Leading a global marketing team through reorganisation
ResultA new GEO sales channel growing 5x in under six months, and a stable, commercially focused global team, tracking and optimising performance against budget daily, with attribution modelling under way and brand standards being set for the largest proprietary brand: 43 lounges across North America, Latin America and Asia Pacific.
The challenge
I joined as a company-wide reorganisation was announced, moving marketing from a regional to a global model. Roles and responsibilities needed redefining, and three recent joiners needed onboarding, all while keeping delivery on track.
What I did
- Clear ownership. Set up RACI models inside marketing and with cross-functional teams worldwide, and introduced proactive planning to cut noise and focus on business results.
- Leadership and growth. Stabilised the team and onboarded three new joiners, created mentoring and promotion pathways for two team members, and brought marketing into decisions earlier across the business.
- Commercial reporting. Built an MI/BI dashboard as the first step to a single customer view, with daily actual-vs-budget tracking, and began building attribution modelling. Tightened cost control for a clearer reforecast.
- Brand standards. Leading a global brand summit for the largest proprietary brand (43 lounges across North America, Latin America and Asia Pacific), benchmarked against competitors, with a roadmap and capex plan to bring every product up to standard.
- Revenue and reach. Introduced generative engine optimisation (GEO) as a new channel for D2C sales and B2B visibility, now built into the company roadmap. Launched cross-brand selling to create a portfolio offer and incremental revenue. Built shared processes and SLAs with parent-group marketing teams, increasing audience reach and sales.
- Agencies and comms. Onboarded a new PR agency to reset global corporate positioning and message pillars, and a new digital agency to deliver a higher online sales target.
- AI. Lead the function's AI agenda. Built business cases for new AI tools, comparing the strengths and pitfalls of current and alternative tools, to raise output, efficiency, effectiveness and revenue while cutting cost and risk. Set up a monthly AI forum where the team shares what worked and what didn't, so successes spread across the function. Outputs so far: a bi-weekly market and competitor intelligence newsletter for the Senior Leadership Team covering North America, Latin America and Asia Pacific; AI agents for data analysis and insight; early agents for on-brand copy; design tests for brand standards; faster creative campaign iteration; shared mock-ups between marketing, ecommerce and developer teams; and prompting for on-brand presentations at speed.
The results
- Sales from the new GEO channel up 5x in under six months, and still rising
- Two team members on promotion pathways
- Daily performance tracking and optimisation against budget, with attribution in development
- New revenue stream from cross-brand selling under way
- Increased audience reach and sales through parent-group collaboration
Leilah King-Gotlib is a London-based global growth and marketing leader who builds commercially accountable marketing for premium and travel brands. She has led marketing in more than 20 countries across six regions, delivered over £25m in revenue and rebuilt marketing functions through pivots, reorganisations and restructures.