Ideacafe launches rurban division - ROOTS

Ideacafe.agency has launched its new rural and urban communication division IDEACAFE ROOTS.

IDEACAFE ROOTS aims at addressing brands communication needs in line with their expansion plans.

To drive this initiative IDEACAFE ROOTS has brought on board Sandip Bansal, Practice Head ROOTS, whose professional journey in rural marketing began in 1989 with Video on Wheels. He then joined Ogilvy OUTREACH where he played a pivotal role in developing Ogilvy Rural, the agency’s rural marketing arm. This was followed by his 8-year stint at Starcom, which he joined in 2005 and where he set up the rural practice called Xpanse Asia. He joined GroupM DIALOGUE FACTORY IN 2012 where he helmed at leadership role.

With over 35 years of experience Sandip shared that, “Helping brands build equity and share in rural India is what drives me, and I found ideacafe to be the best equipped to drive this as it has the agility and fluidity of an independent setup which is often absent in large network agencies.” He further added , “As brands seek to increase distribution and reach across Tier2 and Tier3 landscapes roots was the answer to what is now more appropriately known as RURBAN LANDSCAPES”. Sandeep elaborated saying, “My focus is going to remain on aggregating and creating scalable , sustainable models that best address brand objectives at the local level, setting up our own teams that understand the need on ground rather that depending on outsourced assistance like network agencies are accustomed to do.”

“We also will bring in Human Centric Approach into communication planning; a process for achieving goals for our clients & partners whether it be for a product adoption or behaviour change, this has been restricted so far only to social and developmental communication largely.”

Joining Sandip as part of the senior leadership team is Shweta Lamba as Business Head of Experiential. With over 14 years of diverse experience in marketing, Shweta brings a wealth of expertise in Intellectual Properties, Key Account Management, and experiential solutions that will elevate the IDEACAFE ROOTS, offerings and drive growth.

Before joining Ideacafe Roots, Shweta held pivotal roles at leading organizations, including Entertainment Network India Limited (part of Times of India), Big Magic (part of Reliance), and GroupM’s Dialogue Factory.
Also joining the team is Amish Morjaria to lead the fulfilment as National Operations Head - Roots. Amish comes with over 20 years of diverse and rich experience in business operations and buying across urban & rural activations and also managing large-scale manpower deployment across retail channels.

Before joining Roots, Amish held pivotal roles at leading organizations, including Tech Smart, DDB Mudra, and GroupM’s Dialogue Factory. His innovative approach and commitment to excellence have consistently driven success in all projects.

Nabendu Bhattacharyya founder ideacafe.agency said: “My focus is on the need of brands and the talent who can suffice the purpose of brands . While group companies are busy reducing manpower i believe certain businesses need local level manpower expertise and execution capabilities and that is the need gap for brands we would like to address. By providing accountability to brands staying on the ground and not depending on 3rd party solutions. We are at investment phase and will build credible offerings for brand needs at the point of sale.”