Date:08/02/2006 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/02/08/stories/2006020802730800.htm

Back Starcom launches specialist network

Our Bureau

Mr Ravi Kiran (left), CEO, South Asia Starcom MediaVest Group, and Mr Rajkumar Jha, National Director-Knowledge & Insights, at a press conference in Mumbai on Tuesday . — Shashi Ashiwal

Bangalore , Feb. 7

STARCOM MediaVest Group has launched a specialist network to look after marketing and communication in small towns and villages.

Christened Xpanse, the network will be headed by Mr Sandip Bansal, a rural marketing industry veteran of nearly 17 years, in the capacity of Country Head. Mr Bansal previously headed Ogilvy Outreach, the rural marketing unit of Ogilvy & Mather.

"Most of us think of India simplistically as urban-rural. In my belief, in the future, the small town India, comprising towns below half a million population, all the down to the largest villages will prove to be the real engines of growth. And the intricacy of communicating and marketing to people in these geographies is fundamentally different from that in big cities,'' said Mr Bansal.

Starcom MediaVest Group reported billing in excess of $22 billion in 2005.