MAM
Laura Ries, Phogat sisters, Amitabh Kant impart leadership lessons: Goafest ’17 concludes
GOA: After three days of seminars and conclaves by industry experts, crazy parties and evenings filled with delegates screaming their throats hoarse in support of colleagues during the ABBYs presentations Goafest 2017, India’s foremost advertising, media and marketing convention, came to a spectacular conclusion.
Government institution for catalyzing economic development NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant was felicitated with the prestigious Champions of Excellence Award for his extraordinary contribution towards building Brand Kerala as ‘God’s Own Country’.
Day 3, which was the final day of the festival, saw exciting seminars by none other than author Laura Ries, wrestling sensation of India – The Phogat Sisters, and Isha Katyal – the youngest Indian TED speaker. They were joined by industry stalwarts such as Yonathan Dominitz of The Mindspaces, Eric Cruz of AKQA and Juhi Kalia of Facebook who interacted and engaged with delegates through multiple Knowledge Seminars through the day. The eventful Day 3 came to an end with the presentation of ABBYs for Digital, Mobile, Out of Home, Ambient Media, Design, Print, Film Craft, Integrated Advertising, Special Awards (Gender Sensitive), Young ABBY & Film.
About the successful conclusion, Advertising Agencies Association of India president Nakul Chopra said, “The last three days saw some of the brightest minds from the world of media, marketing and advertising congregating together in one place to make Goafest 2017 an exciting experience for all. As an organiser, I felt delighted to see attendees enjoying themselves thoroughly – during the seminars and at the ABBY presentations and the parties. The energy one felt coursing through the venue everyday was simply invigorating.”
Extending his congratulations to the winners, The Advertising Club president Raj Nayak said, “When we started planning for Goafest 2017, our aim was to create a festival filled with knowledge, wisdom, entertainment, fun and which was also a great networking opportunity. I can now proudly say we have achieved everything that we had set out to. Goa has seen some of the most creative minds in India together at one place – meeting, interacting, engaging and celebrating ABBY wins.”
Felicitating the winners, Goafest 2017 chairman Ashish Bhasin said, “It gives me great joy to see all the delegates enjoying, learning and connecting with everyone. I would also like to congratulate all. You all are the creative forces that keep driving this industry to newer heights of success.”
Awards Governing Council Abby’s chairman Ramesh Narayan added, “Goafest is a confluence of creative minds who gather here year on year to connect, communicate and celebrate the amount of hard work.”
With industry specific conclaves to expert seminars and ABBYs presentations, the Goafest ABBYs 2017 presented by the The Advertising Club and The Advertising Agencies Association of India saw the entire advertising and marketing community descend upon the silver sands of Goa to celebrate excellence in creativity across media platforms and genres.
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.
