MAM
Lemma Ropes in Vinay Goel as VP southeast Asia
MUMBAI: Lemma, a pioneer in programmatic DOOH has appointed Vinay Goel as vice president southeast Asia. As a function of his new role, Goel will be responsible to scale programmatic DOOH business and strengthen the supply end for Lemma in southeast Asian regions.
With an experience of over 13+ years spanning across both agency and client side, Goel has worked with organisations the likes of Dentsu Aegis Network’s Posterscope, Philippines and India, Tata Teleservices etc. In his time with the agency he managed brands like Netflix, Heineken, Mastercard, Walt Disney, Huawei, Diageo and many others. He also has a strong entrepreneurial background stemming from his ecommerce marketplace venture, nativbird.com (The Ground Play Inc.), enabling local MSME businesses to adapt to the digital ecosystem.
Goel said, “In the past couple of years, we all have witnessed the shift of both consumer behavior and advertising investments geared towards digital. And with the Covid2019 pandemic happening, this shift has further accelerated. Now more than ever, advertising platforms have to adapt faster and work harder – and that includes the digital out of home medium as well. The need for transparency, accountability and ability to measure performance becomes intrinsic prerequisites. Lemma’s vision of delivering a truly programmatic digital OOH solution and ability to make this transformation possible motivated me to accept this role. I’m pleased to be part of this multi-talented team and together, pioneer this progression towards programmatic."
His proven acumen across diverse functions like advertising, sales, operations, and business management across various markets and cultures will help Lemma strategically build its hold in key markets, subsequently scaling their programmatic DOOH business.
Lemma co-founder and COO Mayuresh Phadke said “Our vision is that of being a unified solution for all DOOH requirements, globally. As we enter into one of the biggest OOH markets, Vinay Goel will help us get to work on the next phase of growth. We are excited to have him on board as his extensive experience coupled with his strategic business growth outlook & market understanding will aid us in achieving accelerated success in establishing Lemma as market leaders in programmatic DOOH internationally as well.”
Goel’s last stint was as GM- Posterscope Philippines where he was instrumental in driving business development opportunities, while also successfully setting up and managing OOH business in the region. Under his leadership the agency was awarded country’s best outdoor agency in the 2018.
MAM
Smytten appoints Shishir Varma as CEO of Pulseai Research
Rebranded AI platform scales with 150 plus clients and 30 million users.
MUMBAI: In a world obsessed with what consumers say, Smytten is betting on what they actually do. The company has appointed Shishir Varma as chief executive officer of Pulseai Research, signalling a sharper push into AI-led, behaviour-driven consumer insights. The move comes as Smytten rebrands its insights vertical from Smytten PulseAI to Pulseai Research, marking a shift away from traditional, project-based research towards a more continuous, intelligence-led model.
Varma brings over 30 years of global experience across APAC markets, including India, China and Japan. Most recently managing director, Insights at Kantar Japan, he has built and scaled consumer insight businesses across geographies, including playing a key role in establishing Millward Brown in India. His mandate now: turn Pulseai into a category-defining platform in a space still dominated by surveys and static reports.
The pitch is straightforward but ambitious. Instead of relying on claimed responses, Pulseai Research taps into observed behaviour leveraging Smytten’s ecosystem of 30 million users built over a decade of product discovery, trials and purchases. The idea is to close the long-standing gap between what consumers claim and how they actually behave.
The numbers suggest early traction. In under 18 months, the platform has onboarded over 150 enterprise clients across sectors, pointing to growing demand for faster, more reliable alternatives to legacy research models.
Under the hood, the platform blends behavioural data with AI and large language model-led analysis to deliver real-time sentiment tracking, scalable qualitative insights, faster quantitative studies and always-on brand intelligence. In practical terms, that means compressing research timelines from weeks to days without sacrificing depth.
The ambition extends beyond FMCG. Pulseai Research is positioning itself as a cross-category intelligence layer, spanning auto, education, gadgets and emerging consumer segments anywhere behaviour-rich data can sharpen decision-making.
For Smytten, the leadership hire is less about optics and more about direction. With Varma at the helm, the company is leaning into a simple but powerful premise: in the age of AI, insight isn’t just about asking better questions, it’s about watching more closely.
