#25: Franklin Ugobude—From Microbiology to Growth Marketing
Franklin Ugobude is a marketing strategist skilled in storytelling, digital growth, and brand development, working across media and tech ecosystems.
This is the African Growth Marketers Spotlight series for the Marketing In Action Newsletter where we interview diverse marketing practitioners who are putting marketing into action. Share it with your network! ~James
The MIA Academy runs bootcamps where marketers build skills in product marketing, growth, GTM, and AI while working on real projects. Learn more about the bootcamp here.
Can you tell us a bit about your background, education, and how you got into marketing?
I was born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria, and I like to joke that I was probably a lot smarter when I was younger (blame the internet for that!) Like a lot of kids back then, I leaned towards the sciences because it felt like the “smart” thing to do. Most of my family worked in oil and gas, so it just seemed like the obvious path.
But I quickly realised engineering wasn’t for me. After going through the entire JAMB syllabus, the only course that really caught my eye was Applied Microbiology and Brewing Science. I didn’t like the sight of blood, and engineering was a no-go-area. I got into university for it, but by my third year, it was clear I wasn’t passionate about it.
Around that time, I started interning at 360Nobs, a leading entertainment and PR company. I managed social media, worked on digital campaigns, and that experience completely changed my perspective. It showed me the power of storytelling, digital communities, and how culture really thrives online.
After graduating, I joined VConnect, a local business directory and e-commerce platform, where I led a team of writers and learned to think about digital marketing at scale. From there, I went back into media with OMG Digital and Ringier Africa (now Pulse), before transitioning into tech with companies like Wallets Africa and Topship.
My marketing journey really started from curiosity. I loved writing and running social media pages, and each time I discovered a new side of marketing (advertising, analytics, customer engagement), I just wanted to learn more. That curiosity, along with great mentors and a lot of continuous learning, has been the biggest driver of my growth.
How do you define growth marketing?
That’s such an interesting question because when my offer letter at Wallets came in, the role said ‘Head of Growth’ and I found myself asking myself what growth really meant and why they thought it was something I could do. I think that growth marketing is really just advanced marketing, where people are more concerned with going the extra mile along the funnel and down to the business outcomes.
Most startups that seek growth marketers want to keep trying things and experimenting, and designing experiences that add value to the business and help it grow.
I wrote this when I took the CXL growth marketing minidegree some years back, and I think it still stands. Hot take is that I also think that (almost) every marketer today is a growth marketer. Everyone has to defend the impact of their campaign or activity post, just activity and engagement, and that hopefully helps everyone think of how they manage and contribute to the business objective.
The MIA Academy runs bootcamps where marketers build skills in product marketing, growth, GTM, and AI while working on real projects. Learn more about the bootcamp here.
What are your key areas of expertise within marketing?
One of the exciting things about working at startups is that you get to wear a lot of hats, depending on the marketing need at the time, so I’ve really worked in various expertise various times. My strengths would fall in digital strategy, customer journey mapping, data analysis and experimentation. I’m able to think, create, curate, observe data and hypothesise while being ready to go back to the drawing board in case it doesn’t work. It’s typically me, my Google Docs with the briefs and other things.
Content, has always been at the heart of everything so I’m great at that and I think that I’m really obsessed with the science of behaviour especially while working in marketing. Why do they do these? If they’ve done this, what can I postulate they’ll do next? Etc. These questions help me ask how marketing can deliver growth and genuine value.
I find that the more technical bits of marketing (SEO, paid advertising, programmatic advertising) are things that I have some expertise with, but with the latest advances, I’d focus more on customer-led initiatives and leave that to the professionals but who knows? Let’s see!
Which marketing channels do you prioritize, and have you found to be effective?
think that effectiveness really depends on the goal and the objective. Because I currently work in customer marketing, a lot of my work falls within retention, upsell, crossell and customer engagement.
I prioritise email marketing, CRM, and lifecycle campaigns because they’re cheap and they allow for deep personalisation and long-term engagement when done right. I’ve also really seen good ROI from events and webinars in my work currently, so I tend to prioritise them in the mix. My ideal criteria when thinking of marketing channels would be to start with the low effort, high-reward on the action priority matrix, so things that fall within that section do well by me. Overall, I believe that good content is a recurring theme across most channels and strengthens.
Over time, I’ve found that channels perform best when they’re integrated, when messaging is consistent and insight-driven across the funnel.
What roles have you held in your growth and marketing career?
I’ve held roles across the full breadth of marketing and growth: Customer Marketing Manager, Digital Marketing Manager, Marketing Manager, Head of Growth, Social Media Manager, Senior Content Strategist. Each step has deepened my understanding of how marketing drives business growth, whether through storytelling, experimentation, or customer advocacy.
Which companies have you worked with?
Trustpilot – A global B2B SaaS platform, which is the world’s largest customer feedback platform, free and open to all. With more than 238 million reviews of over 980,000 domains, Trustpilot provides a platform for people to share and discover reviews of businesses and provides companies with the tools to transform consumer feedback into business results.
Topship – A B2B/B2C logistics technology startup providing solutions that help African SMEs and individuals ship globally and access new markets.
Wallets Africa – A fintech company enabling seamless digital payments and financial management tools to individuals and small businesses across Africa through a B2C/B2BFintech-as-a-Service model.
OMG Digital – A B2C digital media company creating lifestyle and entertainment content for brands and various audiences across Africa.
360Nobs – One of Nigeria’s early digital media entertainment and PR platforms serving young, digitally engaged African audiences.
Can you share a fun or interesting fact about yourself that most people don’t know?
I thought of so many answers to this, but I’ll settle on starting university at 15 and graduating by 19 (I think that’s a bad idea, really, and everyone should be much older before doing that these days), but by the time I was out of university, I had spent some years working in digital media. I also once lectured at a university during my National Youth Service, and I still plan to lecture someday.
What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
I really enjoy travelling and eating. A good chunk of my income goes towards it. I also love watching films and television, and a fun fact, I’ve been on the jury of a prestigious African film festival.
Can you share a resource or template that has been particularly valuable in your work?
There are a lot of resources that have been valuable in my work. I mostly believe that there’s nothing new to be done, and we’re really just re-inventing what has been done. So, I pay attention to what people have done in the past and see how I can tweak it for my work. I enjoy following my friend Binjo’s newsletter called Growth Case Studies. I also follow other newsletters such as Demand Curve and Marketing Examples from Harry Dry.
What advice would you give to someone starting their career in growth marketing?
My advice is something I’d also ask that you take into your personal life. Always be curious and ask questions, even when they sound like stupid questions. Why do these things work? Why do people behave the way they do? These questions will help you stay on your toes and iterate when you have a hypothesis. Be willing to test, fail, and learn fast.
Something else I’m also learning in my career is building relationships. I’ve always believed that good work is enough, but I think relationships also open doors than you think you expect. People will go out of their way to help people they like, so while your work ethic is fantastic, try to forge relationships and try to keep them organic. Nobody wants anything that seems too forced and fraudulent.
Give us two marketers that you would like us to interview in this newsletter
Moyosola Kara – Marketing and Communications Lead at 54Gene and EzE
Oluwatosin Raji– Marketing Lead at MDaas Health
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