MAM
FCB/SIX India appoints Gagan Prabhakar as VP – CX operations and Arun Iyer as Sr. director – CRM
Mumbai: FCB/SIX India has appointed Gagan Prabhakar and Arun Iyer as VP – CX Operations and Sr. Director – CRM, respectively.
In his new role at the agency, Gagan will lead CRM, web strategy, and content verticals.
Arun, on the other hand, will be responsible for leading the development and implementation of personalisation, and data-backed strategies, and managing the CRM team for delivering omnichannel customer experiences for FCB/SIX India’s clients.
Gagan moved from Dhani Stocks, where he was the general manager of marketing, whereas Arun was the lead strategy consultant at Mirum India.
With over 17 years of experience, Gagan has also worked with HDFC Bank, Indiabulls Group and most recently Dhani Stocks. Arun comes with over a decade of experience and has been associated with companies like Mirum India and The Walt Disney Company.
Speaking on the new hires, FCB/SIX India, CBO Ankit Banga said, “At FCB/SIX India, we understand the power that creativity, data, and technology together possess in delivering an exceptional customer experience. The inclusion of Gagan and Arun strengthens our CX division, enriching it with their data proficiency and extensive experience in large-scale CRM campaigns across finance, healthcare, and the QSR sectors. Additionally, we’re enhancing our Salesforce capabilities to better serve a significant portion of our clientele.”
FCB Kinnect and FCB/SIX India CEO Rohan Mehta added, “Welcoming Gagan and Arun aboard will synergise creativity and technology, bringing exceptional customer experiences (CX) across all our client offerings, to further strengthen our focus on using ‘creativity as an economic multiplier’.”
FCB/SIX India VP – CX Operations Gagan Prabhakar said, “I’m thrilled to be part of FCB/SIX India and FCB Kinnect and I believe in the company’s philosophy of Growth, Glory, and Guts. I’m confident that by leveraging a data-centric approach and our innovative solutions across web verticals, we can help our clients achieve significant growth in the digital landscape.”
FCB/SIX India Sr. director – CRM Arun Iyer said, “I’m all geared up to join FCB/SIX India and leverage my passion for data-driven strategies, to build meaningful customer relationships and drive business results. Given the agency’s culture of innovation, I look forward to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, ensuring we continue to set new benchmarks for excellence in connecting brands with their audiences in the most impactful ways.”
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.
