Women to Watch Greater China 2021: Meha Verghese, MediaCom

Meha Verghese

Growth and innovation lead, China
MediaCom
Shanghai

Meha Verghese has defined her career by answering ‘where is the industry headed and how can I lead the change?’ In just four-and-a-half years in advertising, Verghese has already realised this goal. A UK-born, India-bred Harvard MBA graduate, Verghese opted for a post-MBA career in advertising for its combination of left-brain and right-brain thinking and its closeness to the consumer.

Having crafted creative communications strategies for New Balance in New York, worked across a multi-market, 9-agency team to define GlaxoSmithKline’s data strategy in London, her appetite for newness then brought her to China where she built Wavemaker’s consumer experience offering to lead projects with Danone and Colgate.

Since joining MediaCom China just a year ago, Verghese has driven business forward at pace by trailblazing innovation across clients, capabilities and culture. From developing a clear vision and roadmap for Mars’ media transformation, evolving a tech showcase into a hands-on workshop to bring Adidas’ mission ‘Create the New’ to consumers post-COVID, and crafting the communications strategy for Cartier’s major Pasha launch, which saw Cartier embrace livestreaming and an interactive Douyin challenge – one of the first luxury brands to do so with outstanding results – Verghese’s work has helped major clients succeed and directly contributed to MediaCom’s increased client satisfaction scores during a particularly challenging year.

But not only this, Verghese takes a leading role in driving a collaborative working culture and is committed to enabling others’ potential for innovation by giving them the practical tools and confidence to think differently. She leads inspiration sessions and workshops for staff as well as proactively sharing her insights and ideas with client teams.

It’s Verghese’s dynamism and outsized impact that have won her the opportunity to lead MediaCom’s new marketing transformation consultancy – an important growth initiative for the agency, which will no doubt further solidify Verghese’s position as an indispensable team player and inspirational leader.