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A day in the life of PR agency Launch Group’s digital account director, Mark Wainwright

My day

8.08am: As long as I’ve remembered to charge my iPhone, I check emails on the train and read The Guardian via its iPhone app. If the intermittent 3G signal on the Surbiton line is particularly shoddy, I stick my head in a book (I enjoy Douglas Coupland, Bret Easton Ellis and Don DeLillo).

8.40am: Visit the Starbucks closest to LG towers for my morning shot of coffee, milk and syrupy sweetener. Pray that there aren’t any tourists in front of me in the queue (one of the few downsides of being based in Soho).

8.50am: Start my daily download of what’s going on in the world by opening Tweetdeck, The Guardian, Tumblr and feedly – a useful RSS reader which organises all of your feeds into one handy magazine-style format. Morning news download is all about moderation (is there anything we should be aware of), orientation (what’s trending) and inspiration (what new ideas can we pass on to clients).

9.15am: Listen in to the daily news conference, as it takes place in the centre of our sell-in floor, right in front of my desk. Even though I specialise in digital and social media, the joined-up nature of today’s news means that knowing what makes the papers is still an important facet of everything we do.

9.30am: Get on the phone to our clients to catch up on the latest status of campaigns; our clients are the lifeblood of the business, and as a senior consultant it’s my responsibility to ensure that that we’re constantly wired in to what’s going in the wider business picture.

11.00am: Armed with a selection of sweets, relevant music and lots of coloured pens, it’s brainstorm time. We have such a great mix of people at Launch who come from a wide variety of backgrounds, we always get a broad palette of ideas.

12.00am: Building our reputation online as an agency is key to attracting clients and new hires, so I help to ensure that the Launch social media channels remain populated with fresh content and conversations.

1.00pm: It’s actually a constant battle to pull myself away from my chain favourites Pret and M&S when it comes to lunchtime; we have such a great selection of sandwich spots in Soho that it seems remiss of me not to experiment. One place I do recommend, as do my fellow digital bods at Launch, is Jumbo Eats on Brewer Street. Don’t be put off by the ridiculously loud pumping dance music, the huge array of tasty wraps and plentiful vegetarian options more than make up for it.

3.00pm: I’m not afraid to say it: I love to plan and strategise. Give me a tasty brief, a blank Powerpoint template and the freedom to use smart art and I’m ready for action. Lots of social media/digital consultants make the whole process sound tortured and complex; in my view it’s actually very simple – connect your client with your audience using a channel that works for them both.

5.00pm: Having had the great pleasure of working in digital for three years, I’ve got a lot of experience of working on projects, good and bad. There’s nothing I like more than running training sessions for the rest of the team. Everyone knows that social media forms an integral part of any PRO’s skill set in 2011, but not everyone has the confidence to use those skills for client projects. It’s my aim to give everyone in the agency exposure to the best tools at their disposal.

7.00pm: The other thing I love about working in Soho (as well as the lunches) is it means I’m within spitting distance of any number of meet ups or events that are taking place. Talking digital trends with my peers, hobnobbing with clients or getting to know what makes a blogger tick – it’s what being in communications is all about.


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