Laura Knebusch (Georgia-Pacific) | The Power of Staying Unflappable
Timestamps are as accurate as they can be but may be slightly off. We encourage you to listen to the full context.
Podcast Summary
In this engaging conversation recorded live at the ANA Masters of Marketing, Laura Niebusch, Senior VP of CPG Marketing at Georgia Pacific, shares her journey of transforming one of America's most iconic consumer goods companies. Laura discusses how she's modernized marketing for household brands like Angel Soft, Brawny, Dixie, and Quilted Northern while staying true to their core values. (04:38) The episode explores her "Living Our Brands" initiative that made brand building everyone's responsibility across the organization, not just marketing's job. (24:25) Laura also reveals how Georgia Pacific became an early adopter of AI and retail media, built internal analytics capabilities, and achieved breakthrough creative success, including winning a Cannes Gold Lion for Angel Soft's Super Bowl campaign.
- Main themes include organizational transformation, brand building as a company-wide initiative, embracing change management, and integrating AI into marketing operations while maintaining authentic brand connections with consumers.
Speakers
Laura Niebusch
Laura Niebusch is the Senior Vice President of CPG Marketing and Customer Experience at Georgia Pacific, where she oversees marketing for iconic household brands including Brawny, Angel Soft, Dixie, and Quilted Northern. She has spent 15 years at Georgia Pacific, with the past two years focused on modernizing one of America's most recognizable CPG companies. Laura began her career at Procter & Gamble, where she developed her foundation in consumer insights and brand discipline, working on brands like NyQuil, DayQuil, and Pepto Bismol in the personal healthcare division.
Jim Stengel
Jim Stengel is the host of The CMO Podcast and a former Global Marketing Officer at Procter & Gamble. He has helped hundreds of major brands discover and activate their purpose throughout his career. Jim is known for his expertise in brand building and marketing leadership, regularly interviewing top CMOs and marketing executives to share insights on building brands that people love.
Key Takeaways
Embrace Being "Unflappable" as a Leadership Trait
Laura's colleagues describe her as "absolutely unflappable," a quality she considers essential for effective leadership. (06:29) She explains that staying calm during storms allows leaders to listen first, show empathy, and focus on solutions rather than dwelling on problems. This approach involves taking a breath, thinking about the bigger picture, and always having a path forward. Rather than hiding emotions, it's about channeling them into clarity and confidence that helps teams navigate uncertainty and challenges.
Make Brand Building Everyone's Job, Not Just Marketing's
Laura's "Living Our Brands" initiative transformed Georgia Pacific by making every employee responsible for building brand equity. (24:25) This wasn't just about marketing strategy—it involved training everyone from manufacturing to supply chain on how their role impacts the brand. She shares a powerful example of an Angel Soft production worker who stopped the line due to quality issues, understanding that their low-income consumers couldn't afford a bad product experience. This company-wide commitment to brand building creates authentic brand experiences at every touchpoint.
View Change Management as a Core Competency
Laura emphasizes that success isn't about mastering AI or any specific technology—it's about being excellent at adapting to constant change. (09:50) She advocates for building teams of lifelong learners who embrace transformation rather than resist it. This means creating an organizational culture where people actively architect change in their roles rather than having change happen to them. Leaders must model this behavior by continuously seeking external inspiration and sharing learnings with their teams.
Build Internal Analytics Capabilities for Credibility
Georgia Pacific invested heavily in building an in-house analytics team to measure marketing effectiveness consistently and frequently. (26:44) This internal capability allowed them to align on metrics, measure more frequently than external partners could provide, and build credibility with leadership through data-driven decision making. Laura notes that having this data engine enabled them to double down on what worked while having the courage to stop tactics that weren't delivering results, ultimately changing the conversation about marketing's value within the organization.
Start AI Implementation with Experimentation and Personal Use
Laura's approach to AI adoption focuses on encouraging everyone to experiment and find personal use cases before implementing professional applications. (31:55) She emphasizes getting people to "play" with AI tools—she mentions creating her first video and using AI for travel planning as examples. The strategy involves starting with productivity tools before moving to marketing-specific applications, making AI part of everyone's daily routine rather than treating it as a specialized skill. This approach helps teams become comfortable with AI while discovering practical applications organically.
Statistics & Facts
- Georgia Pacific has been operating for nearly 100 years as a privately held company, with revenues not publicly disclosed due to their private ownership structure. (04:46)
- Laura Niebusch has spent 15 years at Georgia Pacific, with over 2 years in her current role as Senior VP of CPG Marketing, having held approximately 8 different roles during her tenure at the company. (18:23)
- The See Her initiative, which Georgia Pacific helped found in 2016, has been running for nearly a decade with the goal of improving accurate representation of women and girls in advertising and media. (38:28)
