The Proven Playbook for Cultural Relevance at Georgia-Pacific With Laura Knebusch

The practical method involves conducting targeted consumer research at key decision points—from initial concept through final execution—to ensure nothing feels inauthentic or off-brand to your audience. Such an approach reduces the risk of costly brand missteps and builds stakeholder confidence by proving consumer approval at every stage.

[15:16] Internal Marketing Capabilities vs. External Partnerships — Interestingly, Laura reveals how she built an 84-person marketing organization with specialized in-house teams for insights, creative, media buying, analytics, and first-party data, while maintaining strategic partnerships with creative and media agencies for platform work and strategic planning. For CMOs, this hybrid model addresses the tension between controlling costs and maintaining access to external expertise and fresh thinking. 

While deciding what should be kept in-house vs. external, Laura suggests assessing whether in-house execution can be done more cost-effectively, more strategically due to internal knowledge, or more effectively than external partners. By internalizing execution functions like media buying and programmatic activities, Georgia-Pacific improved speed and efficiency; by retaining agencies for strategic platform development and planning, they maintained access to diverse thinking. 

[21:40] Consumer Insight Should Guide Media Strategy, Not Channel Availability — Laura reveals that Georgia-Pacific starts media planning by identifying where target consumers can be found, then works backward to determine the optimal mix of channels, be it retail media, social, audio, video, and experimental platforms, rather than defaulting to traditional or trending channels. This consumer-first framework prevents wasteful spending on channels that don’t efficiently reach your audience and ensures alignment between strategy and tactics. 

The challenge many organizations face is starting with channel availability (the latest Reddit trend, emerging TikTok features) rather than where your specific customer actually spends time and attention. So, Laura suggests defining your target consumer profile (using Angel Soft’s “Rose” as an example), mapping where she’s most likely to be found, then evaluating which channels and tactics best execute your targeting strategy at optimal cost and efficiency.