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Susan Credle to join FCB Worldwide as global chief creative officer
MUMBAI: FCB Worldwide has appointed Susan Credle as global chief creative officer.
FCB Worldwide CEO Carter Murray and Jonathan Harries, who have served as FCB’s global chief creative officer since 2006, jointly began a search for Harries’ successor a year ago.
“The moment we met Susan, we both felt that she would be the perfect creative leader, given our ambition of being a true creative/business partner to our clients to help change consumers’ behavior. Susan is joining a group of talented creative people and her wealth of experience, perspective and leadership style will make us all that much better,” said Murray.
Harries will become chairman of the network and continue to inspire and counsel. “There is no one who has worked harder and cares more. The chairman title and role, at its best, should be held by someone with stature who commands respect in a company. I can think of no one who deserves that title more,” said Murray.
Credle was most recently chief creative officer at Leo Burnett USA based in Chicago. She joined in 2009 and is credited with spearheading a creative renaissance, creating a collaborative culture, shoring up existing clients and attracting new marketers to the fold. Allstate’s “Mayhem” campaign and P&G’s anti-bullying initiative “Mean Stinks” for Secret are among her acclaimed efforts.
Credle started her career at BBDO New York after graduating. She served as a copywriter and a creative director before ultimately being appointed EVP, executive creative director. During her 24-year tenure at BBDO, she reinvented the iconic M&M’s characters, helped turn Cingular Wireless from a small challenger brand into a category leader, and created award-winning work for clients including Bank of America, FedEx, Gillette, Lowe’s, PepsiCo, Pizza Hut and Visa.
Credle, who will be one of nine jurors charged with bestowing the inaugural Glass Lion at Cannes this year, applauded Murray for his unyielding dedication to finding an unfair share of the best-and-brightest talent.
“I believe what we do in the advertising industry makes a difference. And, I have learned that for us to make a difference, three elements must be present. People, place and purpose. These are the three reasons I am now joining FCB as part of the global leadership team. I respect legacy brands and that includes agencies. In March of 2014, FCB reclaimed its name. It’s a name that has a rich history of creating compelling work that has moved the industry forward. Today, FCB has the ambition and the scale to do this again,” said Credle.
Credle is passionate about how combining art and commerce can make an undeniable difference in the industry and the world. “The challenge of doing so globally is irresistible,” she said.
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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.
