Surina Sayal
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RC&M launches urban division, RC&M Cosmo

The 15-member team at the new division will handle brand activations in tops cities and metros

RC&M, the experiential marketing agency, which, till recently, offered brands specialised integrated marketing opportunities at a rural level, has now gone a step further. It has launched an urban division, aptly called RC&M Cosmo.

The agency, which celebrates its 20th anniversary next month, has been doing road shows, promotions, direct marketing and multi-village fairs for brands. Its new division, RC&M Cosmo started operations in the North about a month ago in a soft launch, and has now moved to the West market. Plans to roll it out in the South market in a month's time are on the anvil.

RC&M launches urban division, RC&M Cosmo
Discussing the launch of the new division, Priya Monga, business head, RC&M tells afaqs!, "The rural wing is highly evolved now, and is running on auto pilot. We were doing a few urban activities for some brands that requested us to do it; but we weren't too organised with these. There has been an increasing demand for urban activities; and lots of clients have been asking us to handle their urban activations. So, it was only natural for us to go ahead with this."
RC&M launches urban division, RC&M Cosmo
Monga is also of the opinion that the divide between urban and rural is diminishing; case in point being an activity the agency is doing for one client, where a talent show was held at a rural level, but will eventually culminate in an urban location.

While BTL agencies start with an urban or metro division and then target smaller towns, RC&M has done this the other way round. Monga believes that this makes the agency much stronger, as they are working their way from inside out. "Our fundamentals are very strong with rural. From here, we are moving on to bigger cities, where it is much easier to conduct BTL activities and organise things."

While the RC&M team consists of about 50 people, the RC&M Cosmo team now has 12 people on- board, and three more will join shortly in the South office. Monga informs that the division will have its own client base.

RC&M Cosmo recently did an activity for TVS' new bike, Jive, where a test ride and demo activity was organised across cities such as Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Lucknow and Patna. Going forward, the agency also plans to digitise its offerings, with help from its sister concern, TruKnox Technologies that operates in the DDS (dynamic digital signage) market.

Monga shares that of the agency's total billings, currently about 80 per cent comes from rural and semi-urban (Tier 2 and 3 towns); while the rest comes from urban activations. In the next few years, she projects that about 50 per cent of the billings will come from Cosmo's clients, and the rest from rural and semi-urban.

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