MAM
Madison Media onboards Avinash Pillai as advisor for Godrej Consumer
Mumbai: Madison Media, a unit of Madison World is delighted to announce the appointment of Avinash Pillai as Advisor on Team Pinnacle for Godrej Consumer Products Ltd. He will be using the agency’s Mumbai office as his operational base.
With over 26 years of experience, Pillai is a seasoned media professional with a wealth of knowledge. Pillai has been at Mediacom for 12 years where he started out as a National Buying Head and gradually went on to lead the P&G AOR for India and later for the AMA (APAC, Middle East and Africa) region. Prior to Mediacom, he has worked at Mindshare Fulcrum and media companies like Mid-Day, Turner International and ABP Ltd.
“I am delighted to welcome Avinash Pillai to Madison Media”, said Madison World chairman Sam Balsara on Pillai’s joining.
Announcing Pillai’s appointment, Vikram Sakhuja, Partner and Group CEO, Madison Media & OOH said, “Our need is to build an industry best in class Media Team to meet today’s Media challenges, and I could think of no better person than my old friend Avinash Pillai who brings a pedigree of having shaped the Media practice of some of the country’s most respected Marketers. I am looking forward to partnering once again with him”.
Speaking about his new role at Madison Media, Pillai said, “I took a break from media to chase things that are closer to my heart and have been actively pursuing those interests. When Sam and Vikram came up with this assignment, the expected outcome and the journey towards it is something close to my heart and I am happy to take that agenda forward”.
Madison Media, India’s largest homegrown communication agency, is now the World’s 4th Largest Independent Media Agency as per RECMA. Madison Media also tops RECMA’s qualitative ranking chart for the last 4 consecutive years with a Dominant Score. At GoaFest 2023, the Agency won a total of 17 metals and came in 3rd at the Media Abbys. In 2023, the Agency won for the 6th time, Prime Time’s TV Media Agency of the Year. The Agency is also ranked the 2nd Most Powerful Media Agency by The Economic Times Brand Equity Ad Agency Reckoner in addition to winning over 440 awards since 2020.
Madison Media is a part of Madison World, India’s largest homegrown communication agency group established in 1988, that handles media planning and buying for clients like Godrej, Marico, Asian Paints, Titan, Blue Star, TVS, Raymond, CEAT, Pidilite, Bajaj Electricals, McDonald’s, Lodha, Shaadi.com and many others. Madison World through its 11 Units served last year, as many as 500 Advertisers.
MUMBAI: In India’s fast-moving payments race, Visa has just swiped in a new leader. The company has named Suresh Sethi as its India country head, marking a key leadership shift as it sharpens its focus on digital payments growth in the market. Sethi steps into the role following his recent exit from Protean eGov Technologies, where he served as chief executive officer. He succeeds Sandeep Ghosh, who has moved on after more than four years at Visa to pursue an external opportunity.
The appointment comes at a time when Visa is doubling down on its expansion strategy across India and the wider region, deepening partnerships and accelerating adoption in an increasingly competitive digital payments ecosystem.
Sethi brings with him a broad, cross-market perspective shaped by decades of experience across corporate banking, retail financial services, mobile money and large-scale government technology initiatives. He began his career at Citigroup, where he spent 14 years working across India, Africa, South America and the United States, focusing on transaction banking services within the corporate bank.
His appointment signals a blend of institutional experience and market familiarity qualities that could prove critical as Visa navigates a landscape where fintech innovation, regulatory evolution and consumer adoption are all accelerating at once.
As digital payments in India continue to scale rapidly, the leadership change underscores a simple reality, in a market where every tap, scan and swipe counts, who leads the charge can matter just as much as the technology itself.
