MONDAY
I must admit, I had breakfast before I left this morning, but I am a little peckish after my walk from the station so I head up to our bar for some fresh fruit. We are super lucky here at the7stars to have an abundance of seasonal fresh fruit daily (including avocados, it’s true), all the cereal & porridge you could wish for, yoghurts, nuts, snacks and a full-on barista coffee machine.
I head back down to my team and, as we do every Monday morning, we get together for our Team Panda meeting. We have animal team names here, and of course a ‘Zoo Keeper’ to head up each team (it becomes normal very quickly). After catching up on the weekend’s events, we discuss the week ahead, sharing client briefs, chatting through ideas and helping each other out with workload if necessary.
I have a couple of competitive reports to get out this morning and I need to send some papers off to our clients; we booked adverts for them in a selection of weekend titles and they are keen to receive extra copies to share internally.
My friend over in Team Giraffe has just got back from holiday today, so a few of us head to the park at lunch for some chill time and catch-up.
This afternoon’s focus is on preparation for a client meeting tomorrow; we will be presenting a Post-Campaign Analysis followed by some fresh ideas for the next campaign. I nip to have quick chat with the TV and Data teams to make sure we a on track to deliver the information we ned to include tomorrow. Meanwhile, I work with my manager to make the final tweaks to our brand partnership recommendation, before collating all of the information into a sleek presentation. I print off a couple of meeting agenda’s for tomorrow before heading to the gym (another company perk).
TUESDAY
We have a WTF?! session every Tuesday morning. These are really insightful and great for grads, but of course anyone can come along. They cover a new topic every week, offering a bitesize overview of what the different teams do across the agency. For example, WTF is Digital?! WTF is Data?! WTF is TV?! Today, I am going to WTF is Programmatic?!
When I get back to my desk I respond to a few emails and call a couple of media owners to negotiate rates for some upcoming media activity, before heading into the client meeting.
When I get back to my desk, a further client brief comes through; this client is interested in advertising on the London Underground, so I work on collating availability and costs into a plan.
After lunch, I have a meeting with my Project Team. Here at the7stars, our day job in only 80% of our time, we spend the other 20% working on our Project Team and there are over 30 to choose from. We have a People Team, Health & Well-Being Team, Events Team, Social Media Team – the list goes on. I am a member of the Do-Gooder Team and we are currently organising a charity bake-sale so there is lots to organise.
WEDNESDAY
Wednesday is home to our weekly Company Meeting. At 9am, the whole company piles into the Penthouse, and with teas and coffees in hand, we discuss everything from new business we are pitching for to ‘Cool Shit We Like’. We clap new starters in and each team shares exciting client updates.
After today’s Company Meeting, I head over to Google’s London offices where I have a grad training day; Google’s offices are enviable to say the least. After a super hands-on day getting stuck into a brief to launch the new Google Chromecast, I leave a little wiser (awesome learning opportunity), a little richer (having won a £50 Amazon voucher in the pitch challenge) and maybe also a little heavier (they have free food everywhere).
THURSDAY
This morning, I am briefed on a £200k press and radio plan for our client. We need to turn this one around pretty quickly, so I make this a priority. With some great audience analysis tools at our disposal, we put together a recommendation of newspapers, magazines and radio stations based on the campaign objectives and the audience we are targeting.
After a busy morning, I am thrilled to be taken for a lovely lunch with a media owner, who we recently booked a cinema campaign with.
When we are back from lunch, we jump on a quick call with a client to talk through our London Underground recommendation. Before I know it, 5pm has rolled around, which obviously means it’s time for the weekly Team Panda Quiz. I grab some team prosecco and beers from the fridge before we start; this escalates and we soon find ourselves gathered in the7stars bar, before heading to a media party in Soho.
FRIDAY
I come in at 8am today which means I can leave at 4.30pm – it’s Flexi-Friday of course! On a Friday, we can start any time between 8am – 10am and finish any time between 4.30pm – 6.30pm. I get a few reports out early and then have some capacity to help my colleague find some hot stories for the Media Flash we send out to clients.
After a strong ‘Media Thursday’ last night, we decide to head for a nice team lunch at our local pub but I can’t stay for too long as I have an important job to do this afternoon…
I’ve seen the7stars win a bundle of amazing clients since I’ve joined and today we are making a video for another upcoming pitch! Earlier, I agreed to be the hair stylist for this video so off I go to style some hair, taking care not to burn Jenny Biggam’s ear with the straighteners.
