A day in the life of a media planner: Ocean Outdoor

Feature | Future of Talent and Leadership Week in Focus

Media planning can feel like an elusive practice to those outside of agencies. In our ongoing series, Ocean Outdoor’s Dan Perry takes us through his daily routine.

I’m Dan Perry, an account manager in the Planning & Investment team at Ocean Outdoor.

I started my career in media four and a half years ago, after joining the Exec programme at EssenceMediacom following university. I was amazed by all the creative campaigns they had done in out-of-home (OOH) and spoke (potentially too much) about these in my interview, leading to me being put in the OOH team – an opportunity I’m incredibly grateful for.

As part of a small, experienced team, I gained early exposure to a wide range of OOH campaigns across global brands I had been using my whole life, learning from some of the industry’s leading planners and collaborating closely with other media channels to give me valuable insight into OOH’s role within the wider media landscape.

I soon took ownership of OOH planning across some of my favourite brands, progressing to account manager before swapping buying for selling and joining Ocean Outdoor, initially in our Ocean Labs team before moving into Planning & Investment.

As a key contact for the OOH team at Publicis, I need to be ready to jump on incoming briefs and requests, so I never know exactly how my day will look, but I love the excitement and try to implement structure where possible.

The morning routine

6:30 am

I like to get my exercise done first thing as the unexpected nature of media means an out-of-the-blue trip to the pub could easily derail an evening gym session. If I’m prepared, I’ll have breakfast ready from the night before, but more often than not I’m walking bleary-eyed on an empty stomach to the Northern Line.

7:00 am

I’m lucky to have a gym round the corner from the office, so I’ll get in a morning workout, which helps me feel motivated for the day, before getting ready and heading in.

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8:45 am

I try to get into the office slightly ahead of the rush to catch up on any outstanding tasks or briefs that may have come in the evening before. This is also the time to make the most of the office coffee machine!

When briefs come in, I’ll work through our available sites and pull together a deal that meets the client’s needs within budget, whilst also thinking of ways to enhance the campaign for the brand and unlock additional budget. Often these are national campaigns, so I’ll review them and ensure there’s a good spread across key cities.

This is also an opportunity to check that live campaigns are all running smoothly and send over images to clients via some of our webcams.

9:30 am

At Ocean, we split the sales department into Planning & Investment, agency, and client teams, so I’ll normally catch up with my agency and client counterparts to discuss the briefs we’re each working on and see if there’s anything we can do to help each other out.

10:00 am

If an exciting creative brief comes through, I’ll sit down with our Labs and Design team to brainstorm ideas and work up a response to send back to the clients. We have loads of cool opportunities via our Labs team, so this is a really fun opportunity to explore new ways to bring creative campaigns to life.

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IRL client catch-ups

11:00 am

Face-to-face with clients is a key part of the job, so I’ll head on the Central Line to White City and spend some time hot-desking at the Publicis offices. I enjoy getting a change of scenery, and this is a great way to catch up with people and discuss live business in person rather than always being stuck on emails.

12:30 pm

Fortunately for me, the Publicis offices are directly opposite Westfield White City, where we have the external large-format digital screens. This means it’s an easy hop over the road to meet a mixture of investment and agency planners, along with clients themselves, to begin a site tour. The beauty of OOH is seeing it in the flesh, and I love clients’ reactions when they see their hard work come to life.

More often than not, our site tours will take us to the iconic Piccadilly Lights, just in time to see the client’s full-screen domination. Hopefully the campaign will have used our DeepScreen technology, making it the perfect opportunity to join in the crowds and snap a pic of the team in front of their 3D creative to share across socials.

1:30 pm

After all the walking around, it’s time to reward ourselves with a hard-earned lunch. We’re lucky to have some great restaurants on our doorstep in Soho, and this is a valuable opportunity to get to know our clients in a more relaxed setting, whilst undoing all the hard work from the morning’s gym session.

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Wrapping up for the day

3 pm

After lunch, I’ll head back to the office to respond to any briefs that may have come in whilst on the site tour. I like to do things “old school” and speak on the phone where possible, as I find it an easier way to chat through briefs and negotiate bookings.

4:30 pm

On a good day, I’ll have some booking approvals that have come through, so I’ll get these onto the system and send over booking confirmations to the client – always a great feeling!

5:30 pm

Once everything’s been wrapped up for the day, it’s time to shut down the laptop. If I’m lucky, I may have something fun on through work in the evening, with my favourites being a trip to a midweek football game or even a film premiere – definitely perks of the job! If not, I’ll head home and unwind by cooking dinner (inevitably some sort of pasta dish) and putting on a film, ready to do it all again tomorrow!

Dan Perry is an account manager in the Planning & Innovation team at Ocean Outdoor.