Georgina Norris
Head of marketing and communications – UK and Canada
McArthurGlen Group
Georgina Norris joined designer shopping outlet owner McArthurGlen Group 13 years ago and has recently become head of marketing and communications for the UK and Canada, where she combines creativity and commercial acumen to deliver results.
She is credited by her nominator as being pivotal in driving growth for the company’s designer outlets, which have consistently outperformed the fashion retail market by more than 5% in footfall since the pandemic. Her nominator adds that she is as comfortable in investor presentations as creative reviews.
Reflecting on the evolution of marketing, Norris points to the shift in how audiences consume media across platforms. While she says a single, polished brand message could resonate widely across traditional channels early in her career, now it’s necessary to adapt messages across platforms, including more unfiltered, timely content for channels like TikTok. “Back then, we took months to plan and polish content,” she notes. “But now we recognise that sometimes raw content performs better.” Her data-driven approach has been essential to securing buy-in for these strategies, allowing her team to stay flexible while upholding high standards.
“We need to let algorithms do their thing, but human creativity will remain essential for authentic brand storytelling.”
For Norris, data and content present the biggest opportunity for marketers today. She believes content is still king, but data enables marketers to tailor messaging more precisely across platforms and better understand audience preferences. “Having a content strategy linked to data is key,” she says, noting that insights help balance short-term KPIs with long-term brand-building. She has even used this approach to successfully pitch for incremental budgets to fuel growth.
The biggest challenge she sees is cutting through media clutter while maintaining an authentic and believable brand voice. She says consumers now expect highly personalised messages, so marketers need to “build an emotional connection while delivering on consumers’ personal, functional needs”. To do this she says marketers need to tell their brand story through several layers, which means finding the right mix of short-term, commercial KPIs, while building emotional connections that deliver brand building metrics to drive longer-term performance.
Looking ahead, Norris anticipates AI and technology will continue to transform marketing.“We need to let algorithms do their thing,” she says. “But human creativity will remain essential for authentic brand storytelling.”
Her advice to new marketers is to focus on communication and collaboration. She says building cross-functional relationships, aligned on shared objectives, is essential to executing integrated campaigns effectively and measuring success.
