This month’s day in the life comes from our new business director, Nicole Browne, who shares what her early days in PR taught her about storytelling and how one pitch team managed to make her tear up like a proud parent.

We’d be remiss not to give ourselves a cheeky new business plug here. So if you read this and think that MI Media sounds like an agency you’d like to work with to grow your business, then get in touch at [email protected].  

What led you to a career in media?

Balancing my academic and creative sides was always my aim when trying to figure out what I wanted to do. Having studied fashion promotion at university, I realised that while I didn’t live for fashion, I enjoyed the opportunities to write and tell stories that the modules on PR offered so initially looked for jobs in this industry.

In those first few years of my career as a PR executive I had to find compelling stories in everything from abandoned shopping basket retargeting (we sent and retrieved an actual shopping basket from the edge of space), to the online deal-hunting forum HotUKDeals (one shopper filled their freezer with 300 ice creams for just £17.36 after they spotted a pricing glitch which saw ice creams going for pennies at Tesco Express). It taught me so much about how to tell stories that people want to read.

Eventually, I joined an agency that specialised in PR for the advertising & media industry. Here I worked with clients including MediaCom, Ogilvy and Leagas Delaney, before being approached by a recruiter at Omnicom Media Group UK to run its PR as part of its new business and marketing team. It was this in-house role that broadened my skills and showed me the opportunities that lay in agency new business and marketing. After a few years moving around the OMG UK network, I came over to the side of the indies at MI Media.

What does a typical day look like for you?

My role puts me in the very privileged position of being able to work with pretty much every single person in our agency. One day might see me working with a group of Business Directors to develop the conversation for an upcoming client roundtable event, another might involve working with one of our more junior team members to uncover their specialist knowledge and support them in writing an insightful article for our website.

I am by far my busiest when a new business pitch hits. One of the fantastic things about MI Media is that when this happens, everyone is all hands on deck. It’s not just about the pitch team in these moments, but about the rest of the team picking up work to support those on the pitch and make sure that no one is at risk of burning out. I love everything about a pitch; they bring the absolute best out of everyone. I feel like a proud parent when I send the team off for the final pitch presentation after weeks of research, story building and rehearsals. I was so impressed by one pitch team during their final rehearsal that they managed to make me cry, which as a ‘stoic Yorkshireman’ is quite the feat.

What mistake have you learnt the most from?

Although I’m an open and direct person, I have fallen foul of worrying too much about other people’s opinion of me. As I’ve grown into my leadership role, I’ve had to learn that there will be times when I have to be firm, either with the team or in my own convictions. Not everyone is going to react positively all the time, but their reactions aren’t a reflection of who I am. As long as I truly believe in my recommendations and actions, I’ve learnt that I need to stand by them. And honestly, I can’t think of anyone who’s held a grudge against me for any of the decisions I’ve made at work!

Who’s your role model and why?

When it comes to work, I like to pick and choose what I admire or appreciate in the people I work with and try to emulate them. However, there’s one person that stands out for me who’s been doing incredible things over the past few years: Saffana Monajed.

I first met Saffana at OMG UK where she was a Media Planner at OMG Unite. Since then, Saffana has set up WhiteBoard Marketing Co., running writing workshops that get marketing teams excited about writing for their organisations. Not content with launching an incredible business (while becoming a mother of two!), Saffana is perhaps more recognisable as a voice on social media breaking down in the simplest terms how the marketing machine works. More specifically, how the Israeli government is using well known marketing tactics to get the West to buy in to, or at least stay silent, about the genocide in Gaza. Other people trying to build their client base in an industry still dominated by white, middle class decision makers might have shied away from a topic like this. But I defy anyone to watch Saffana’s videos and not develop a better understanding of what is happening, while also learning about some genuinely great marketing tactics that can be applied to their own clients.

Beyond this, the network of women that Saffana has built around her and that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting is full of incredible people. This, I think, is the best reflection of a great role model.

Marketing Insight

Currys, one of the UK’s most recognisable electrical retailers, faced the challenge of staying relevant in a market increasingly dominated by online-first competitors like Amazon. Its traditional brand positioning wasn’t working for younger audiences.

