MAM
Snapdeal’s Brand Registry helps sellers protect their registered brands
MUMBAI: Snapdeal, India’s largest value-focused online marketplace, is scaling up its brand registry program, which helps protect sellers having their own registered brands from brand infringements on its marketplace.
Snapdeal has more than 500,000 registered sellers, who together have more than 200 million listings on the platform. Snapdeal is a pure marketplace and all products are listed and sold by third party, independent sellers.
According to a Snapdeal spokesperson, “Many of the sellers have successfully developed their own brands for online sales. The success of these brands leaves them open to the threat of their brand name being misused by those looking to sell lookalike products under the same name.”
To assist such brands, Snapdeal runs a program whereby sellers on Snapdeal having their own registered brand name, trademarks etc. get exclusive rights to sell their product in the relevant categories on the Snapdeal marketplace.
More than 1000 brands are now part of the registry. These include brands like Wolphy (Fitness Equipment), Tanishka Fabs (Bed Linen), Voylla (fashion jewelry), Bentag (Electronics) – all of whom have a strong online presence in their respective categories.
Many of these brands have been bestsellers in Snapdeal’s recent Diwali Sale, which saw business volumes double in 120 cities across India, with 90% of the sales coming from non-metro cities.
Snapdeal’s focus is on the value-conscious segment, which comprises emerging brands and the unbranded segment. The unbranded market in India is worth ~ USD 160 Billion and is now starting to come online in a big way to meet the demand of buyers from non-metro cities.
The emerging brands focus on serving the unmet needs of buyers by focusing primarily on the functional attributes and with a pricing strategy that doesn’t include large brand premiums.
The online markets present an opportunity to create brands in an efficient way without the need to invest in mega advertising campaigns or a network of physical stores. In fact, India is now witnessing the emergence of many online-only brands, mirroring the trend in China, where many brands have chosen not to explore the physical markets while establishing new lines of products, especially in personal care, food and home products.
According to a Snapdeal Spokesperson, “The program is aimed at helping SMEs create and grow their own brands. This initiative strongly supports, domestic “Made-in-India” brands in their online growth. We are happy to be able to support these brands right from the initial stages of their journey.”
Snapdeal’s Brand Registry is expected to scale up to include more than 5000 emerging brands by March 2020.
Snapdeal also operates “Brand Shield”, which offers a single point of contact for brands to report suspected counterfeit products being sold on the Snapdeal platform. Brand Shield offers a fast-track one-day delisting process for verified complaints. The program has significantly boosted collaboration between brands and the marketplace in on-going and successful efforts to weed out sellers who peddle counterfeits on online platforms.
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.
