Suchi Jain, General Manager at Madison World and Head of Implementation, leads digital best practices across biddable platforms, managing a 75+ member team. With 13+ years in digital media, her expertise spans performance, branding, AdTech, MarTech, and programmatic. She also drives automation and data-led strategies to future-proof client success. In this interview, Suchi shares sharp insights on programmatic evolution, AI’s impact, high-performing teams, and turning data into real-time decisions.

        

You’ve seen programmatic advertising evolve over the last decade. What key shifts have had the biggest impact on client outcomes?

 

Programmatic has evolved significantly—both in India and globally. The saying, “All media will be digital, and all digital will be programmatic,” reflects this shift. I’ve witnessed this transformation firsthand over the past 10 years—starting with educating clients to move from fragmented buying to consolidated programmatic strategies. What was once emerging is now routine. The shift from real-time bidding limited to walled gardens to a diverse mix of inventory suppliers has been pivotal. Key impacts on client outcomes include:

1. Automation in programmatic drives greater efficiency and cost-effectiveness by leveraging open exchange inventories and guaranteed deals to reach the right audiences at the right time and place. 
2. Data-driven decisions using first-party data along with second- and third-party data enable precision targeting that goes beyond basic demographics, geography, and interests—delivering personalization at scale. 
3. Regulations like GDPR and CCPA have reshaped the way data is collected, and programmatic platforms have adapted to handle this. 
4. Cross-channel and new inventory options (CTV, Retail Media, DOOH, Audio) allow for unified customer journeys, providing more touchpoints through a single system. 
5. Access to new high-value audiences, particularly on CTV, offers the immersive storytelling of television with the precision of digital data, enabling advertisers to reach engaged audiences with targeted, high-quality video content. 
6. The demand for transparency and accountability from clients has been addressed with improved brand safety and reduced ad fraud. 

 

 

Leading a team of 80+ specialists is no small feat—how do you build a high-performance culture while driving consistent excellence?

The organization’s structure plays a key role in enabling this. While I lead a central team of experts, we ensure biddable practices are consistently followed through guidance and support. Unit heads, business leads across digital and non-digital, and media planners nurture talent daily in various ways. Here’s how we foster a high-performance culture:

1. We create an environment where team members feel safe to speak up, ask questions, admit mistakes, and share differing opinions—without fear of retribution or humiliation.
2. We empower specialists by delegating responsibility and giving them the freedom to make decisions within their areas of expertise, supported by clear guardrails and without micromanagement.
3. We offer regular training, upskilling, cross-functional exposure, and professional development through workshops, certifications, conferences, and mentorship programs. A growth mindset and continuous learning are celebrated in the fast-changing digital advertising space.
4. Constructive feedback, standardized best practices, the use of data and technology to enhance efficiency, strong accountability, cross-functional collaboration, and knowledge sharing are key drivers of excellence.
5. All leaders aim to lead by example, demonstrating the values, work ethic, commitment, and quality we expect from our teams. Being transparent, approachable, and accountable while staying resilient and open to learning from both peers and juniors helps build a positive workplace culture.
   

 

With AI, automation, and retail media accelerating, what trends do you believe will define the next phase of digital advertising?

The AI Effect in Advertising
AI is now central to advertising, powering hyper-personalisation, predictive analytics for targeting, automated campaign optimization, and data-driven decision-making. From GenAI-generated ads to intelligent algorithms that refine performance in real-time, AI is making campaigns more efficient and effective.

The “Always Online” Mode
With more people joining the digital ecosystem, connectivity now extends beyond phones and computers to connected TVs. Search and social reviews are influencing purchase decisions, while platforms offer consumers a voice to share feedback and build relationships with brands, creating a two-way engagement loop.

Hyper-Personalisation at Scale
Consumers increasingly expect tailored communication that aligns with their interests and behaviors. This trend is accelerating with the adoption of AI and machine learning, enabling dynamic, individualized messaging across channels.

