A Day In The Life Of Our…Marketing Manager

There is no such thing as a typical day for a marketing manager and that is what I love about being in marketing - every day is different! There are responsibilities that need to be actioned regularly such as analysis; which could be of the budget, a campaign, social media engagement statistics or daily web traffic performance, and of course managing a team on a daily basis is also a large part of the role of a marketing manager; a part that I find particularly rewarding.

As your career advances in marketing, you become less hands-on with executing the activities as many of these responsibilities are delegated to the individuals within your team, but this enables you to concentrate on the bigger picture so that you can develop and oversee the execution of the marketing strategy.

More than ever marketers are having to demonstrate ROI for their strategies through measurement and analytics, which can sometimes be difficult with the less tangible aspects of marketing such as brand awareness, but in the current climate this has led to marketers having to do more with less. I believe this is reigniting the marketing industry as campaigns need to be bold & creative and marketers are being given permission to identify new and better ways of doing things, which ultimately adds value.

During the last 12 months, Dimensions has introduced a marketing team who are extremely passionate about what they do. With over 40 years marketing experience collectively, the team has worked across a number of sectors, including travel & tourism, retail, fashion, food service and healthcare. As such, the team has a specialist skillset across multiple marketing disciplines that enables us to bring challenges to life to offer creative solutions and I am proud to head up a group of people who are not afraid to challenge the status quo and believe that innovation is key to our success.

My role here at Dimensions means that I have the best of both worlds; on one hand I am responsible for leading the planning, development and implementation of Dimensions’ marketing strategy but on the other hand, there are days like today, where I get to work collaboratively with one of our clients on the launch of their new uniform.

Let me tell you about my day!

15:30 I answer a phone call from an account manager who would like to include a marketing slot in their next quarterly customer meeting before leaving the office to catch an evening flight to Edinburgh ready for the launch tomorrow.

16:00 I arrive at the airport and notice all the uniforms as I walk through the terminal! When I’m through security, I grab a bottle of water and answer some emails from our HR team regarding the new Graphic Designer vacancy, before boarding the flight.

17:30 Working in the world of corporate clothing you notice everyone’s uniform and once on-board it’s great to see one of our uniforms in action.

18:30 I arrive in Edinburgh and jump straight into a cab to meet our client and account management team for a briefing meeting on the event, which is fortunately conducted over dinner!

22:00 I finally check into the hotel, which is only a short walk away from the venue, ready for an early start the next day. Again seeing one of our uniforms in action is a fitting end to the day!

07:30 My colleagues and I leave the hotel to be at the event location prior to the guests arriving and to meet the senior management team to brief them on the morning’s order of events.

08:30 We watch the dress rehearsal and get a sneaky peak at the models strutting their stuff before their main ‘lights, camera, action’ moment later on that morning.

09:00 It’s important that I meet with the client’s social media guru to make sure that I adhere to their brand guidelines when posting out the mornings event on social media, so I introduce myself and talk through the type of things I’d like to post. With the client’s agreement and the posts agreed, I wait patiently for the main event!

09:30 After an introduction from David Horne, MD of Virgin Trains East Coast and British Designer Wayne Hemingway, who describes the creative process of designing the new uniform in collaboration with Dimensions’ design and technical teams, the DJ starts the music and the catwalk show begins. With all the photographs of the new ‘red hot’ uniform that I manage to capture, it’s difficult to choose which to tweet and post on Instagram, but the ones I do choose get likes and retweets straight away – which is always satisfying!

10:30 Once the catwalk show has finished, the atmosphere is electric and it’s a great opportunity to interview the wearers and see why they love their new uniform!

12:00 After a fantastic morning being with both our key client contacts and also having the opportunity to talk to the individual wearers, it’s back to the airport to write up this article whilst waiting for the flight home!

In summation, a role in marketing can demand long hours, but sometimes you do get to attend a glamorous launch, meet famous designers and work closely with liked-minded brands whilst building relationships with customers and gaining an insight into their world.

So when people say that working in marketing is glamorous, the reality is that marketing is an exciting juxtaposition; the more seamless a campaign, event or news story appears to be, the more work will have gone into the planning and execution of the activity!