Ideacafe launches new rural and urban communication division, Roots

New Delhi: Ideacafe.agency has launched its new rural and urban communication division, Ideacafe Roots. 

Explaining the thought behind the launch, the agency wrote in a statement, “While there is a thin line between rural and urban India post-covid and the purchasing power and aspiration of Rurban populations have increased phenomenally, 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, which was the first structured approach to rural marketing in the country. 

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 a leadership role.

Joining Bansal as part of the senior leadership team is Shweta Lamba, the Business Head of Experiential. 

With over 14 years of diverse experience in marketing, Lamba has expertise in intellectual properties, key account management, and experiential solutions.

Lamba has worked on brands such as P&G, Britannia, Mahindra, Mondelez, and Duracell. 

Ideacafe said that her extensive background in urban and rural activations, lifestyle events, and product promotions positions her to lead its experiential strategies.

Before joining Ideacafe Roots, Lamba held roles at organisations, 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. Morjaria has over 20 years of experience in business operations and buying across urban and rural activations and also managing large-scale manpower deployment across retail channels.

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

Bansal shared, “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 said, “As brands seek to increase distribution and reach across Tier2 and Tier3 landscapes, roots were the answer to what is now more appropriately known as rurban landscapes.” 

Bansal elaborated, “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 the ground rather than depending on outsourced assistance like network agencies are accustomed to do.”

Nabendu Bhattacharyya founder of 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 in the investment phase and will build credible offerings for brand needs at the point of sale.”