Be Worldwide, one of South India’s most experienced branding and strategy agencies, with 700+ brands and 15 years of international market presence, has officially merged with Xpresso Global. The combined entity operates under the Xpresso Global name, bringing together 1,000+ brands in shape, 120+ creative professionals, 500+ ad films, 350+ events executed, 150 million+ people reached, and 23 years of combined experience, all under one roof, in one agency, with one shared direction.
This is not a restructure. This is not an acquisition dressed up in polite language.
Two agencies that spent years building complementary strengths made a deliberate decision to become something that creates an impact in the world. The result is a creative force that Kerala and South India, has not seen before.
To understand why this merger matters, you need to understand what Xpresso was built to be.
Xpresso Global is a strategy-first communication agency. That distinction is important. In a market crowded with agencies that lead with aesthetics – beautiful logos, polished visuals, impressive decks – Xpresso was designed around a different belief: that communication only works when it is rooted in strategy.
Every brief that comes into Xpresso begins the same way. Not with a mood board. Not with a colour palette. With a detailed brand diagnosis. What does this brand actually stand for? Who is it really speaking to? What does the market look like, and where does this brand have a genuine right to win? Only when those questions are answered does the creative work begin.
This approach, what Xpresso calls Brand Diagnosis, has produced some of the most recognised and recalled brand communication in Kerala. From category-defining taglines to campaigns that ran for consecutive seasons without a single creative change, the work speaks to what happens when strategy leads and creativity follows.
Founded by Afthab Shoukath PV, Xpresso has spent eight years proving that the most effective creative agencies are not the ones with the most notions. They are the ones with the clearest thinking, with groundwork, cultural understanding, & human perspective.
Be Worldwide was built on a parallel philosophy, and that is precisely why this merger made sense.
Founded by Vivek Sasindran, a Red Dot Design Award winner and one of the most respected brand designers & strategists in South India, Be Worldwide spent 15 years building brands with a human-centred approach rooted in research, storytelling, and strategic empathy.
Its portfolio spans 700+ brands across India and international markets including the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and Europe. Its client work cuts across healthcare, hospitality, education, technology, F&B, real estate, manufacturing, logistics, pharmaceuticals, and banking, making it one of the most sector-diverse branding operations in the region.
With this merger, Vivek Sasindran joins Xpresso Global as Director, Chief Creative Officer. His expertise does not change what Xpresso is. It amplifies it, adding two decades of international brand strategy experience, a rigorous human-centred methodology, and a depth of creative thinking that takes Xpresso to an entirely different level of capability.
Mergers in the creative industry are common. Agencies combine for scale, for client lists, for survival. Most of the time, the result is larger in headcount but not meaningfully stronger in output.
This is different for one reason: Be Worldwide didn’t bring a different way of thinking to Xpresso. It brought a deeper version of the same thinking.
Xpresso had always led with strategy, speed, and integrated execution. Be Worldwide brought an additional layer – international exposure, a structured human-centred methodology, and 15 years of brand building tested across cultures, markets, and categories. One strengthened the other. Nothing was diluted. Everything was elevated.
It is also, quite simply, two industry legends joining forces. Afthab Shoukath built Xpresso on the belief that strategy should lead every brief. Vivek Sasindran spent 15 years strategising and building brands, proving that human-centred storytelling can travel across borders and categories. Kerala’s creative industry has watched both of them build, separately, for years. Now they’re building together.
When you add strategic depth to integrated execution, international experience to regional relevance, and structured brand thinking to creative speed, you do not just get a bigger agency. You get a sharper one.
That is what Xpresso Global is today.
For too long, brands in Kerala have had to choose. Either work with a local agency that understands the market but lacks the depth for complex brand challenges. Or go to a national or international agency that brings the thinking but doesn’t understand the cultural and commercial nuances of this region.
Xpresso Global eliminates that compromise.
With 23+ years of combined experience, Xpresso now brings together 120+ strategists, designers, filmmakers, storytellers, and digital specialists in one place. That means the briefs that once meant looking outside Kerala can now be handled right here, without losing the regional intelligence that makes communication land.
For startups building their identity from scratch, Xpresso brings the strategic rigour to get it right the first time. For established brands looking to evolve, reposition, or scale, Xpresso brings the depth of thinking and breadth of execution to make that transition seamless. For national and global brands looking for a creative partner in South India, Xpresso brings a track record that speaks across industries and geographies.
This merger is not the destination. It is the foundation.
Xpresso Global is building toward something specific. A creative agency from Kerala that is confidently competitive on a national and global stage, by doing what we have always done;
Leading with strategy, executing with precision, and measuring everything by whether it moves the business forward.
The creative industry in Kerala is at an inflection point. Brands are more sophisticated. Audiences are more discerning. The bar for what constitutes good communication has never been higher. Agencies that survive and lead in this environment will be the ones that think before they create, and prove the value of every rupee spent.
Xpresso Global is built exactly for that.