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JWT appoints Gaurav Lalwani as APAC business director for J&J
MUMBAI: J. Walter Thompson has appointed Gaurav Lalwani to the role of Asia Pacific business director on the agency’s Johnson & Johnson portfolio, which includes Listerine and other J&J over-the-counter brands.
Lalwani’s appointment reflects the agency’s expanded remit on J&J’s Listerine business across the Asia Pacific region.
Based in Singapore, Lalwani will head up a new team servicing Listerine across APAC, and will also work with J. Walter Thompson’s global Listerine team in New York.
Lalwani, who has over 15 years of integrated brand experience across FMCG, prestige skin care, automotive, and the financial services sectors, joins J. Walter Thompson from Leo Burnett Singapore, where he was senior regional director for integrated content on the agency’s SK-II and P&G fabric care brands across Asia.
He was responsible for launching SK-II’s #ChangeDestiny platform across Asia, and led the collaboration with Huffington Post and Fitch to take #ChangeDestiny across digital and in-store platforms. Lalwani also led the creation of the first ever voice-based mobile platform for Tide in India, this drove the brand’s purchase intent, and consumption.
“Lalwani is joining the agency after a period of significant growth and his appointment is a reflection of our drive to further strengthen the senior team at JWT. I am thrilled he is joining us as brings a proven track record of leading global businesses and his integrated approach will be of great value to his client portfolio,” said J. Walter Thompson Singapore CEO Peter Womersley.
“JWT Singapore has managed to create perfect balance between hunger and wisdom. I am thrilled to be joining the agency at this exciting time,” added Lalwani.
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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.
