Day in the Life
My recent blogging has inspired me to do a "Day In the Life of a Media Planner" entry. The ability to send my pictures directly from my phone to Flickr (via Shozu, as I have mentioned before) makes it extremely easy to provide pics for you visual learners. So sit back, relax and soak in the wonderousness that is known as media planning.
8:22 am: I arrive at work, soy chai latte in hand (they can never spell my name right- don't they know it's with an "a"?!). Since I didn't leave work until nearly 11 pm last night, it almost feels as though I never left. Of course, the mac nut pie (see previous entry) is still here.
8:26 am: I glance over at my phone and realize that I don't have any voicemails yet. My friends (a.k.a. media reps) on the East Coast must not be on top of their game this am!
8:27 am: My inbox has reached its limit. Again. So, I archive for the second time in the past 2 work days.
8:38 am: Flickr refers to my phone as "cameraphone". Interesting.
8:46 am: T minus 14 minutes before my first presentation of the morning. If I continue to be as slow as the FTP site that we use, then I am in for a long day...for some good laughs, I revisit a really good email regarding mobile terminology. Who knew that mobile devices and hunting could ever have something in common?
8:50 am: AdAge reports that 96% of teens connect to social networking sites at least once a week. I then recall a Slate article I read stating that Facebook is the "Volvo" of social networking. Sturdy interface, and very reliable.
9:31 am: 9 am preso complete. Computer freezing as I try to open an Excel document that I need to update for a 10 am meeting.
9:40 am: Sent follow-up email to client with action items from 9 am preso.
9:43 am: "Premature end of JPG file" error message from Trillian. Why does that keep popping up?
10:05 am: Headset activated, waiting for conference call to start. Multi-tasking, of course, since there is a deck that I need to finish. I wish I had shiny bullets in my template like the one someone had presented yesterday!
10:11 am: Why did my ninja clock stop swinging?
10:53 am: Just set up a team gift exchange for next week. Who doesn't want a little Christmas in July?
11:49 am: Since we will be stuck in meetings for the rest of the afternoon, we are ordering lunch in. Thai food, yes! I enjoy yellow curry with chicken just about any day of the week. "You know how we spring-roll!" People think it's weird that everything at my desk has a mustache.
11:57 am: Hard copies of my deck in hand, I'm ready for my second preso of the day. Need to grab some water first.
1:40 pm: 5 meetings under my belt for the day already. 2 pm call starts soon...just enough time to check out the latest craze, The Mentos Intern. Still finishing the last of my Cherry Coke Zero from lunch.
2:52 pm: A 2 pm meeting once again reinforces that my favorite word is "montage". A little loopy from lots of whiteboarding.
3:01 pm: Time for a dose of Emergen-C. Invite for a party at Bourbon & Branch, which is always a plus in my book. Random emails here and there, voicemail light blinking. I've been so busy today that I haven't had time to install the new Twitter Firefox Extension.
3:07 pm: I'm trying to finalize some placements for one of my media plans, but printing anything in this office is kind of a challenge. Since I'm an Online Media Planner, maybe I'm not supposed to be printing things anyway...
3:55 pm: Finally sitting down to do work for the day. Spreadsheets and budgets, oh my! Like I say, these media plans won't plan themselves!
4:35 pm: I find it funny that part of my job is telling people that no, they cannot have more of my advertising budget!
4:42 pm: Hitting that late afternoon slump, after a day full of meetings and Excel. And oddly enough, people are still coming by for a piece of that mac nut pie. I just found a great article on ClickZ about marketing insights from a summer intern.
5:09 pm: Estimated Time of Departure today looks to be around 6:30 pm. Then maybe I will do some more emailing from home. Eating a Peanut Butter Cookie Luna Bar. I sure do need to go to the gym!
5:48 pm: Finishing up another PowerPoint, and going to look into booking travel for a business trip next month.
6:12 pm: Wrapping up a day's work. I will probably check email when I get home...pretty standard these days.
And there you have it.
