Prosperity. Happiness Works.

Ciarán O’Reilly, Managing Director, Refresh, since 2007

Company: I set up Refresh in 2007, it’s a digitally led advertising agency – we “refresh brands for the digital world”! My official title is Managing Director, but from a day-to-day point of view, I am the Head of Planning. http://www.refresh.ie
Job description: Most of my regular working day is spent writing strategic planning, briefing creatives and making presentations to clients. As MD, I also spend a lot of time developing new business for the agency.
Likes: There’s nothing more satisfying than identifying a powerful consumer insight on behalf of a client and seeing it come to life in a vast array of channels. Since moving into digital a few years ago, the flexibility of what you can do to communicate a brand is much more liberating than the work I did in traditional advertising agencies.
Career ladder: I graduated from the Dublin Institute of Technology with a Degree in Marketing in 1987, and have pretty much worked on the agency side since then. Most of my career has been spent in traditional agencies as either an Account Handler or Strategic Planner. I also spent about three years working directly with clients as a consultant strategic planner through a company I founded called Hothouse. However, I missed the cut and thrust of agency life and decided to focus on digital when I set up Refresh.
Qualifications: B. Sc. Mgnt/M.A.
Working hours: As a business owner in the current climate, the working hours are the waking hours!
Breaktime: I tend mostly to use lunchtime to catch up on industry news through a range of channels – websites, RSS feeds and social media.
Social media credentials: MY name is Ciarán O’Reilly and yes, I am a social media addict, although mostly for work. I use LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter (@ciaranoreilly) all day, every day to catch up on news, as a new business tool or publicise the agency. I also write the company blog http://www.refresh.ie/news.
News: Head and shoulders above everything else is Twitter. I have a good few groups I follow on LinkedIn which I find more and more useful.
Onsite or offsite: As MD, I go to a lot of meetings, but try to restrict it to two to three a day. As an integral part of the creative process, it’s important I am around to work with the creative and account handling staff.
Digital strategy/ vision: For me, the most important thing I can do as a planner is to evangelise about digital so that it gets its fair share of the marketing budget. We tend to be very strategic in the work we do, which hopefully gives clients the confidence to continue to invest in new and exciting ways to connect with consumers. Our vision is always to make our client’s brand the most talked about in its category.
I love Mondays because: If I am honest, I like Mondays mainly because it is the quietest day in the office phone wise, so I can get ahead for the week.