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A Week in My Life: Hayley Peters, PR Director, Smoking Gun PR

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Hayley Peters oversees PR services at Manchester-based communications, social and creative agency Smoking Gun.

One of the agency’s leading figures, she’s worked with clients including Aldi, Warburtons, Holiday Inn, and All Saints in her career, having joined Smoking Gun in 2014.

Prior to Smoking Gun, Peters worked at Weber Shandwick for eight years, joining Smoking Gun originally as Associate Director. With a passion for data and insights, she has a great deal of experience in areas like travel, hospitality, and mother and baby.

We found out how a recent week in her life looked.

 

Monday

Monday = WFH day. Since COVID, Smoking Gun has kept Mondays and Fridays to WFH days. It was something the team overwhelmingly voted in favour of, providing a better work-life balance for all.

I’m up first in our house – breakfast sorted for the rabble. While they’re all quiet and eating, I quickly catch up on emails and check Twitter for any breaking news. Kids clothes are laid out – I always have the intention of doing it the night before but I’m usually flaked out on the sofa, mustering just enough energy to wash my face and brush my teeth before bed.

I check my oldest son is all packed up and heads out on time for high school. One down, three to go! I throw a packed lunch together for the fussy five-year-old who refuses the free school meals he could have. He literally won’t entertain anything but a ham sandwich.

I chase the five- and three-year-old around the house to do their hair and brush their teeth. Shoes – where are everyone’s shoes?! The five-year-old heads off to school with my husband. Two down. I whisk the one- and three-year-old into the car and head for nursery.

Once back home, I have a quick tidy up – there’s breakfast stuff, PJs and toys everywhere! – which usually means throwing all the breakfast stuff in the sink, the clothes on the bed, and closing the door until later… and I’m ready to begin the (paid) working day.

A lovely cuppa, a silent house; what a treat! I check the news headlines and we have a team planning call to start the week. Mid-morning I have a weekly client call with one of our biggest clients. We have a big brand launch coming up and the business is relatively new to PR so we’re working very closely with the marketing team to take the C-suite on that journey.

Email catch ups. I don’t work Fridays so have quite a bit to catch up on. I tend to use Monday to get my head down and get on with some of my bigger tasks which require thinking time.

I have a strategy document to pull together for a client. We’re helping them to improve their measurement across all marcomms, and are looking at developing a Google Data Studio Dashboard. This pulls all data together from different sources into one easy to read, dynamic dashboard, which will save time and help them make more informed decisions.

Next up, I have a call with the Account Managers as we’re currently reviewing our media database/monitoring tool – they’re trialling Propel, so I’m keen to get their feedback.

I check in with one of our Account Managers – we have a big sell-in going on and are yet to land broadcast opps, so we discuss how we make the pitch more compelling for broadcast media.

Another client call regarding a big link-building project going live next month for a cycling specialist law firm – the call is to discuss the microsite element, what’s required and brief the dev team.

We find out the dev team might not have the resource to help with the interactive build element, so I put in a follow-up call to a supplier to see if they can help.

For the final job of the day, I pull a quick supporting document together for the law firm client so they can brief the agent of our campaign ambassador. The kids come through the door with dad and it’s on to tea, homework, and bedtime routines.

Tuesday

Up early for 6am run coach training – I’ve been doing this six months now, and I love it. It gives me accountability and has massively improved my fitness and pace.

Home for 6:50am, a quick shower and then the morning routine with the kids begins. I arrive in the office just after 9am.

We have our monthly management meeting at 10am – today we’re heading off-site to Dishoom which is a couple of doors down from the office – the breakfast naan is so good!

In the meeting, we review where we are tracking against revenue targets, client growth opportunities and issues, resourcing, and Smoking Gun’s own marketing. Since the end of January it’s gone new business crazy, so we spend quite a bit of time reviewing briefs and assessing what is a good fit for the agency and the resource required.

