MAM
Xapads Media appoints Gagan Uppal as country head for Mena region
MUMBAI: Programmatic adtech platform Xapads Media has announced the appointment of Gagan Uppal as the country head for the Mena (Middle East and North Africa) region to give them a local leadership boost in the region. Xapads Media with the onboarding of Uppal, will now focus on its strategic growth strengthening the local team, partnerships, and innovation in the MENA region.
Associated with brands like Bath and Body Works, H&M, Aldar, Abu Dhabi Tourism, DTCM (Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing), Samsung, IQOptions, Starbucks and McDonalds in the Mena region, Xapads is now looking to increase its footprint further in the region. With the expansion of its offerings, Xapads’s UAE office will serve as the hub for the company’s business development in the Middle East market and will explore new opportunities in the fast-growing Mena region.
Prior to Xapads, Gagan was spearheading Advertising and Emerging Tech Partnerships at The TechVantage and was responsible for onboarding global AdTech/MarTech partners. In 14 years of work experience, Uppal has managed several popular campaigns for well-known clients including Nestle, Expo 2020, Neom, Dubai Holdings, Address Hotels and ENOC to name a few.
Xapads Media founder, CEO Nitin Gupta said, “With a focused approach to further expand our horizons, Xapads will strengthen its position in the Mena region with a new country head. We are delighted to have Gagan on board, with his leadership skills and work experience he would contribute to further strengthen our footprints in the MENA region”.
Xapads through its AdTech platform Xerxes- empowered with AI/ML, aims to generate performance programmatically with data layering and brand safety. Currently, with a market reach of over 850 million users globally, it aims to help and bring high-end results for their partners.
Xapads Media COO Ramneek Chadha said, “Gagan is a seasoned veteran in the industry with a vast experience and insights of the ad-tech field and I am sure that he will successfully implement his growth strategies in the market and help Xapads Media be one of the top Adtech Platform in the region.”
Uppal said, “It is a great opportunity for me to join Xapads Media at such a pivotal time and lead its Mena office which is rapidly growing and creating a niche in the region. As the company is already catering to well-known brands and agencies with its advanced ad tech services, I’m confident in bringing a positive revolution to the business and the company’s growth.”
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.
