The CMO Podcast with Laura Knebusch (Georgia-Pacific) | "The Power of Staying Unflappable"

Date: November 26, 2025
Host: Jim Stengel
Guest: Laura Knebusch, SVP of CPG Marketing & Customer Experience, Georgia-Pacific
Theme: Leadership in marketing transformation, embracing change, brand building, and the value of unflappability

Episode Overview

In this episode, Jim Stengel sits down with Laura Knebusch, Senior Vice President of CPG Marketing and Customer Experience at Georgia-Pacific. The conversation, recorded live at the 2025 ANA Masters of Marketing conference, explores Laura's reputation as an "unflappable" leader, her approach to leading transformation and modernizing legacy brands, the impact of AI and change in marketing organizations, the importance of brand purpose and measurement, and her commitment to representation and creativity.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Unflappability as a Leadership Strength

• Reputation for Staying Calm: Laura is widely recognized as “absolutely unflappable” by her peers, a trait she credits with enabling her to lead through challenging times with empathy and focus.
  • Quote: “I'm kind of known as like the calm during the storm... I’ll take a pause in a moment and then we'll work through how to accomplish what comes next.” [06:15]
• Her Thought Process: Laura emphasizes listening, thinking about the big picture, empathy, and then developing an action plan rather than dwelling on issues.
• Maintaining Perspective: She recognizes the need to show emotion at times but sees value in separating reaction from response, and focusing on solutions.

2. The Future of Marketing Organizations & Embracing Change

• Continuous Change: Laura warns against chasing finite mastery in areas like AI, highlighting the accelerating pace of change in marketing.
  • Quote: “I don't think we're ever going to be good at AI. It is more about being good in a world that's going to constantly change.” [09:40]
• Lifelong Learning: She encourages developing teams of lifelong learners who actively seek external inspiration and embrace evolving technologies.
• Change Management: Laura’s experience emphasizes that successful transformation requires top-down leadership, a clear vision, cross-functional buy-in, and never-ending adaptation.

3. Bringing Transformation to Georgia-Pacific

• Marketing Modernization: Laura spearheaded a shift from traditional marketing to a holistic “consumer experience” model, integrating insights, analytics, martech, social, and customer affairs.
• "Living Our Brands" Program: A foundational initiative that aligns the entire organization around clear brand promises, extending ownership beyond marketing to every employee.
  • Quote: “It wasn’t just about that. It was about making sure… everyone in the organization understood they had a role. Like everybody builds the brand.” [22:47]
• Measurement & Analytics: Georgia-Pacific built an in-house data and analytics engine, enabling more frequent and consistent measurement of marketing ROI and effectiveness, even stopping tactics that weren't working.

4. Navigating AI and New Capabilities

• AI as an Enabler: Laura describes early and ongoing experimentation with AI, especially within the creative team and media buying, encouraging all team members to “play” and develop personal use cases.
  • Quote: “There's not one person on my team whose job it needs to be. Every person should be understanding how their role could change but also trying to be the architect of that change.” [31:30]
• Areas of AI Impact: Creative process, media buying, synthetic data for insights, and analytics are current focus areas.

5. Brand Building in Practice: Angel Soft and Brawny

• Angel Soft Example: The brand led the "Living Our Brands" charge, launching a simple promise of 'balance' via an engaging mascot (Angel) and bold campaigns, notably their Super Bowl "Pottytunity" ad, which also won a Cannes Lion.
  • Quote: “We launched our first super bowl ad for angelsoft to provide the audience with a potty tunity…not to watch the ad and to go to the bathroom.” [34:07]
• Brawny Example: Relaunched with product innovation (three-ply) and a refreshed Brawny Man, connecting with popular culture and reality TV audiences.

6. Driving Diversity: The SeeHer Initiative

• Representation in Media: Georgia-Pacific is a founding member of the ANA’s SeeHer initiative, committed to accurate representation of women and girls in advertising.
  • Quote: “What I love about…our story is that even household products… had some of the hardest or worst stereotypes in advertising in the past. And so we had an even bigger job…” [37:57]
• Operational Integration: SeeHer principles are embedded into creative briefs, measurement, and ongoing evaluation.

