MUMBAI: Madison Media scored big at the recently concluded Waves Summit 2025, taking home the Gold in the high-stakes Ad Spend Optimiser Hackathon—an initiative jointly hosted by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) and the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI). The platform challenged India’s sharpest marketing minds to craft innovative, budget-conscious ad spend strategies powered by data science, machine learning and real-world application.
Launched under the Waves Create India Challenge Season 1, the competition narrowed down entries from across the country to four finalists: Group M, Hansa Cequity, OMD and Madison Media.
The brief?
Develop a compelling strategy that balances marketing outcomes with budget discipline—no fluff, just pure performance. Madison’s winning pitch wowed the judges for its strategic rigour, tech-enabled planning, and applicability across evolving media landscapes.
“Winning Gold at the Ad Spend Optimiser Hackathon was an unforgettable experience—made even more special by receiving the award from Aamir Khan and sharing the moment in the presence of our honourable prime minister Narendra Modi,” said Madison Digital GM Suchi Jain. “It’s a proud milestone for all of us at Madison and a strong testament to the power of data-driven creativity.”
Madison Digital DGM Pooja Vichare added, “It was an incredible experience competing with some of the brightest young minds in the industry. Tech, AI, and media go hand in hand—and this is where our media expertise and engineering skills came together to deliver impactful results.”
The win reinforces Madison Media’s position as India’s most awarded homegrown media powerhouse. Ranked the world’s 4th largest independent media agency by Recma and named Independent Agency of the Year at the E4M Media Ace Awards 2024, Madison has also secured TV Media Agency of the Year for five years straight at the Prime Time Awards.
It has racked up over 470 awards since 2020.
With a blue-chip roster that includes Marico, Asian Paints, Titan, Blue Star, TVS, Raymond, CEAT, and Samsonite, Madison Media continues to bring performance-first thinking to the boardroom table. The agency is part of Madison World, which serves over 500 advertisers through 11 specialised units.