AAR hires George Porteous as Chief Strategy Officer accelerating growth of its consultancy practices

AAR today announces the hire of George Porteous as Chief Strategy Officer to accelerate the growth of AAR’s consultancy offering.

Over the last 45 years AAR has built its reputation helping clients populate their marketing ecosystem with the right agency partners. This important new appointment marks the significant development AAR has undertaken in the last 12 months, as it established its consultancy offer with a range of clients, helping them design and accelerate performance of their marketing ecosystems.

George Porteous has had a long and successful career as a change maker in the marketing industry holding leadership roles across agencies, brands and management consultancies alike, including St. Luke’s, Google, SapientNitro, Ladbrokes, Tag, Cognizant and Accenture Interactive.

Victoria Fox, CEO at AAR commented: “Arguably marketing is now facing its greatest challenge. With COVID, budget cuts, technological advancements and consumers questioning how and if they want to be marketed to, marketing operations has become a strategic imperative for brands looking to drive growth. Clients are not just questioning who and what agency partners they work with, they are asking us more and more how they design and drive the performance of their marketing ecosystem to become more effective and efficient.

“George has been hired to accelerate this growth and transformation for our clients.  He has a track record of success in helping brands navigate change and we are excited to welcome him to the team.”

George Porteous, Chief Strategy Officer at AAR commented:

“AAR has a natural authority at the centre of the marketing industry, with many years’ experience helping brands address their challenges and find the right partners. I’m delighted to join at this pivotal time to work with brands to build back better, advising on the design of their marketing ecosystems and driving their effectiveness.”

The consultancy offer from AAR is delivered through both its Design practice, led by Robin Charney and its Drive practice, led by Vicky Gillan. Design helps CMOs establish the right marketing ecosystem to drive growth. AAR’s holistic approach looks at the internal and external capabilities that impact performance: People, processes, platforms and partners.

The Drive practice maximises the performance of the ecosystem by helping brand owners embed new agency partners, measure their performance and improve capabilities to increase marketing effectiveness. This complements AAR’s well-known practices: Build, which helps brands find the right partners for their ecosystem and Grow, the subscription service which helps agencies achieve new business growth.