To move forward, Currys needed to shift away from adapting old marketing tactics for a new generation and instead focus on creating native, engaging content that meets younger consumers where they are, on the platforms they use every day.

Accelerating Growth

In repositioning itself as a content creator, Currys has connected with a younger digital-native audience. A lot of its successful posts were organic, meaning paid media budgets were likely saved and deployed to other areas where that budget was needed more.

Currys’ strategy paid off, the content drove 100 million organic TikTok views in six months and more importantly a 5% increase in sales in the 17 weeks to 24 August 2024. Currys has firmly established itself as a standout social brand in the industry.

Why traditional Marketing Mix Modelling still matters

For decades, Marketing Mix Modelling (MMM) has helped marketers understand the performance of media and the influence of factors such as competitor spend and seasonality on business KPIs. MMM’s strength lies in cutting through the noise to isolate media’s effect and determine Return on Investment (ROI), making it a trusted measurement tool.

Today, MMM’s relevance has only grown. Privacy restrictions, cookie deprecation and tracking limitations have undermined user-level attribution, making it harder to capture full customer journeys. Unlike those methods, MMM works on aggregated spend and outcome data, making it resilient to these shifts. It’s therefore re-established itself as a core framework for marketing measurement.

The limitation of traditional MMM in measuring ROI

Traditionally, MMM has produced single ROI estimates that downplay the uncertainty behind them. This leaves decision-makers without a clear sense of investment risk. Bayesian MMM addresses this by generating an ROI range for different variables such as media channels. This shifts the focus from single estimates to a range of ROIs with their associated likelihood of being reached. This allows stakeholders to consider both expected returns and the likelihood of achieving them, making Bayesian approaches increasingly attractive in today’s market.

From single ROI estimates to risk-aware decisions

Marketing measurement is moving from an era of single-number estimates to outputting a range of estimates with their associated probabilities that allow for risk-aware decision-making. Traditional MMM has long been effective in quantifying how different media channels have affected business metrics, but its treatment of uncertainty leaves investment risk hidden. Bayesian MMM fills this gap by reframing outputs into probabilities, enabling scenario simulations and supporting more robust budget optimisation.

Bayesian MMM generates a range of values that show how different media channels have affected business metrics. The outputs of this probabilistic method are a range of media contributions, ROIs and response curves with uncertainty bands. These equip marketers with a richer and more realistic understanding of their investments. In a world of shrinking user-level data and growing measurement challenges, it is not just a technical upgrade but a practical evolution, one that is increasingly shaping how marketing decisions are made today.

What advice would you give to someone looking to become an assistant management accountant?

First and foremost, read the financial press. Finance is a broad industry; you might discover a niche that you find compelling. Reading the press broadens your perspectives and allows you to learn about the narratives that drive the industry.

I also think that conferences and events are good spaces to learn about new developments in the industry. Earlier this year I attended MADFest which really took me out of my immediate comfort zone. Yes, my role is in finance, but finance supports the advertising industry. The event featured a range of speakers from the industry covering broad themes that had implications on the finance function. The pool of people to network with was wider there as well, I found it stimulating to attend.

What mistake have you learnt the most from?

Many of us are operating in a fast-evolving environment with developments in tech and AI. You can fall into the trap of saying that it’s something that is happening elsewhere and it’s not going to affect me. My take on that is to be open to radical developments. While yes, initially, these developments might be someone else’s responsibility and your inclination might be to keep them at arm’s length, I think people should learn to embrace them. You never know when it might help you in your day-to-day. I find that online courses and self-practice are important to understanding the implications technology can have in finance and keeping me up to speed with that.

Who’s your role model and why?

I have a passing interest in current affairs, so my role model is Barack Obama. I particularly liked his policy of implementing universal healthcare. This is something we take for granted in the UK. In the US, Obama was met with a lot of resistance to universal healthcare. But he strove for the highest ideal and I admire that. Obama also extends his influence in other ways than the political, each year he publishes a list of his favourite writers. Despite the responsibilities that rest on his shoulders, he still finds the space for creativity and time to lend his platform to established and emerging writers.

