Rohan and I go a long way back. The first time I reached out to him was to sponsor a bike ride and from there on, its been an honor to see a journalist turned marketer carve a space for himself with iconic brands like Red Bull. This is one of those episodes; which can shake a lot of beliefs one might come with; so be ready to junk them out of the window. What stands out the most is that a lot of what Rohan does is rooted in the simplicity of caring deeply about people; reiterated quite a few times in the episode.

About Rohan Vyavaharkar

As a trained journalist and a marketing professional, Rohan has over two decades experience with consumer brands, sporting teams and events in both emerging and large businesses. A global marketer, he has worked in India, Singapore and the US in different roles with brands as diverse as Twitter, Red Bull India, NDTV and also startups.

In his current role as Director, Marketing & Communications at Omidyar Network India, an investment firm focused on social impact, Rohan works on marrying a consumer based marketing approach with the unique business needs of an investment firm to help carve a unique brand. We’re going to be talking about his attempts to bring out a more human side to the firm's stories of social impact through varying use of various mediums.

He is a husband to a fellow former journalist and current communications leader, and a father of two girls who push the boundaries of reality, sanity and creativity on a daily basis. He’s finally accepted that he’s aging by participating in an amateur but highly competitive ‘dad’s cricket league’, and spends the rest of his 'sports time' screaming at the TV screen in either joy or agony depending on the fortunes of his beloved football team, Manchester United FC. And he is determined, one day, to sing songs from the feature film La La Land in tune.

Rohan also contributes to several publications and is also a visiting faculty at a leading Indian communications school.

Breaking Down the Episode

• How Marketing is an opportunity to connect with people and know their aspirations and motivations and a journey of co-creation
• What journalism taught Rohan about marketing
• Getting people to understand the product, try the product, believe in the product and get people to become brand ambassadors and love the product
• How Rohan handled learning curves in different industries
• Team work and using the support system
• Adaptability and having the self belief
• The learning, unlearning and relearning thanks to sports
• What is real leadership? (A sport inspired version)
• Pushing the barrier on excellence
• Building a team vs being part of a team
• Learnings from entrepreneurship
• Keeping people central to everything as a framework
• Being honest about the quality you are delivering
• Never settle
• Branding in the social impact space
• Omidyar's Purpose and the dual cheque book approach
• Applying consumer marketing in B2B and this approach can be effective in any scenario and what it tells us about people
• The next half a billion and tech for good and responsible tech
• Closing the language barrier
• Closing the cultural barriers
• Closing the gender barriers
• Two ways to staying relevant as a marketer forever

For the complete episode notes and links to the marketing campaigns mentioned by Rohan, checkout the reltoK website

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