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Ad world remains positive on eighth day of demonetisation despite inconvenience
MUMBAI: India entered the eighth day of limited demonetisation in the backdrop of rejection of a petition by the Supreme Court, and still a majority of the nation is without access to cash.
Unending queues are thronging the banks, with most of the ATMs either dysfunctional or running out of cash at the speed of light. Local shops are struggling to function with the newly-introduced Rs 2000 note amid this cash flow issue.
The unorganised sector which mostly operates in cash has suffered the most.
To ease the situation, the government has allowed use of high-value notes for some purposes — at milk booths, petrol stations and railway stations, up to 24 November.
Indiantelevision.com takes a look at how the advertising world is coping with the cash crunch, whether any advertising campaign has felt the impact or any ad film shoots have been stalled.
“We are not facing any difficulty as most of our work is with retainers. Moreover, our transaction is in white, nothing in black and grey, and mostly kept transparent by using cheques for transactions.
The production houses may face problems during shoots but, so far, we have managed the show, and haven’t heard of an issue,” said Leo Burnett south Asia CEO Saurabh Verma.
“Of course we will all get impacted by it eventually if the economy slows down in the next few months but we need to wait and watch,” Verma added.
Similarly, The Glitch co-founder Rohit Raj agrees that there is no immediate impact on the industry. “For campaigns, which are pre-scheduled, money comes in cycles. Therefore, there is always some buffer. During shoots too, we mostly operate through cheques, Raj explained. The Glitch has an in-house studio and production unit for its video content. Luckily, for them, there was only one shoot that fell during this period, and hence the agency didn’t have to go through much hassle.
Not just the big and well known agencies, but small and medium-sized players in the market have also been cashless in their operations, as explained by corporate films and TV promos video director Avi Sandhu.
“We mostly operate electronically because that is how agencies pay us.
Even the spot boy is paid through NEFT transfer. It is to ensure that we have a transaction trail. Sometimes, for props etc., we might need cash. In that case we either go with the available denomination or the company calls in the bank requesting to liquidate the required cash for daily use,” he shared adding that most banks are separately looking at corporate accounts.
About the models who work on fee per shoot basis, Sandhu admitted that the industry is banking on the usual cycle of paying them after 40 to 45 days when the agencies distribute the payments that comes from the client, by when the situation will normalise.
When it comes to advertising, the most unorganised sector is perhaps out of home. Asked if there is any challenge in operating, Milestone Brandcom’s Nabendu Bhattacharya explained that there is no issue from the agency’s end. “Our business is mostly cashless. We wire the money when we buy the spaces. But, agencies and vendors working on the selling side might have a different story.”
The story remained mostly the same, except for some unique variations.
“We mostly operate cashless as the clients prefer so. The only issue is — we are unable to deposit the cash which is already with us because of the serpentine queues. Because it is all billed money, I am not worried about it, but banking is a hassle these few days,” shared Pioneer Publicity director Sunil Vasudeva.
Another out-of-home vendor, who wasn’t happy with how things were hampering the business, hesitated to share his plight in public in fear of repercussions from the government.
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.
