A day in the life of a senior account executive

Brittany Bryan joined MI Media as a senior account executive last year, working across clients including The Children’s Society and RNID. Here she gives us insights into what life is like as a senior account executive at MI Media.

What led you to a career in media?

I always knew I wanted a career in media. My mum said that when I was a baby I used to hyper-focus on the ads when they came on TV, I’d spend more time watching adverts than I would the actual TV programmes! As I grew older, my interest didn’t waver and I chose to study advertising at university. I basically see advertising like history, ad campaigns can tell you so much about cultural trends and pop culture of the time. I love to geek out on that!

I finished university during Covid, so it was difficult to find a way into the industry. I spent a good year applying for roles and signed up to Creative Access which provided me with interview tips and jobs to apply for. Eventually, I secured my first job at Essence as an Account Executive and after 2.5 years I joined the team here at MI Media as a Senior Account Executive.

What does a typical day look like for you?

I am in constant communication with my clients who always have interesting questions for me to respond to. I spend a lot of my time reviewing campaign performance and finding new ways to optimise and improve our results. This means that I am always researching new innovations in media, undertaking competitor reviews and using this knowledge to help decide how we can make our clients’ campaigns even better.

What is your proudest moment at MI?

The first time I presented a post campaign analysis (PCA) at MI Media I was really nervous. I’d never been the main presenter of a PCA, in the past they had been a team effort with different people presenting different components. However, for our client RNID, I was able to take control of the whole process. I had worked really hard on the campaign and delivered great results; we delivered 12x the number of conversions we were targeted against while remaining under budget! The presentation went really well and the client was ecstatic with the results.

What advice would you give to someone looking to become a Senior Account Executive?

Always be curious and have a thirst for the industry that you’re going into. There are so many ways you can learn more about the industry. Consider shadowing, find mentors that can coach you in their skills and go to networking events. There’s a misconception that networking is just for more senior people already in the industry, but you can find out so much about different media owners and what they do at these events.

What mistake have you learned from the most?

There isn’t one mistake in particular that stands out. I take all mistakes as a learning opportunity and don’t dwell on it. Every time I’ve made a mistake, whether it’s been how I’ve presented something or maybe missing a tactic to optimise a campaign, I’ve noted down what I’ve done and what I can do in the future if I find myself facing a similar challenge again.

Who’s your role model and why?

I have found in every single person I’ve worked with. I find inspiration from my account director and his client knowledge which helps push me to learn more. I find inspiration from how my business director always thinks outside of the box, thinking of five different ways to take on a piece of information. I see how different people work and take pieces from each of them that I want to emulate in my own work.