Marketing Insight

As well as bringing awareness to global issues, advertising can also be used to deliver powerful social messages at a micro level. Earlier this year, Arsenal Football Club announced that it will continue to collaborate with Adidas on ‘No More Red’, an initiative the club first launched during the 2021/22 season to combat knife crime and youth violence in London. In 2021, London had seen record levels of teenage murders involving knives. The campaign aimed to raise awareness of the issue and provide safe spaces, mentorship and opportunities for young people at risk.

Today, we’re speaking to digital account director, Hannah Foord. Our conversation sees Hannah tell us the impact that having a supportive manager can have early in your career development and why she believes that keeping clients engaged and happy is about delivering more than you said you would, while being clear and transparent throughout. 

What led you to a career in media?

As many people do, I fell into this role in the industry. Having graduated from university with a degree in history, I began applying for jobs in editorial content creation. Eventually I found a role at a local SEO & PPC agency which took people on who didn’t have experience and trained them up. Even though I hadn’t heard of SEO or PPC, the job still had that element of editorial that meant it wasn’t too far away from what I thought I wanted to do when I graduated.

I immediately found out that agency life is very fast paced. With that comes a certain level of stress, but also a great level of opportunity. I have always been a high achiever and early on in my career, when I’d see people going into a managers’ meeting, I wanted to be there. I was fortunate to have a great manager for the first seven years of my career who supported me in working my way up through the ranks.

It was a gradual journey that began by taking more of a lead in client meetings before becoming their primary contact. As I was conscientious in picking up client comms and keeping the client happy by being responsive, I was trusted with big accounts early on. Throughout this time, I made sure to continue learning on-the-job skills. Being in the weeds of the implementation work helped me to learn a lot, quickly.

What does a typical day look like for you?

My role is a balance between supporting my team with their development and overseeing the day-to-day running of client campaigns. With my team, it’s about making sure that they’re learning and that we’re all up to date on the latest platform changes. For clients, it’s all about ensuring that we’re delivering what we said we would and more. I believe that keeping clients engaged and happy is about delivering more than you said you would, while being clear and transparent throughout. I’m a hands-on account director; I have no issue with going in-engine to help support and build campaigns or deal with challenges as they crop up. In the future, my role will develop to begin training members of our team that have traditionally been offline bods to become more digitally literate.

What mistake have you learnt the most from?

Letting people bulldoze me because I’m not loud or someone who likes conflict. For years I avoided making my opinion heard, but I wish I had shared it sooner. Problems arose in client work because I didn’t raise my voice at the right time, which started to frustrate both me and the people I worked with. You don’t have to be combative, if you have an opinion, it’s important to say what you think. When you have experience under your belt, your gut feel can kick in, but while you’re still more junior, it’s good to have evidence to back up your opinions as you become trusted.

Who’s your role model?

Firstly, my dad because he’s been at the same company for over 30 years. He’s part of the furniture there and everyone respects his opinion. He’s instilled in me a good work ethic. If you want to achieve something it’s not going to be handed to you, you have to work for it. You must make your choices and live with them.

I would also say that I look up to the women I’ve worked with over the years. I think that media can still tend to be a man’s game, especially when you get higher up. Senior teams and investors continue to be men talking to men. So, I appreciate it when I see women who’ve managed to make it work over the years, whether they’ve had a family or not. I know a lot of female experts in their fields; they’re heads of teams, have big titles and slowly our voices are being heard more in a world still dominated by men. Everyone I know started from the bottom as execs and worked their way up. It’s given me a good framework to know what is possible and the belief that I too can reach those heights.

Marketing Insight

When A24 was founded in 2012, the major studios were focusing on big franchises and rubbing their hands at the cash cow of yet another superhero movie. Oh, and actually, the superhero from that movie over there is gonna be in a movie with this superhero over here and isn’t that just fucking marvellous. As A24 co-founder Daniel Katz said, “Films didn’t seem as exciting to us as when we started our careers and that signalled an opportunity.”

And so, the big bet was born. A24 didn’t try to compete with far bigger studios by playing it safe and aiming to pick up scraps of franchise movies that would appeal to a mass audience. It focused instead on the not-so-small audiences that were craving something radically different: better storytelling, weird & colourful storylines and films that won’t be turned into sequels, prequels and origin stories. The evidence was already quietly there that A24’s bet stood a good chance of winning. Films like Drive and The Master were building loyal cult followings whilst Letterboxd, launched in 2011, was turning millions of under-35s into obsessive cinephiles.