I use the afternoon to get the client budget report up-to-date and review team capacity across the agency – the senior team want to know who can support on current client pressures, live new business briefs, and Smoking Gun marketing work.

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I spend some more time weighing up our media monitoring/database tool requirements and the different options available.

A quick check-in on campaign results for a client – the team have secured some great hits and the client seems happy, so I can stop worrying about that. I head home just after 5pm – it’s not possible to stay late anymore as I have to get home to sort the kids, as our eldest plays rugby and football so it’s a constant juggle between me and my husband.

The five-year-old has homework due and spellings to practice – he’s non-compliant so it’s always fun. I try bribery, threats – nothing works! Is it OK to have a wine on a Tuesday? I think it is!

Wednesday

I’m having a client-focused day today. After news conference, where we review morning papers and flag up any relevant stories for clients, I spend a few hours working on a launch plan and budget for a client.

Next up is a call regarding the Google Data Studio Dashboard we’re building for a client. We discuss what we want the dashboard to include and what data sources are available.

The weather is gorgeous today, so the team use it as an excuse to get the BBQ out on the balcony. I then jump back to my launch plan from the morning, and spend some time reviewing the trade press and key contacts to see what they’re covering and consider the best approach.

I still love this aspect of the job and get involved in media planning and pitching whenever I can. Nursery calls: The three-year-old has a temperature, so “can they give him Calpol?” Of course! I know the drill… I keep everything crossed they don’t call back asking me to collect him.

I have a stack of documents to check for the team that I haven’t had chance to look at yet, so spend an hour or so reviewing these. It mainly consists of monthly reports and press releases.

Towards the end of the day we have our weekly team meeting. We have Prosecco and cake to celebrate the latest account wins and client successes – when you’re busy it’s easy to forget to stop and celebrate your achievements.

Our MD Rick updates the agency on a few key things, then it’s over to the team to share their highlights from the previous week – always tied back to Smoking Gun’s values.

On the train home, I spend the time giving out Bonuslys to the team for some of their highlights shared in the team meeting. Bonusly is a peer-to-peer reward platform, where you can cash ‘Bonuslys’ in for days off, shopping vouchers, meals out, and so on.

Thursday

I’m shattered after a sleepless night with a poorly child… I work from home today whilst the sick child sits on the iPad and watches TV.

He wants lots of comfort and comes to sit on my knee while I work. Once the Calpol kicks in though, he’s crashing cars on the floor while I attempt to listen in on our morning news conference.

I draft a new client win story to go out. I have a campaign plan to write for a sports client – an exciting one as it’s all about building brand love.

As I don’t work Fridays, I check over work in progress reports that are due to go across to clients at the end of the week. The three-year-old comes to sit on my knee while I work. I have a client video call but I can’t exactly throw him off my knee, so he joins the call.

Since COVID it’s become much more acceptable to have your children around while working. I crack on regardless anyway, and the client doesn’t mind at all.


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School then calls: “Your child is ill, can you pick them up?” Not another one! I ring my husband and ask him to sort it.

I break off work early to sort the kids out and make dinner. I’ll then jump back online when they’re in bed to pick up outstanding work.

I have an exciting new business brief to look at for a travel brand we’re pitching to in a couple of weeks. I can’t concentrate on new business if I’m being constantly distracted by kids, email or Slack messages, so it suits me to review this on an evening.

Friday

Up early for 6am run training again. Even though I’m absolutely shattered, I feel so good after it and I don’t work today so can always have a little snooze later on.

Since I returned to work after maternity leave, I have Fridays off with the youngest two. It’s a chance to spend some quality time with them – we usually go to a play centre or to visit great-grandma.

Today though, it’s a glorious sunny day so we head to the park to meet friends. I do check my emails occasionally, mainly because I’m a control freak, but as I’ve got older (and had more kids) I am much better at switching off.

Plus, I work with a fab team that never really contact me on my day off. Smoking Gun is very respectful of staff out of office time and super supportive of working parents. I don’t know how I’d be able to succeed at my job without the flexibility and trust I have here.

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