My Jolly Life

In what I hope becomes a regular feature on Newsline, I shall be reporting on those crucial pieces of client liaison that don’t fall foul of the Bribery Act. As much a part of the media lifestyle as a Thursday night leaving do at Jerusalem, the Media Jolly has survived the recession and remains an essential part of ‘The Business’.

So it was with much glee and professional pride that last week I accepted Chris Forrester’s invitation to join his Primesight team at their inaugural inter-agency race day at Brands Hatch.

And of course, as we are all aware, motor racing circuits are surrounded by numerous out of home advertisements, therefore we could all report on a successful site visit on our return to the office.

So an early start at a bright and sunny race track saw lots of hot metal turn up in the circuit’s car park as a testosterone-fuelled bunch of media men (with the exception of Primesight’s own Louise Stubbings) joked and jostled with Chris’ sales team and his avuncular CEO Naren Patel.

The day was a multi-event spectacular taking in karting, touring cars, single seat racing, rally cars, Caterhams and even off-roaders. Much banter abounded before the first drive, however you could sense both fun and trepidation among the media mavens.

Walker Media’s robust CEO Simon Davis was particularly confident in contrast to the ever self-deprecating Alex Altman, who perhaps was still reeling from his roasting by Susie Essman at Advertising Week recently.

I think, however, the point that we realised we weren’t being groomed as the next set of F1 drivers was when “Steve” briefed us for the day ahead. “Steve” – who looked more like a Status Quo roadie than a motorsport boss – gave us the low-down for the forthcoming events.

As the day progressed it became clear that there were some ringers among the group. Lewis Shaw of MG OMD admitted to have raced with Jenson Button in his youth as he raced home to win in the Formula Brands single seaters. Nick ‘MAD’ Madison, partner at the 7Stars – but more at home racing superbikes – claimed that he “hadn’t touched the brakes once” as he cruised to victory on the rally stage.

Luckily though, there was the necessary level of comedy value as well…

Steve Rackman of Primesight coming into the pits as he heard “the referee’s whistle” – and Pedro Avery’s otherwise perfect drive spoiled by driving around with a plastic cone in his front spoiler for about five laps, earning the sobriquet “Cone Head” for the rest of the day.

But perhaps a true sign and reminder of our mere mortal status was when the soon to be crowned “Driver of the Day” Sam D’Amato of M2M noisily and carelessly spun and stalled his single-seater around Clearways to loud jeering from his fellow agency team-mates. To be fair to Sam, this spin seemed to do him no harm as he went on to win the Caterham Donut competition later in the day.

As for our Primesight hosts, Nigel Fung took client service to the nth degree by managing to come second in four different categories, allowing his guests to pick up the silverware. Chris didn’t trouble the scorers and Naren looked at his most comfortable behind the wheel of a Land Rover Defender rather than one of the more nimble vehicles.

So another hard day in media completed and the Primesight commercial team more popular than ever with their key agency customers.

What could be jollier?