PodCast January 2016 - A Day in the Life

In September 2015, Connor joined the Pod team on a year-long placement as part of his Marketing degree at the University of Liverpool. With two years of study under his belt, he’s looking forward to putting it to practice, and learning a range of new skills to help with his final year. Here’s his insight into a day at the Pod:

9:00am – News Roundup

I cycle to the office from the station and get started on the first job of the day. I’m responsible for the daily news roundup; looking through the news to see what stories are emerging, what could affect our clients, and what they might be interested in. Once I’ve found a good selection, I then summarise the articles and send them off to relevant clients to keep them updated. I’ll also flag news stories to our social media guru Emma who manages our clients’ social feeds, to make sure she’s sharing and commenting on industry news stories on their behalf.

10:00am – Client Call

I join in the weekly account call with one of our clients. This is where we sit down and have a discussion with a client about new ideas and update them on current projects. This is always a really good chance to build relationships with clients and agree priorities for the week. I come away armed with a list of actions to crack on with for the rest of the week!

12:00pm – Projects

Time to break out my lunch and sink my mental teeth into some projects. When I first started, I was tasked with helping to restructure a client’s website, taking all the content from their site and restructuring it to make it more succinct and categorised. However, over the course of my time here, projects come and go, and change all the time. One of the biggest positives of this placement for me is that as an agency, things are always changing, and I’m getting a taste of the whole marketing spectrum! From PR and strategy to events, social media and planning, we cover everything, and I’m getting to learn a range of new skills.

1:00pm – Time Out

Time for a quick break! I take the office dog Blossom for a walk round the grounds. Being in such a rural location means it’s easy to get some fresh air and give my mind a break. The lake over the woods is my favourite place to go when I need to think of a different approach to something that’s stumping me. When the spark hits, I head back to work!

1:30pm – Event Planning      

I’ve had a couple of emails back from event organisers – it’s event planning time! I’ve been gathering information I needed about a business-oriented exhibition that one of our clients is interested in. I’m in charge of managing the events plan for one of our clients, making sure I keep on track of potential and confirmed events, and help to handle event logistics, which requires dealing with a number of suppliers.

4:00pm – Design Time

I’m working with our designer to create an infographic for a client to share with their customers and social media followers. It’s my responsibility to liaise with our clients and help to interpret their brief to give our designer a clear steer on what they’re looking for. I send off the latest version and check my to-do list and emails, ticking off a bunch of smaller tasks and deciding what my priorities are for the next day.

My experience at the Pod so far has been incredibly enjoyable; I’m constantly challenged and educated by the agency life, and I’m starting to see how successful marketers can be incredibly important to a range of industries. I’m looking forward to seeing my projects through to completion over the next six months and I’m confident that the rest of my internship will be a great learning experience for me to take back to university next year.