MAM
PVR hopes for Rs 300 crore ticket sales through PayTM in first year
NEW DELHI: PVR Theatres, which had entered into a strategic tie-up with PayTM few days ago, hopes to sell tickets worth Rs 300 crore on PayTM’s e-commerce platforms in the first year, besides selling tickets from ticket counters and other channels.
PVR Joint Managing Director Sanjeev Kumar Bijli told indiantelevision.com in an exclusive chat that this was a strategic business tie–up and therefore refused to comment about the monetary portion of the deal.
The deal was part of PVR’s nationwide foray in the on-line movie ticket segment. There will be a complete 360 effort to publicize the deal on all PVR’s 501 screens. The tie up would be visible on all PVR screens. PayTM is also launching a 360 degree campaign to publiclise the new deal.
PayTM founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma, while declining to give any specific figures for the campaign on his company’s deal with PVR told indiantelevision.com that PayTM had spent Rs 1,670 crore on marketing in the previous year. He said that PVR would itself handle the marketing on its screens and PayTM would handle it outside.
Asked how PayTM would be different from the PVR App or bookmyshow.com,Sharma said that there would be less clicks for booking a ticket and there wouldbe cash backs on every booking along with loyalty premiums. At a later stage, snacks during intervial could also come through PayTM, thus reducing huge queues.
He also said that PayTM had 125 million (12.5 crore) registered users andhandled 90 million (9 crore) orders per month and it would benefit from this tie-up, with PVR getting a different clientele than that normally queues online or offline for cinema tickets.
Earlier this week at a press meet during which the tieup was announced,Sharma had described the PVR chain as the most marquee brand to tie-up with PayTM.
Answering a question, Sharma had said that around 3.5 million (35 lakh) tickets are sold online daily in China, and there should be no reason for Indians not following suit.
PVR’s Bijli said the new tie-up also included trailers of the films to be released in two or three months on the PayTM app, thus covering films that were running and those still to be released. This would help the viewer to decide on the film that should be seen.
PVR chief of strategy Kamal Gianchandani said that the aim was to take online bookings up to sixty per cent. At present, around one-third of the buyers take their tickets online. When asked about whether any seats were kept out of the ambit of online bookings, he said these number was less than ten for any last minute bookings and are opened half hour before the show.
PayTM is the first e-commerce site to add cinema booking as a category,Gianchandani said, adding that this would add to the user experience for the ease in booking tickets.
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.
