippines, and Russia to cater to its large client base in those local markets.
Brands
UltraTech Cement appoints Jayant Dua as managing director
Dua will succeed K. C. Jhanwar after his term ends in December 2026
MUMBAI: UltraTech Cement, the flagship cement arm of the Aditya Birla Group, has elevated Jayant Dua as managing director, effective 1 April, 2026.
The company’s board also approved his appointment as additional director, managing director and key managerial personnel, effective 1 January, 2027, following the completion of the current managing director K C Jhanwar’s term on 31 December, 2026, according to a regulatory filing.
Dua will serve as managing director for a four-year term from 1 January, 2027 to 31 December, 2030.
A veteran executive with more than 37 years of professional experience, Dua joined the Aditya Birla Group’s cement business in 1996 and spent nearly a decade in various functional and leadership roles.
Over the past two decades, he has held several profit-and-loss and chief executive responsibilities across multiple group businesses, including insulators, insurance, Century Cement and the chlor-alkali segment. In 2023, he was elevated to lead the group’s renewables and textiles businesses.
Within the group, Dua has received several internal honours, including the chairman’s individual award for exceptional contribution in 2002, the outstanding leader award in 2009 and the leader of leaders recognition in 2022.
He holds an engineering degree from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, an MBA from International Management Institute and has completed the advanced management programme at Harvard Business School.
