MAM
Faber-Castell India associates with sports personalities for ‘Art with Purpose’, 2019 finale
MUMBAI: For the second running edition of the annual offline campaign ‘Art with Purpose’, to amplify this year’s theme “Sport that I love”, Faber-Castell India has associated with renowned sports personalities – Prashanti Singh & Deepak Chahar for their season’s finale.
The 2019 edition of ‘Art with Purpose’ was launched in July 2019, wherein they reached out to almost 1,700 schools and about 1.5 million students participated from across the country. After six months and three phases of the campaign, Faber-Castell India is gearing up for the finale of this season.
Indian National Women’s Basket Ball player Prashanti Singh said, “Any type of creative work like arts, sports etc., needs a lot of passion & emotion. I am happy that Faber-Castell India has taken this Initiative of letting students talk about the sports that they love through art. Basket Ball has been my life and the sport has given me a purpose in life. Today I am happy to see my fellow Indians excel at multiple sports and I am confident that this initiative will help children appreciate both art and sports.”
“I am very pleased to support the ‘Art with Purpose’ initiative of Faber-Castell India. This initiative takes me back to my school days when sports used to be an integral part of my formative years and I am happy that Faber-Castell is encouraging students in expressing themselves through the language of art. This unique combination of Art and sports allows children to open up to both physical and creative aspects of their personalities and I wish this initiative a great success," said Indian cricketer Deepak Chahar.
Faber-Castell India marketing director Nisha Sara Jose said “’Art with Purpose’ has been one of the most exciting properties of Faber-Castell India initiatives for last 2 years. We are delighted to have partnered with both Deepak and Prashanti for this year’s finale. Arts and sports play a big role in uniting people of diverse cultures and backgrounds, bringing them together to celebrate skills, talent, and creativity. We look forward to seeing how students create meaningful impact by combining these two together.”
Faber-Castell India will be announcing the 12 winners from across the country and rewarding them with an off-site in Goa followed by an award ceremony in presence of Prashanti Singh & Deepak Chahar on 18 January 2020.
MAM
Madison World to launch AI platform M BrAIn for media planning
Agency group invests about $1 million as it shifts to AI driven growth planning.
MUMBAI: If media planning once ran on spreadsheets and gut instinct, the next chapter may run on algorithms and curiosity. Madison World is preparing to roll out the first version of its proprietary artificial intelligence platform Madison M BrAIn in early April, as the independent agency group accelerates its transition toward AI driven planning and product led media services.
The platform, expected to involve an investment of around $1 million, is designed to reshape how the agency approaches strategy by combining internal knowledge, external data sources and advanced AI models into a single intelligence ecosystem.
According to Madison Media, OOH and Hiveminds partner and group CEO Ajit Varghese the initiative forms part of a larger structural rethink within the organisation. “Traditionally agencies built frameworks around media planning and allocation. We are redesigning that structure into what we call a Growth Planning System (GPS),” Varghese said.
The shift reflects a growing belief that effective media strategy must begin earlier in the decision making process. Instead of jumping directly to channel allocation, planners must first decode the market itself identifying consumer barriers, purchase triggers and the core challenges facing a brand.
Once those insights are mapped, agencies can build clearer growth agendas for clients and design media strategies that connect more closely with business outcomes.
To support that approach, Madison has built Madison M BrAIn as what it describes as a human AI cognitive ecosystem. Acting as a central intelligence hub, the platform aggregates proprietary insights alongside external data sources and large language models, enabling planners to access deeper market intelligence before building campaign strategies.
Varghese said one of the core objectives is to democratise knowledge across the organisation. “In the past, this level of understanding was largely available to senior leaders or experienced strategists. With Madison M BrAIn, even a junior planner should be able to access the same intelligence and approach clients with a far more informed perspective,” he said.
The agency has already implemented the new planning philosophy internally and completed three months of testing for the AI platform, with early trials showing encouraging results in terms of learning capability and system performance.
While the first version relied on global large language models, Madison is now developing its own proprietary Small Language Model (SLM) to serve as the core of the M BrAIn ecosystem.
“The SLM will be able to read global LLMs, but the LLMs cannot read the SLM,” Varghese explained. “That ensures all the intelligence we build remains within the Madison ecosystem and strengthens our proprietary knowledge base.”
The first version of Madison M BrAIn is expected to go live in early April, with a more refined version targeted by the end of June. Over time, the platform will integrate additional external data streams and APIs including consumer insight platforms, social listening tools and client datasets.
These integrations are expected to enhance the system’s learning capability and enable it to generate increasingly sophisticated strategic recommendations.
Although the platform is currently being deployed for internal use, Madison sees potential for it to evolve into a licensable product in the future.
“At the moment, our focus is to stabilise and strengthen M BrAIn internally. But over time there is potential for this to become a product that could be licensed externally,” Varghese said.
The AI platform is also part of a wider technology transformation underway at the agency group. Alongside M BrAIn, Madison is building a broader digital infrastructure called the Catalyst operating system, which aims to integrate operational processes, data and product platforms into a unified ecosystem.
This broader technology stack could require an additional $1 million to $1.5 million investment over time, though spending will be phased and reviewed regularly.
“We are evaluating progress every three months and prioritising the most critical capabilities first,” Varghese said.
Madison expects the full AI and operating ecosystem to be fully functional within 12 to 18 months, positioning the agency to combine human strategy with machine intelligence as the advertising industry enters its next data driven phase.
