Why I Love Mondays

Claire Kehoe, Account Director at Hurricane

Company: Hurricane is a small and innovative brand, social and content agency which has recently become part of the much bigger Target Media and Communications Group. This includes a number of successful media and marketing agencies, such as Target Media, OTM, Organic Marketing, WLP and Target Live – so it’s a very exciting time to be involved!

Job description: As with all client service roles, the brief is wide and varied! But variety is the spice of life so there’s no time to sit back and get bored. Small agencies in particular have no time for passengers so everyone has to get involved and pull their weight.

As Account Director, I enjoy the responsibility of looking after a number of clients with the support of a great team on behalf of the agency. This includes management of all aspects of the day-to-day, up and down the ladder, and often in a fast-paced environment. Daily tasks range from creative idea generation and strategic thinking to pitching and presenting to the all-important budget and time management to ensure every project is delivered on track and within budget.

I also keep an eye on advancing technology trends and our ever-changing industry, to see how we can maximise these developments to benefit our clients and service delivery.

Likes: I love people so I appreciate this part of my role the most – it enables me to work with extremely talented, creative and inspiring people across a range of disciplines, and to support the development and talent of my team and the interns we work with.

I love the creative side of agency life, and how even the smallest idea can spark the next big idea!

To work in agency life you also have to love the variety of working on something new and challenging each and every day. I thrive on a challenge and love the problem solving side of this fast paced, ever changing environment.

Career ladder: Growing up with wide range of interests and hobbies resulted in me seeking out a career full of diversity too. I grew up selling beekeeping equipment with my dad, caring for the elderly and catering for events with my mum. I was rarely seen without a camera in hand, and if I wasn’t performing myself, I was running around organising some event. So this was my pitch to Strategem Integrated Communications when I stepped out of DCU with my degree in hand – I got the job! My first real taster of a pitch was for Nokia Ireland, for which I was sent on a fact finding mission to New York by myself. After my first time in the States, I came back to feed into every aspect of the presentation. We went on to win it and I got to present my findings to all the agencies working on the brand in Ireland… It was such a buzz, I was hooked!

Last year I moved to London to pursue the development of my career here, firstly leading the Retail team at creative advertising agency, Baber Smith before moving into digital and social sphere with Hurricane.

My advice to anyone looking to get into the industry would be to be passionate, proactive and enthusiastic – a positive can-do attitude is key. In this industry it is essential to have your finger on the pulse of innovation. After that, network, network, network!

Qualifications: BA Business and French from Dublin City University, Post Grad in PR and Event Management, PRINCE2, along with ISP and AMPC industry certificates.

Working hours: Typical working hours do not exist in this industry so you do it for your own pride in your work, the great people you get to work with, and that feeling you get when your campaign goes live and your client is proud of what you’ve achieved together…and who knows, you might even get an award or two to help you through the next

Breaktime: I do try to make an effort to get out of the office during lunch, even if it is just to walk around to one of the local eateries with some of the team before bringing it back to my desk. On a good day, I’ll even get to the gym!

Social media credentials: I am a self-confessed social media addict! With the increase in migration and travel, I love how it enables me to keep in touch with friends, family and industry peers – no matter where they are around the world. It has made the world a much smaller place and a more diverse, open and connected community. As a result, my iPhone has become an extension of me – it never leaves my side! Full of social media apps, from Facebook to Foursquare, Twitter to Echofon, LinkedIn, Google+, Gmail and many instant messengers… despite all this I still carry my work BlackBerry everywhere for BBM!

As an early adopter of Twitter amongst my friends, I got grief for posting so often so now I mostly listen and watch on Twitter and save my posts for Facebook.

LinkedIn has come on enormously in recent years and has become an invaluable professional tool, for networking, recruitment and for keeping up to speed on industry trends and research – I’m subscribed to lots of groups here but honestly don’t get through all the weekly updates!

News sources: Whatever comes into my inbox! Facebook, Twitter, various LinkedIn group subscriptions; TED (www.ted.com), Brand Republic (www.brandrepublic.com); New Media Age (www.nma.co.uk), Silicon Republic (www.siliconrepublic.com), Marketing Week (www.marketingweek.co.uk) , etc. Along with checking in on some industry leader blogs.

Onsite or offsite: I’m mostly based in the office now that we’re centrally based just off Goodge Street, clients tend to come visit us but otherwise, we are out and about for pitches and client meetings.

Digital strategy/vision: Coming from an integrated background, I naturally look for an integrated approach to all communication, including digital.

The digital world has opened up new and exciting opportunities for networking and enables us to stay much closer to the pulse, innovation and our peers. It has closed the gaps between brand and consumer, location and time. In a content-driven generation, we have the world at our finger tips so I try in my capacity to integrate this information where relevant into our business and leverage it to our advantage.

It is a constantly evolving industry so there is always more to learn and new ways to network. This is exciting for creative and innovation but the core to success continues to be the big idea, no matter the platform / channel.

I love Mondays because… it signals a new start, a new week and a new set of challenges, inspired by new briefs, new ideas and creative innovations. I love Monday’s because it’s like putting a car into first gear and stepping on the accelerator – destination unknown!