Looking at the titles distributed across those early inception years – Spring Breakers, Under the Skin, Locke, Amy, Ex Machina, Swiss Army Man, The Lobster – we see films that tick the boxes that A24 was looking for. But more than awards and five-star reviews, these films were shaping something more powerful: a brand that people who really loved cinema could trust.

Accelerating Growth

In 2016, A24 moved from solely distributing films into producing them, starting with Moonlight. That film, not La La Land, would go on to win Best Picture at the 2017 Oscars, marking the start of A24’s reputation as a real contender in Hollywood.

By 2023, A24 received a record-breaking 18 Academy Award nominations across six films, taking home nine Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress for Everything Everywhere All at Once. It was the most successful night for any studio that year and the moment A24 went from indie darling to industry leader.

So now, audiences can probably spot an A24 film before the logo appears. And in an era of algorithm-driven blockbusters that kind of trust, built on years of taste-led decisions and smart risk-taking, might just be the most valuable brand in cinema.

Together with RAW London, we have worked with leading sight loss charity, the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), to launch its new appeal with the TV ad ‘For Every Question’. RNIB offers practical and emotional support to blind and partially sighted people, their families and carers. The charity raises awareness of the experiences of blind and partially sighted people, and campaigns for change to make our society more accessible for all. Created by RAW London, the 90-second fundraising spot is based on real life stories of people living with sight loss and the impact that a diagnosis can have on their independence.  

Philippa Marlow, Head of Supporter Acquisition at RNIB, said, “This is RNIB’s first-ever Regular Giving advert crafted from scratch, and it was so important to us that it was informed by the real-life experiences of people who’ve been through a sight loss diagnosis. 

“As well raising awareness of the emotional and practical questions that people face when told they’re losing their sight, the advert highlights vital support provided by RNIB including our Helpline, which is often the first port of call for anyone looking for support and advice around sight loss.  

“Regular Giving plays a hugely important role in supporting RNIB and the work we do towards ensuring every person with sight loss can live the life they want to lead, without limits.” 

The ad opens with a woman sharing the emotional and practical questions that arise at different stages of living with sight loss; from ‘can I still work?’ to ‘can I still be a good mother?’ RAW London worked closely with research partner, Humankind Research, to understand audience perceptions and motivations. It then worked with RNIB and lived experience councils to listen to real stories and stress test concepts. This carried through to production, working with a lead actress from the sight loss community. 

Charlotte Harris, Managing Director at RAW London said, “This has been such an interesting project to be a part of, and an exciting new partnership with RNIB. There’s been a hugely collaborative spirit throughout, which has helped to shape a new and exciting chapter in RNIB’s regular giving activity. We’re proud to be a part of it.”  

The campaign is designed to stop audiences in their tracks and propel them to donate. It will run across TV from today the 15th July. Media was planned and bought by MI Media. 

Richard Slater, MD at MI Media says, “Having worked with RNIB for over five years on its Legacy product, it’s been great to expand our relationship to support them in developing a new Regular Giving product and help them raise the donations that are essential to their work.”  

Marketing is always split testing. It’s the same in comedy. They explained, “we are testing the choices of our audiences – which different storylines, spice level, messaging, will attract different individual’s attention – and we need people who think bold, but also people who think preserve.” It is difficult to rationalise a creative idea unless you test it. What advertisers are doing is behaviour observation. Instead of arguing the statement, let’s just test out.

For Wendy Chung, one of our digital account managers who attended the talk, she agrees that we as advertisers occupy a part in storytelling, delivering them to the right people through channels, targeting and a mixture of creatives. The constant split test is indeed essential. However, in digital marketing it’s not only what the consumers like, but also what the engine algorithm likes. It’s tricky because you can’t always explain machine learning based on human thoughts. But still, that’s what we are trying to do, for both audience and engine. What are they favouring? What is the message they want? What story is the best seller? Doing this is where the value sits in advertising: evoking people’s feelings and resonating with them.

