Commenting on the same, Group M CEO (India and Asia) Ashutosh Srivastava says, "We are kickstarting ATG in many markets globally since it has proved to be a successful model in India. We are starting with South East Asian countries like China, Bangkok and Singapore to execute the systems and processes in the buying area and are setting up our professionals there for the same."

Balasubramanium, on the other hand says, "India is the most successful model of ATG and we are looking at replicating the same in other South East Asian countries and hence we have taken this step."

Praveen Kumar, Charu Mahajan and M Sunder from ATG Mumbai will now be based in Singapore, Bangkok and Beijing respectively. After Group M acquired the Unilever account in Bangkok recently, Mahajan will be working closely to develop the business in Thailand.

ATG business director Sunder on the other hand will be developing the consumer insight business in China and will be instrumental in setting up ATG in China and building consumer insight. Sunder will be working closely with the Global Analytics Center, which is based in Bangalore.

Kumar, who was with MindShare in India, will now be involved in developing the ATG business in Singapore. This strategic move has been primarily made to expand the ATG profile globally. Balasubramanium says, "Apart from replicating the Indian ATG model in these countries, we are also aggressively focusing on the Global Analytics Center and are looking at disseminating and channelising knowledge from there into these countries."