MAM
Srinivasan Swamy & Pradeep Guha get VP positions on IAA board
MUMBAI: Two senior India media and advertising professionals have got themselves Asia-Pacific veep positions on the prestigious International Advertising Association (IAA) board. Pradeep Guha has been re-elected as VP area director Asia Pacific while Srinivasan Swamy has been appointed as VP Development Asia Pacific. The duo will be in these positions till May 2016.
The IAA annual board meeting was held on 18 June in Cannes during the on-going Cannes Lions, where the elections and appointments took place. IAA world chairman and president Faris Abouhamad, who took office in January 2013, stated “Our association, in its 75th Anniversary year will benefit from the energy and talents of IAA leadership drawn from virtually every part of the world. I am especially pleased and excited to have such able colleagues as the IAA charts its future. I cannot imagine a better or more capable team to embrace and deliver on the IAA‘s plans and initiatives.”
Among other appointments that were announced include:
IAA senior vice president- Felix Tataru COO at GMP (Romania)
IAA Treasurer – Glenn Hansen President and CEO of BPA Worldwide (USA)
IAAA Secretary – Erich Buxbaum Managing Director of EHB Consulting GmbH (Austria)
IAA vice-president area director US/Canada – Jill Cohen
IAA vice-president area director – Middle East/Africa Saad El Zein
IAA vice-president area director – Asia/Pacific Pradeep Guha
IAA vice-president area director – Europe V, Pawel Kowalewski
IAA managing director – Michael Lee
IAA vice resident corporate members and government affairs – Carla Michelotti
IAA vice president government relations Middle East/North Africa – Naji Boulos
IAA vice president development – Africa, Norkor Duah
IAA vice president development Middle East/North Africa – Hani Ghorayeb
IAA vice president 75th Anniversary and special events – Heather Leembruggen
IAA vice president Learning – Diane Slade
IAA vice president Development Asia/Pacific – Srinivasan Swamy
As is already known Srinivasan Swamy, popularly known as Sundar Swamy, chairman RK Swamy BBDO was unanimously elected president of IAA’s India Chapter for 2012-13 at its AGM on 2 November 2012.
The International Advertising Association, the world‘s only globally integrated advertising trade association, is split into five worldwide regions: Middle East and Africa, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, USA and Canada; and each of these regions has several chapters within it. Within its structure, the Association comprises of three constituencies: Individual Members, Chapters and Corporate Members.
The IAA‘s activity worldwide actively works to strengthen the position of the marketing communications business in the market place by acting as a central hub and respected go-to for industry professionals. The IAA promotes the role and benefits of advertising in all healthy economies and the foundation of diverse, independent media. It provides a forum for industry debate, promotes brand building and protection and advancement of freedom of commercial speech and consumer choice. IAA encourages greater practice and acceptance of advertising self-regulation and takes the lead in state-of-the-art professional development through education and training.
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.