7. Personal Leadership Values

• Blend of Creativity/Data: Laura highlights her unique blend of creative vision and data-driven strategy, citing both as essential for modern marketers.
• Team Development: She views building great teams and supporting their growth as integral to both her legacy and the organization's success.
• Work-Life Balance: Values the ability to lead while having a rich family life, serving as a role model for women in business.
  • Quote: “I value the ability to be a strong leader and also…have a wonderful kind of family life...it’s important to show and demonstrate to the world today and future moms out there.” [35:52]

8. Personal Inspiration & Career Influences

• Early Brand Influence: Barbie had a deep impact on Laura, representing creativity and the idea that she could be anything—a lesson she sees continuing in how the brand evolves for young girls today. [45:45]
• Professional Mentors: Credits her father (a CEO and P&G alum) for instilling confidence and core values.
• Tennis & Rejuvenation: Uses sports, meditation, and creative discussions for personal renewal and inspiration.

9. Lessons from Award-Winning Campaigns

• Cannes Lion for Angel Soft: Goal was not to win awards but to make the mascot 'iconic.' The campaign succeeded by aligning objectives and creative ambition with business outcomes.
  • Quote: “We had a clear objective. It wasn’t to go to the super bowl and it wasn’t to win a Cannes Lion. It was to make angel iconic.” [41:51]

Notable Quotes

• On Change:
  “Whether it's AI or something else like that is the world we're living in...we need not just very smart and creative people on our team, but they have to be lifelong learners.” — Laura Knebusch [09:49]

• On AI Adoption:
  “AI is everybody's job...every person should be understanding how their role could change but also trying to be the architect of that change.” — Laura Knebusch [31:32]

• On Brand Building:
  “Everybody builds the brand. It's not marketing's job—not the category's job. It is every person in the organization.” — Laura Knebusch [23:11]

• On Measurement:
  “By having that data we’re continuing to feed that into our choices...but we're also acting with credibility. We saw tactics that weren't working and we stopped.” — Laura Knebusch [26:11]

• On Creative Recognition:
  “It wasn’t just creative for creativity’s sake…we met all those metrics and then we won the Cannes lion...they see it as a business success.” — Laura Knebusch [41:49]

Important Segment Timestamps

• Unflappability in Leadership: [06:15] – [07:31]
• Embracing Constant Change & Change Management: [09:40] – [10:46]
• Post-Conference Debrief Practices: [10:55] – [11:20]
• AI, Transformation & Team upskilling: [29:58] – [32:18]
• Angel Soft Brand Campaigns/Cannes Lion: [34:12], [41:43]
• Brawny Innovation Example: [34:19]
• SeeHer Initiative & Diversity: [37:42] – [39:35]
• Personal Values & Legacy: [35:43] – [36:34], [44:16]
• Barbie’s Influence: [45:45] – [46:51]
• Inspiration, Energy, and Self-Care: [47:04]
• Reflecting on Brand Purpose & Measurement: [50:17]

Memorable Moments

• The “Pottytunity” Super Bowl Ad: Turning a bathroom break into a brand statement—and winning industry acclaim for it (Cannes Lion).
• Living our Brands: Integration of brand-building into every layer—from mill workers to R&D, not just marketing.
• Unflappability at Home vs. Work: Laura candidly admits her "10-year-old" is the one opponent who can rattle her poise. [07:31]
• Championing Real Representation: Active role in SeeHer showing change starts with core process integration, not add-ons.

Closing Reflection & Takeaways

Jim Stengel closes with three leadership lessons:

1. Staying Unflappable: Channel emotion into clarity, not reactivity.
2. Embracing Change: Adaptability and continuous learning are more important than expertise in any single domain.
3. Learning & Celebration: Inspire teams by sharing knowledge and celebrating progress, not just pushing forward.

Final Thoughts

This episode offers a blueprint for leading transformation in established organizations by blending empathy, measurement discipline, creativity, and inclusive leadership—while never losing sight of the human side of both brands and teams. Laura Knebusch’s perspective illustrates that true marketing leadership is as much about guiding people through change as it is about driving business results.

This summary focuses solely on the content of the conversation, omitting ads, promos, and outros.