My Day

Travel is a prominent feature of my daily work life. Between visiting key countries and our European head office in Holland, no two days are the same. However, when I am not travelling, here is a typical day in the office:

7.00am: I start the day with a cup of coffee then most mornings I cycle to work and today is no exception, donning my new Denon headphones (my choice being the new Exercise Freak in bright pink) I set off.

Due to working with colleagues in different time zones, by 8.00am I will have a stream of emails already awaiting me, so first thing I catch up on these and then it is generally telephone briefings and meetings from there on.

Today I have a telephone call with our teams in Paris and Germany for a status update on current campaigns. I work closely with the marcom officers in each key country to support the development and implementation of their marketing strategies for headphones.

10:00am: As project leader for the global refresh campaign for headphone branding, the next meeting on my agenda is with our vice president for brand management to develop new creative strategies for our complete headphone range which can be implemented across Europe, North America and Asia Pacific regions. This campaign involves developing a strong marketing direction for our product categories. There are many aspects to the development process, including choosing the models for the campaign, creating a styling brief, attending photo shoots and ensuring key shots are achieved to maximise the potential of the marketing campaign.

The above involves a lot of interaction with our creative agency whether by email, telephone or face-to-face meetings. Straight after my meeting with the vice president for brand management I catch up with our creative agency. There is great anticipation and excitement at this stage as we have just completed the marketing materials for the first category in the headphone range – Exercise Freak. Now it is a case of working with the countries to introduce these new marketing materials across Europe.

12:30pm: I normally have a working lunch, although I like to take 15 mins out to browse the news websites and catch up with what is going on in the world. I do love the food from Marks and Spencer and my favourite is usually a pasta salad, but for a change I pick up a roast chicken and avocado sandwich today.

2:00pm: On a daily basis I liaise with our European headphone general manager and this afternoon we are presenting our monthly report to the European president for sales and marketing. This includes proposed strategies, marketing initiatives and updates on the current results, so to ensure these all fall in line with our overall business objectives.

4:00pm: We have just launched a partnership with the Pink Ribbon Foundation. It is important that we ensure agreements are in place across Europe, and sponsorship is also available for events, therefore I spend the remainder of the day dealing with these issues. I am really pleased to note the press coverage is now starting to pour in across the regions. It is very inspirational to work with a foundation and its members who do so much good for people suffering from breast cancer.

6.00pm: I usually finish around six and then hop on my bike back home. Tonight I am due to go out for a romantic meal with my husband. It's great to get out and relax after a hard day in the office.

Marianne McKay, European marketing and PR manager at electronics firm Denon