Jo Green is an account director at Knutsford-based 438 Marketing.
The brand communications agency, which lists PepsiCo, IM Group and RWS within its client partner portfolio, was founded in 2005.
With 18 years of experience, Green now leads a range of global B2B accounts, managing everything from internal comms strategy to brand positioning and proposition development.
Here, she shares how a recent week in her life went…
Monday
Getting straight into a busy week ahead, my Monday morning sees me jumping on a call with one of our clients who’s sent over a fantastic new brief. One of the things I love about my job is working with brands who aren’t afraid to be brave when it comes to B2B comms, recognising that it’s more about a P2P approach. This is one of those clients!
We go through the aims and objectives of the task so that I can get a deeper understanding before bringing the team together to create our response. The new brief sits perfectly with the type of work that we’ve been getting more involved with over the past year or so; testament to the fact that once you start demonstrating your capabilities in a space, that it stimulates more interest and demand from other areas of business and like-minded partners wanting similar support and solutions.
The day doesn’t slow down. Soon into the morning I’m asked to help with an urgent client request to source some high-quality premium gifts for an upcoming exec away day. This was quite an easy task to solve as we have some long-established relationships for exactly this type of requirement. As for the remainder of Monday, time is given to catching up with clients and my team and agreeing key actions for the week ahead.
Tuesday
Having our office in the centre of Knutsford is a joy. There is no shortage of amazing artisan coffee shops to get the day off to a good start so that’s job number one! Then it was time to gather with the 438 senior leadership team and creatives to review progress made on 438’s re-positioning.
We’ve been working on establishing a new core narrative that more accurately reflects us as the agency we are today – and that will support our future expansion. While it’s often difficult practicing what you preach, we’re really excited about the direction our new proposition is taking and our new Making Change Matter position that reflects how we’re creating business-wide change where it matters most to clients.
We then head into a brainstorming session to discuss the new brief we picked up yesterday. For this project we will not only be utilising expertise within our own teams, from strategists to creatives, but collaborating with partners to broaden the full reach of the campaign. I begin to approach these partners for costs and ideas.
To round off the day I head down to the nearby production studio that we’re using to record a new podcast for a client. This was the first episode – and I have a feeling it’s going to be an extremely insightful podcast series.
Wednesday
Supporting upcoming talent into the industry is something that gives me a great sense of purpose and today, along with three fellow 438ers, I am taking part in the annual Two+Two event run by Creative Resource. The initiative involves bringing together students with industry mentors to tackle a live brief.
The day kicked off with a few keynote speakers and then it was down to business working with our teams to approach the brief on climate change. Over 400 people (a combination of industry mentors and students) were taking part this year.
After a nail biting round of final pitches delivered by the teams of students, I was delighted (a bit like a proud parent) when one of the teams I was mentoring, were crowed winners of Two+Two 2023! They will now get the opportunity to work with StockportCAN to develop their idea further and make a live campaign later this year.
The event was held at Stok in Stockport and was rounded off with a few drinks and networking. All-in-all an intensive but hugely enjoyable day. I didn’t make it home for my children’s bedtime but managed to check in on them for a goodnight kiss.
Thursday
Back in the office for the day, still buzzing from the ideas that were presented during yesterday’s event. As well as spending the day with colleagues this week, I am also mentoring a student who’s in the agency for work experience over the next couple of days.
I take them through the new brief we received on Monday and spend time taking them through our approach. Taking students through live briefs is always a great opportunity to gain first-hand experience and exposure to how we begin responding to challenges set by clients.
We re-group internally to review the proposal and make final amends before sharing with the client early next week.
I was lucky enough to have been invited to a restaurant VIP opening in Knutsford so Fiona, our lovely copywriter within the agency and fellow Mum, and I headed out for some complimentary food and to enjoy a glass of wine without our children! It was a nice treat for a Thursday.
Friday
We ended the week on another high, filming our agency’s showreel and a short video that’s forming part of the deliverables for our re-positioning. As all of our filming and production is done in-house, the whole day ran really smoothly – even managed to capture a few bloopers for some fun social content! I head home for a well deserved takeaway and a couple of drinks with the family.
