BEHIND THE BRAND | GEORGIA POUNSFORD
- Georgia Pounsford
- Senior Strategist
We’re back! This is your monthly tune into our Behind the Brand series, blog style. Your chance to learn more about our TROers behind the magic, their own stories and passions and what’s on their radar.
For this instalment, we spoke to Georgia Pounsford, Senior Strategist.
1. To kick it off, we asked, what is involved with your role?
At its core, my role as a Senior Strategist is basically professional people-watching. I’m also quite fresh to TRO, just 4 months in!
I spend a lot of time trying to understand what makes people tick—their habits, contradictions, obsessions, irrational behaviours, and the tiny emotional details most people miss. I think great experiential work comes from understanding people beyond demographics or trends. It’s about getting underneath the surface and figuring out what genuinely moves someone. So much of strategy is storytelling. It’s connecting brands to culture in ways that feel emotionally real, and then telling that story in a way that doesn’t feel like selling.
The best part of the role is that inspiration can come from literally anywhere: overheard conversations, weird internet rabbit holes, travel, documentaries, strangers on buses. I think the strongest strategies often start with curiosity rather than certainty.
2. Outside of work, what are your passions? How does it influence your work at TRO?
I’m completely fascinated by people and characters. Always have been.
I studied English Literature because I loved characters who were messy, irrational, difficult, or impossible to fully figure out.
Travel is probably the thing I enjoy most out of work. My favourite place I’ve ever been is Costa Rica, where I stayed with a family on a coffee plantation for three weeks. I also spent time living within a Māori community in New Zealand.
Those experiences massively influence the way I approach strategy. They remind me there’s never just one way to see the world.
I also have a slightly unhealthy obsession with Reddit. It’s genuinely my favourite place to research because you get to see people being incredibly passionate about the most niche things imaginable. No matter how good AI gets, I don’t think anything will replace the joy of finding a 50 comment argument between complete strangers ranking the emotional impact of tomato sauce brands
3. Because of Georgia’s role, we were keen to know, who are your favourite people to follow for more inspiration on this? Influencers, podcasts, experts...
Anthony Bourdain ‘Parts Unknown.’
I’m also obsessed with the BBC Sounds podcast Life Changing, where people tell stories about the single moment their life changed forever.
Stephen Fry’s Harry Potter audiobooks are my ultimate comfort blanket. I’ve listened to them so many times I practically know them word for word.
I’m also a huge true crime reader – Lisa Jewell. It’s all about the lives people lead behind closed doors!
Most of my inspiration comes from stories rather than “industry inspiration.” I’m far more interested in real life than marketing
4.What’s been your favourite TRO project to work on and what made it special for you?
I’ve only been here a few months, but probably The AP Foundation project.
What made it special was the purpose behind it. There’s something incredibly motivating about working on a project where the impact genuinely matters beyond the campaign itself.
I think the best experiential work creates emotional connection – not just attention -and this project really reinforced that for me. It felt human. Honest. Important.
Those are always the projects that stay with you the longest.
5.Who’s your dream client to work with and why?
A dream client for me would probably be PETA or WWF because I’ve always loved animals and I’d genuinely love to work on something that helps protect them.
Im the kind of person who will stop to talk to every dog I pass, so working on a campaign which can help connect people with animals (not chocolate bars or booze), would genuinely be inspiring.
6. Lastly we asked, what advice would you give someone looking to break into the wonderful world of experiential?
The best strategists and creatives I know are the people who are curious about absolutely everything. They notice strange little human behaviours. They ask questions. They fall down internet rabbit holes. They care about culture outside the industry bubble.
Also: collect stories constantly. Experiential is all about creating things people feel, and the only way to do that well is to understand humans in all their weird, emotional, contradictory detail.
And finally, don’t underestimate how valuable your own perspective is. The industry doesn’t need more people trying to sound like marketers. It needs people who notice the world differently.
