Branding is not limited to the Brand Manual. It is not the colours and the fonts being used on merchandise. Branding is a personality—one needs to live it”. That’s the adage IOSIGNITE—a renowned education marketing agency—believes in. IOSIGNITE is India’s first dedicated hybrid agency focusing on the education space. The story of IOSIGNITE entering the education sector has an inspiring edge. In 2008, one of the founders, Jay Bagri, was given the opportunity to work for a university in the United States as a marketing intern and later as a full-time executive. He spent two years working there before returning to India to work in Bangalore with a business consulting firm.

Gaining enough experience, in 2014, he decided to launch his startup, The Dorm Shop, which was a student relocation and food service. The startup got him in touch with several chancellors of engineering colleges in Bangalore – where he noticed a common problem – all colleges were struggling to find students despite having the best faculty, infrastructure, and placement. That was the first time he realized that there is a dire need for an education marketing agency in India. That’s when he got together with his now wife Anushree Bajaj to start IOISGNITE.

The initial few years were tough – while there was a definite need, marketing was still a bit of a taboo in the education space. The duo soon realized assisting colleges and ed tech companies from the US, UK, and Australia was a better bet than focusing solely on India.

Our prior experience of working in the US and UK helped us bag small work from several prestigious colleges – including Victoria University, Monash University, Nottingham University, and Southern New Hampshire University. That helped us stay afloat and grow and then came the pandemic which opened a pandora’s box for the Indian education system. The institutions finally understood the importance of building a brand and staying and adapting with time. “Today, we are the only agency that has a dedicated team assisting universities and colleges improve their perception score in NIRF and QS Rankings in India", says Jay.


According to the founders, “Branding and marketing to most stakeholders in colleges and schools are limited to giving an advertisement in the newspaper and their marketing team is usually one professor who got stuck with the role! To address this issue, the team at IOISGNITE first educates its clients and helps them understand the implications while making sure they continue working towards the brand goals.

IOISGNITE’s team is a mix of individuals with higher education marketing backgrounds and agency experience – giving us an added edge in client communications. The company also has creative directors with 20 years of experience, and ad strategists that have worked for some of the biggest banks in India.

The company strongly believes that every college is not right for every child. Hence, IOISGNITE’s focus has always been to connect the right student to the right college, by streamlining communications between colleges and schools. “We help them attract the right students. Building a brand in the education space is a major commitment – the institution needs to live it every day otherwise there is always a disconnect between the student, faculty, and the management”, explains Anushree.

We are the only agency that has a dedicated team assisting universities & colleges improve their perception score in NIRF and QS Rankings in India

The agency understands UGC, CBSE, and other regulatory body guidelines for advertisement, website development, and other communications. IOSIGNITE is currently in a phase of hypergrowth. The company works with 60+ institutions today – 25 Indian Schools, 32 Indian Colleges, five foreign universities, and two ed techs. They are expecting to reach 300 institutions by 2024. For the road ahead, it is looking at launching some inexpensive products for the education space that will help smaller schools and colleges follow its guidelines and establish their brand without the need for an agency.