Unsurprisingly AI came up time and again across the three days at MAD//Fest. When it comes to workplace trends, Ekaterina Golovanova, Digital Director at L’Oréal, said that when AI tools are tested and piloted, “there is potential to scale up and smoothen sessions.” At L’Oreal, one of the ways they apply AI tools in the workplace is during brainstorming, using AI alongside physical interaction. For example, takeaway notes and audio recording can save people’s time. But you must keep in mind that these need human review. You have to input your own thoughts and not just rely on what the machine tells you. At MI, we agree that notes functions and recording are helping to save time, but we need to continue to add in our own further thoughts to avoid losing our critical thinking.

Today, we’re speaking to digital account executive, Tom Salter, who joined MI at the end of last year. Our conversation sees Tom tell us why you shouldn’t put pressure on yourself to make everything perfect straight away and shares the reasons he looks to both his personal and professional life for role models.

What led you to a career in media?

I graduated from university and started working as a Teaching Assistant at a local secondary school. I really enjoyed my time there and met some amazing people, but after a year I knew that I didn’t want to go into teaching. I started thinking about what I wanted to do next and got chatting with one of my colleagues, whose husband worked as a creative director at a marketing agency in London. In her words, her husband was crazy, intense & deeply passionate about his work and she thought my calm, rational approach to problem-solving would complement his energy. She suggested I look at client-facing roles within the industry, so I started researching different types of marketing and gravitated towards the digital space.

Soon after, I joined an AdTech startup called Glui (formerly Playrcart), whose technology allows users to perform an action (like a purchase, or donation) within a digital ad without leaving the page they’re browsing. I joined the business as a Sales Executive and, after a few months of cold emailing and familiarising myself with the tech, I started working more closely with media partners and independent agencies to launch marketing campaigns using Playrcart’s technology. I really enjoyed working with the indie agencies and it gave me the desire to work in a similar environment in the future.

Unfortunately, my role at Playrcart was made redundant due to the company facing challenging circumstances, so I moved to Epsilon where I worked on the business’ on-site marketing service. However, my interest remained in digital marketing, and I wanted to experience agency life which is what led me to my role as a digital account executive at MI!

What does a typical day look like for you?

Every week starts with pacing, going into each engine and making sure our spend levels align with the budgets in our plan. I spend a lot of time building campaigns across Google, Meta and LinkedIn. Another key part of my role is pulling and feeding back performance reports to clients. In these reports, we focus our analysis on top-performing channels and audiences (suggesting areas for budget optimisation), as well as creative analysis, to help identify which ads are resonating with users so that similar, high-performing content can be produced.

I have a lot of day-to-day contact with clients, handling specific requests as they come in and ensuring they’re actioned efficiently. This includes everything from sharing more detailed performance updates, to coordinating changes to our clients’ reporting dashboards with the help of our data team. If there’s anything we need to do to improve our clients’ reporting dashboard, such as enhancing it with a new report or including a new conversion metric, I’ll work closely with our data team to map out and complete that project, sharing the final version with the client for feedback.

What mistake have you learnt the most from?

One of the biggest things I’ve learned is the importance of asking for help. When you’re stuck with a problem, it’s easy to spiral trying to figure it out on your own. Reaching out for support can save time and help you understand the problem if you encounter it again in the future.

I’ve also learned that things don’t have to be perfect straight away. Putting too much pressure on yourself to get everything exactly right from the beginning can actually slow you down. Especially with client work, it’s often better to create and get feedback on many iterations of a piece of work to improve it. Big projects can feel overwhelming at first but breaking them down into little pieces makes them much more manageable.

Who’s your role model?

I don’t think I have one role model. There are loads of people in my life who I look up to and whose qualities I try to emulate both professionally and personally.

Within my family, my Dad has an amazing work ethic. He’s been retired for a few years now but still works a job that sometimes requires him to be on call throughout the night. My Mum is incredibly organised and is extremely generous with her time. Another person I look up to is my aunty. She’s currently taking on a challenge to walk the length of the UK in four weeks and her mindset & determination is next level.

Then with the people at MI, Wendy is the most supportive manager I’ve ever had. She’s always checking in on me and asking me if there’s anything she can do to help. Hannah’s fantastic with clients; she has this amazing aura on calls. If a client has a question or if they’re not happy with something, she can handle it immediately. And George has a crazy knowledge of data and the digital space. I learn from each of them every day.