Beth Turner is head of PR at ilk, an integrated agency headquartered in Leeds with additional staff based across Manchester and London.
The agency was founded in 1999 by managing Director, Nev Ridley, and was named as one of Prolific North’s Top 50 Integrated Agencies for 2023.
Before joining the agency in 2022, Turner previously worked at connective3 and Jaywing.
Here, she shares a recent week in her life…
Monday
Mondays are always pretty mental, to say the least! I like to work from the office on a Monday, so I can get my head down, catch up with the team and get the week off to a good start.
After getting to the office and catching up on everyone’s weekends, I checked over client results and if any that had come over during the weekend, before popping into our all-agency meeting. These happen every Monday, where we chat through agency-wide priorities and any business news. We are a fully integrated agency at ilk, so we all like to be updated on what other departments are doing, and where other departments can support.
After that, we sat down and had our weekly PR team meeting. Here, we run through priorities for the team for the week ahead, and assign deadlines to the team.
I spent the rest of the morning going through my inbox, before joining some of the team for a PT session at lunch. We have a PT come to the office for a lunchtime workout every Monday, and it’s a great way to relieve some new-week stress and feel energised for the rest of the day. I undid my good work by having a lemon and poppyseed muffin – we’re currently doing a Bake Off sweepstake at work so are inundated with treats!
The afternoon is spent between client calls, where I join sometimes to support the team, press release reviewing and emails. After a busy day, I logged off just after 5.30pm.
Tuesday
It was an early start today, catching the 6.12 train down to Birmingham with a couple of team members for a client evaluation meeting. I battled the train WiFi to sort some emails on the way down, before arriving in Birmingham just after 8. We grabbed a quick coffee and pastry en route, before arriving at the offices for our 9am meeting.
The meeting went really well after a very successful quarter, with lots of amazing results secured by our team. After discussing plans for the year ahead, we grabbed lunch and got on the train back to Leeds. It’s always a great feeling to come away from a client meeting feeling so positive after receiving amazing feedback, so we were buzzing on the train home (before crashing slightly after being awake for so many hours)!
After arriving back into Leeds just after 3, I grabbed a Starbucks on my walk home and caught up on my emails that I’d missed throughout the day.
I used some of my TOIL hours to finish early, as I needed to take my friend to her final wedding dress fitting in Wakefield, which was super exciting. Shattered, I was in bed and fast asleep by 8.30pm!
Wednesday
I was in the office today, and got in just before 8am. I like getting to the office before anyone else, so I can have a coffee and spend some quiet time sorting through my emails and preparing for the day ahead.
I started the day with a new business call, chatting to a potential new client about their business and what they’re looking for. I spent some time afterwards collating an appropriate creds doc and sending over, before discussing next steps with the team.
It’s another super busy week this week, so I jumped on some desk research and data analysis to help the team. Since becoming a Head Of, you naturally do less day-to-day work, so it’s always nice when you have chance to get back into it.
After lunch, I had a couple of 1-21-s with the people I manage, where we discussed client priorities and workloads, along with plans for the weekend and if we have watched last night’s Bake Off yet!
Then, in the afternoon, we had our monthly management meeting, where I meet with the other agency heads and directors to talk through clients, new business, ways of working, the team and any other AOB. These meetings are usually three hours long, but it’s important to catch up as a management team and chat through what’s happening across the departments and in the wider business. We also have a suggestion box in the office for the team to add in any thoughts for the business, so we always finish up by chatting through any ideas that have come through.
My mum and dad were in Leeds shopping today, so I met them and my fiance for dinner. I was in bed and watching Big Brother for 9pm – bliss!
Thursday
I had a working from home day today, which is always a good chance to crack on with some work. I did a YouTube Pilates workout when I woke up, and was at my desk working for 8am.
The day begun with our weekly team meeting which we hold every Thursday. We catch up on the workload for the rest of the week and discuss progress of the tasks we assigned earlier in the week. We also have our ‘trending’ meeting each Thursday, where we go through what’s happening in the news, the papers and across the social platforms. We do media monitoring every day at ilk, but these meetings are a good way to properly sit down and chat through them all, to see if there’s anything we can jump on for our clients.
I had a couple more 1-2-1s with the team, which are always one of my weekly highlights as I love catching up with the team and seeing how they’re doing, and if there’s anything I can do to support.
I had a couple of internal catch-ups today with the wider team members, to discuss new activity for one of our biggest integrated accounts. We have a big meeting with the client coming up, so we sat down and chatted through what we’d be presenting to them, and the progress of work across departments.
I then joined a brainstorm for one of our home and interior clients, which are always fun! We like to invite not only the PR team to brainstorms, but people from different departments, like design, digital and social media. It’s always good to get a fresh perspective from others, and see how our PR ideas can be further amplified across other channels.
I had a couple of releases, briefs and campaign plans to review, so I spent time on those for the rest of the day. I always enjoy scoping out new ideas and chatting through what we believe the best ideas are, and it’s one of my favourite parts of my job. With no commute, I logged off and had a lovely, long chilled evening.
Friday
I started the day with a 7am spin class at Ryde – which is the best spin studio you will ever go too! It’s always so much fun and really sets my day off to a good start.
Our offices are closed Fridays, so everyone works from home. Today was a rare day in that I had no meetings, so I got my head down finishing off all the tasks I needed to do this week.
I checked in with the team to see how they were doing and if all work was on track to be delivered for the week, before sorting out my weekly admin. I always try and send round a weekly update from the PR team to the wider business, showcasing results, highlights and any new business wins, so I spent time doing this in the morning. We also like to send a weekly ‘good vibes’ email to the team, where we shout out each team member and highlight their good work that week, so I sorted that too.
Today is one of my best friends’ hen do, so I took half a days holiday and logged off just after 12. After another busy week, the copious amount of prosecco and gin at the hen do were very much needed!
