My Media Week: Natasha Murray

This week Natasha Murray, managing director of Havas Media, talks connecting brands, content and people, and about the need to drive the resource agenda.

Natasha Murray: managing director of Havas Media
Natasha Murray: managing director of Havas Media

Monday

Monday morning always starts the same, as I religiously read The Guardian's media pages on my way in to the office. It puts me in the know and starts me off on the right foot going into the week.

First off is a meeting with our head of client leadership, Fiona McCann, to understand the immediate client pressures, key meetings and input needed to ensure we have the right resource and support in place.

Then it’s time for my weekly catch-up with our chief executive Paul Frampton, where we run through our key priorities for the week and agree decisions that need to be made.

The rest of the morning is spent business planning for 2014 and beyond. We have our managing partners' away day coming up soon, where we will agree how we execute the strategy for the next three years. Keeping an eye on today but always striving for tomorrow is a key responsibility for us, as a business and for our clients.

I leave early afternoon for my daughter’s school, where I’m speaking to her class about a career in media. I've gone for some audience participation and, courtesy of some super media owners including Google, The Guardian, Bauer Media and Nickelodeon, have prizes of pens, notebooks and mugs.

I'm pleasantly surprised and taken aback by the children’s knowledge of brands, and it’s interesting to see the association of "cool" with technology. Already aware of brands around them, I’m confident that a career in media is now on their radar.

When I’m finally home and the girls are tucked in bed, I sit down with a glass of vino and review an RFI we are working on for a new business pitch.

Tuesday

Tuesday morning starts, as always, with breakfast with Henry Daglish, the managing director of our sister agency, Arena. Recently, we’ve settled for the coffee place next door, but today we’re at Dishoom in Covent Garden, our preferred restaurant of choice.

Our regular check-in follows an agenda based on new business and marketing ensuring that we are playing to the unique strengths of both the Havas Media and Arena brands. We then go on to join Paul Frampton and Arena’s chief executive, Pedro Avery, to discuss any pressing issues.

The next meeting is a useful update with Google, where we go through the opportunities for content and brand partnerships looking towards 2014.

Tuesday afternoon is our weekly new business and marketing meeting, where the team takes me through where we are in terms of our "live" pitches. I feed in my comments, informed with full visibility of client pressures following my catch-up with Fiona, and am able to weave those into the decision-making process when we are allocating owners and casting the core team.#

I manage to find ten minutes to belatedly drop Pippa Glucklich a note to congratulate her on her promotion to chief executive at Starcom and get a date in for drinks in a few weeks’ time.

At 7pm I’m off to meet old school friends at Little House Mayfair. It’s a celebratory affair, as one of the girls has recently been promoted at Sky Media and the other has just left Unilever and set up as a consultant.

Wednesday

I get to the office for 7:30am to sort through emails and get on top of things. It’s an inspiring day, as I also have a very exciting and engaging few hours with ITV’s Dags Simon Daglish), Kelly Williams, Gary Knight and Steve Bignell, discussing connecting brands, content and people.

Thursday

北京赛车pk10 day and as soon as I wake up, I’m logged in to my iPad and downloading this week’s issue for the commute. 

Once in the office, it’s budget morning and as always, staying on top of where we are and tracking YTD is on the agenda. Today we’re also reviewing 2014 budgets – I revel in this as working with numbers is what I love and as someone who hates surprises, I much prefer working with facts.

Lunch today is 'Come Dine with Me' (although luckily I’m not cooking). This is a lunch with a group of people from different areas and levels of our agency, where they get the chance to ask me anything, from the big challenges that Havas Media faces in 2014, to my leadership tips and how I balance home and work.

The afternoon is mainly spent reviewing our pitch response to a potential client. The team has done a good job and the story pulls through from the outset into execution. It’s a strong, brave solution, on-brief and what the client needs. It’s now down to the chemistry and delivery on the day.

This necessary internal planning is broken up with a chat through with MediaSense on the latest developments within Havas Media and what that means within the media agency environment, and how our structure and approach gives us a competitive advantage.

A quick early evening drink in the pub next door is followed by dinner with clients and members of the Facebook team including James Quarles, Ed Couchman and Nick Pestell, where we debate insight and creativity. It’s a great evening.

Friday

After catching up on emails and calls, I can start the weekend knowing that what matters has been dealt with and I make a list of the key things I need to do next week.

I also make sure I’m fully prepped for today’s client meeting, which is taking place at Orso in Covent Garden. We discuss resource, or more importantly, the changing resource requirement, which I think media agencies really need to drive. It’s not how many people work on the client’s business, it’s about the type of people and critically ensuring they match the client’s business needs. 

I make sure to hold off on the wine as the last task of the day is rejoining my colleagues back at the office, where the weekend starts with ‘Friday at 4’ drinks in our café.

Age: 40
Favourite media: Out of home
My biggest inspiration: My two daughters
Dream job: Mine isn't too shabby, but a taster on 'The Great British Bake Off' would work
Not a lot of people know this about me...I’ve appeared in 'Grange Hill' – twice

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