The 5G Leap
According to Nokia’s 2024 Mobile Broadband Index Report, 5G subscribers in India are projected to grow from 290 million in 2024 to 770 million by 2028. This opens the door for high-quality, interactive advertising experiences, especially using AR and VR to engage users with speed and precision.

The Rise of E-Q Commerce (Instant Commerce)
Alibaba’s “Taobao Instant Commerce” recently surpassed 40 million daily orders, as per Reuters. This signals a surge in instant commerce, where smart, fast-moving consumers skip traditional funnel stages. Brands must adapt quickly to retain loyalty and remain top-of-mind.

Video Advertising Dominance
Short-form videos on platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts continue to captivate audiences. Meanwhile, Connected TV (CTV) blends precise targeting with the immersive experience of traditional television, solidifying video’s role as a dominant format.

Voice Search Optimisation
The growing use of voice assistants demands a shift in content strategy. Ads and messaging must now account for longer, more conversational queries to remain discoverable and relevant in a voice-first world.

Sustainability in Advertising
There’s rising consumer and industry pressure to adopt environmentally responsible advertising practices. From green ad tech to low-carbon campaign solutions, sustainability is becoming a key consideration in digital strategy.

 

 

 

As technology gets smarter, how do you see the balance evolving between automated media buying and human strategic insight?

With technology (becoming increasingly intelligent), the balance in media buying between automation and human strategic insight is shifting toward a collaborative model rather than a competitive one.

Automation has transformed media buying by delivering greater speed, scale, and efficiency. Platforms such as Google, Meta, and Amazon use machine learning to dynamically optimize budgets, bidding, and targeting. These sophisticated systems excel at processing large datasets, identifying patterns, and automating repetitive tasks, enabling media teams to focus on advanced strategic thinking.

Yet, human insight remains vital. Strategists bring a deep understanding of brand identity, consumer behavior, cultural subtleties, and ethical considerations. They define the why behind campaign setting objectives, interpreting complex signals, and ensuring alignment with brand values and market realities. For instance, only a human can anticipate how a campaign will be received during sensitive social periods or tailor messaging to specific local cultures.

The future hinges on symbiosis: automation drives execution, while humans guide the vision. This human-in-the-loop approach empowers strategists to act as AI’s copilots—shaping decisions, refining outcomes, and adding emotional and contextual depth that machines alone cannot achieve.

Ultimately, superior media planning will come from combining machine intelligence with human creativity and judgment. Automation drives performance; human insight provides purpose, together enabling smarter, more impactful advertising.

 

 

 

With brands seeking faster, more actionable insights, how are you helping clients translate data into smarter, real-time decisions? 

In today’s fast-paced digital world, data is only valuable when it drives immediate, relevant, and actionable insights. To help brands stay ahead of the curve and the competition, I build agile, insight-led media strategies grounded in these core practices:

Integrated Data Ecosystems: We ensure data flows seamlessly across platforms—pulling signals from programmatic campaigns, social, search, CRM, and first-party sources, then leveraging cloud services, MMMs (marketing mix models), and other tools to map them to specific use cases.

Dashboards That Drive Action: We build custom dashboards that surface meaningful KPIs, anomalies, and optimization triggers. These tools enable quick decisions, whether it’s reallocating budgets, refining targeting, or adjusting creative.

Automation + Human Intelligence:We leverage automation and AI for predictive modeling, bid optimization, performance alerts, and work with optimization partners. But this is always paired with strategic human oversight to ensure actions are aligned with brand goals and market context.

Test-and-Learn Frameworks: To keep insights flowing, we embed experimentation into every plan: A/B testing creatives, formats, publishers, inventories, platforms, and audience segments continuously. Learnings feed back into campaigns dynamically, optimizing performance in real time.

Upskilling & Collaboration: We work to foster data literacy both internally and externally empowering teams to stay updated and enabling clients, through workshops and collaborative reviews, to make informed decisions alongside the agency.