Marketing Growth Circle

Welcome to Marketing Growth Circle — a show by ROAS Digital, hosted by Gautham Nagaraj, Founder & Managing Director of ROAS Digital.Marketing Growth Circle is about real growth — not hacks, not trends, and not theory. In every episode, we sit down with leaders who’ve built brands, led teams, and made decisions where the cost of being wrong was real.This conversation with Olena Lemeshko is especially special — it was the first episode we recorded for the show.Olena is a former senior marketing leader at Starbucks (MENA) and Persil, and today a Managing Partner at a Middle East–focused brand strategy consultancy.In this deep, wide-ranging conversation, Olena shares insights from building brands across FMCG, Retail, and F&B, and working across Europe, the US, and the Middle East. Together, Gautham and Olena explore what it truly takes for global brands to win in the Middle East — beyond surface-level localization and generic playbooks.🎙️ What we cover in this episode• How global brands must adapt to win in the Middle East• Why trust, rituals, and emotional memory define strong FMCG brands• Lessons from building experience-led brands like Starbucks• Navigating cultural nuance, localization, and consumer sentiment• Why many global brands fail in the Middle East — and how to avoid it• Personal branding beyond job titles and corporate identity• Authentic leadership, communication fears, and vulnerability• Women in leadership and navigating senior roles• CSR, values, and long-term brand equity• How AI is reshaping modern marketing decisions• Advice for young marketers entering the industry in the age of AIMarketing Growth Circle brings together senior marketers, founders, and operators to decode how brands grow across cultures, markets, and moments of change.📌 Subscribe for upcoming episodes on YouTube & Spotify

In this episode of Marketing Growth Circle, Gautham Nagaraj sits down with Namrata Balwani, a seasoned marketing leader whose career spans over two decades across agency, consulting, and enterprise transformation roles.From co-founding one of India’s earliest digital agencies to shaping global brands at Ogilvy, driving large-scale digital transformation at Landmark Group (Dubai), and now building a global growth engine in B2B travel-tech, Namrata shares a rare, inside-out view of what modern marketing leadership truly looks like.This conversation goes beyond buzzwords to unpack how brand, data, analytics, and technology must work together to drive measurable business impact — especially in legacy, complex, and enterprise environments.In this episode, we cover:What digital marketing really looked like in 2005 — before tools and playbooksThe shift from agency life to global networks like OgilvyWhat “brand excellence” actually means at scaleHow to approach digital transformation in offline-heavy businessesBuilding a true single view of the customer across online and offlineWhy brand emotion still matters in a data-driven worldThe real role of AI in modern marketing teamsHow CMOs should think about leadership, teams, and future-proof skillsIf you’re a CMO, founder, marketing leader, or growth practitioner navigating brand building, digital transformation, or AI adoption — this episode offers clarity, depth, and real-world perspective.