Neha Kalra
Advertising

James Varghese to join Rediffusion's Outdoor as AV-P

Varghese has experience of around 12 years in the field of marketing and sales and has been associated with signage firms for the last four years

James Varghese, COO, Prime Market Reach (then Prime Outdoors), has put in his papers. He is moving as associate vice-president to Outdoor Advertising Professionals (OAP), the outdoor advertising arm of Rediffusion.

Varghese is currently serving his notice period at Prime Market Reach and will take charge at OAP on January 15, 2007. He will report to Abhijit Sengupta, CEO, OAP.

Talking about his mandate, Varghese says, “I will service the existing clients, but my clear mandate is to look at developing new clients.”

James Varghese to join Rediffusion's Outdoor as AV-P
James Varghese
Varghese started his career with the Hinduja owned IndusInd Media and Communications as assistant manager in the 24-hours customer services division in Mumbai. He went on to head the division, but later shifted to IN Cable. He spent four and a half years at IndusInd.

From working in the cable division for the Hinduja Group, Varghese went on to work for Broadcast Worldwide’s satellite channel, Tara. The Ratikant Basu owned Tara previously had four regional channels, Tara Marathi, Tara Bangla, Tara Punjabi and Tara Gujarati, and currently only two are on air. He did a short stint there as manager, marketing and sales.

Varghese then moved on to join Hathway Cables and Datacom as manager, marketing, for three years.

He changed his line when he joined Mid-Day Multimedia’s outdoor division, Mid-Day Outdoor, as manager, sales. The firm announced its merger with Clear Channel International in July 2006 and today operates under the name, Clear Channel Communications, India. He was there for two and a half years.

He went on to join Prime Market Reach (then Prime Outdoors) as Western region head in September 2005. In a period of six months, he was elevated to the designation of national head. In the last six months, he was again redesignated as COO and has completed one and a half years in the organisation.

Expressing his views on OOH as a medium, Varghese says, “As mainline media gets more and more cluttered and fragmented, OOH gains in importance as a critical medium to connect with the consumers and capture their attention. With more and more people spending a greater amount of their time outside their homes, OOH will only gain more and more importance.”

He adds, “The positive factor that has helped OOH in India is the booming trend of consumerism that the country is witnessing, coupled with changing lifestyles. As for the factors that are working against OOH, I think the measurability of its effectiveness is a point that needs to be addressed. But even with conventional outdoor, I see a lot of brands making that extra effort to create an impact. Brands and media owners are also thinking of more than just conventional options.”

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