Laqshya's Yuvraj Agarwal and Satish Singh set up media solutions agency

Just about a month after moving out of Laqshya Media, OOH (out of home) professionals Yuvraj Agarwal and Satish Kailash Singh have set up their entrepreneurial venture - a media solutions agency called Realm Media.

Singh spent a long and an eventful decade at Laqshya and in his last role at the agency, he was heading OMI, the agency vertical of Laqshya. Agarwal had worked with the company since May 2006 and in his last role was chief operating officer, ambient and airports.

Realm Media Solutions will be led by Singh and Agarwal and is backed by a set of experienced people who, between them, account for more than 60 years of extensive experience in the media sector in India and Southeast Asia.

Explaining the choice of the name for the company, he adds, "Realm in the literal sense stands for 'kingdom', 'field', or 'sphere'. Here, we wanted to position this company as the front runner in the field of media and entertainment."

He further adds that the logo symbolises their thoughts. The various components in the logo sketch include a crown, which represents Realm being the king/leader in the particular area of expertise - which also represents the feeling of 'cutting-edge' - as in technology. This can also be applied further to the meaning that Realm has expertise that makes clients the kings/leaders in their own fields.

"The sketch resembles the view through a periscope and 'an eye', hence representing vision and expertise for a niche - looking forward towards the horizon. The space within the shape allows incorporating the meaning of inquisitiveness - like looking through a keyhole - vision again," he says.

Realm OOH has attracted an angel funding to the tune of approximately US$3 million. It aims to become a powerhouse in the global media and entertainment sector in the next three years.

Realm OOH has forayed in the OOH specialist agency business, offering innovative solutions to clients. The vision in this segment is to create a holistic shift in defining benchmarks for accountability and measurement in this exponentially growing medium.

As a first initiative, the group has entered the OOH media space with Realm OOH. It intends to play a larger role in the existing OOH market in India and Southeast Asia. Apart from OOH, the group also plans to expand in various other areas such as new media, entertainment, education and other diversified areas.

On the basis of current plans in the pipeline, Agarwal informs that Realm OOH already has an estimated order book position of US$5 million, to be executed in the next few months. The company plans to close the year with capitalised billings of not less than US$20 million.

The team is in the process of being finalised and the group is expected to be strengthened by other senior professionals from the industry, having diverse experiences in their respective fields. Currently, Realm has a team size of about 23 people and this will be expanded to about 50 people in the next six months.

Agarwal informs that the team at Realm OOH has the unique distinction and experience of planning, strategising, buying and executing campaigns in more than 1,500 towns and cities across the country.

The team between them has handled some of India's blue chip clients across industries and diverse business verticals, including LG Electronics, Maruti, Tata Docomo, JSW Group, UTI Mutual Fund, SBI MF, Bharati AXA Life, Kingfisher Airlines, Virgin Atlantic Airlines, Dainik Bhaskar Group, Zee Network, Parle Food Products, Shoppers Stop, Adidas, HDFC Bank, HDFC Standard Life Insurance, HDFC Mutual Fund, DLF, Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker, Philips and Allianz Bajaj.

The company has its corporate office in Mumbai and a regional office in Delhi, with branch offices across the country.

Having successfully launched its first venture in the OOH media segment, the group's forays into various other diversified segments will be announced in the near future.