From Hello, to OK, to Style - it’s all happening in the Manchester PR scene

As head of Golley Slater’s Manchester office, Agatha Chapman-Poole’s role involves overseeing key client campaigns, being a portal to all marketing services for clients, supporting the team … oh, and running the business.

My Day
6.45am: In the car with the radio on, usually I’d have my fix of John Humphreys, although this morning it’s Sarah Montague conducting the Toyota/crisis comms debate.

7.15am: In the office with a coffee, and while it’s fresh in my mind, I double check we’ve updated the contact details on our clients’ crisis comms procedure documents since our new account director, Mark, started a few weeks ago. This is my quiet time for emails – largely it consists of copy checking the team’s work and responding to requests for business updates from the accountant.

9.30am: The guys have monitored this morning’s media and while Helen, our account manager, is dealing with a housing story on behalf of Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), Mark and I run through the week ahead – we check diaries and ensure all account work is allocated.

11.00am: I check in with Paul from Mojofuel who is editing the video from the Hilton Rocks launch party we organised last week. Coleen Rooney really does look amazing. I send the final version to the client, which it will be using for its GM conference this week.

12.30pm: A phone call comes through from a restaurant owner I met a week ago regarding a new venue opening in Manchester. He’s asked us to start work which is great news. I send him an updated time plan of activity and draw up the contract.

2.30pm: OK! magazine lands on my desk and it’s great news, not only do we have the front page but Alex Curran (Gerrard) is pictured at our event on the ‘Get my Style’ page and mentions Hilton Rocks again. This is closely followed by a front page in Hello!

3.30pm: While Mark and Helen catch up on recruitment PR with the Army, I contact the SPAM team to find out how many entries we’ve had to the Cook of the Year competition. Vicky, the account manager, gives me some SPAM fan club copy to check over on behalf of TV chef Phil Vickery, who’s fronting the campaign. I check in with the web guys to have the video of Phil cooking SPAM Pilaff uploaded onto YouTube.

4.00pm: Conference call with the other Golley Slater heads of PR to discuss networked opportunities and share best practice with the variety of regional dialects. It really is like the Eurovision Song Contest, well a UK one anyway ...

5.00pm: Negotiating the roads out of Manchester to get to nursery before it closes, I decide on a new campaign idea to run by the team for Weight Watchers biscuits.

7.30pm: My one-year-old is in bed and I use the next hour to outline some thoughts on another You’re Hired! event we’ve been asked to deliver, this time in Wales.

9.00pm: Sit down with my husband to have dinner, thankfully he’s a great cook! We catch up on a few PR bits (he works in the same game) and then we make plans for the weekend.

10.00pm: Unless I’m at an event, I don’t often see past this time in the week.