Day Job
Hello. I'm Nigel Pipkin, Director at Seal. I take a strategic role on accounts. It's my job to ensure the teams deliver outstanding campaigns and first class results that make our clients proud. All good PR, whether B2C or B2B, traditional or social media, should include a healthy sprinkling of 'Eureka moments'. Ordinary just isn't good enough if your client is to stand out from the crowd. But inspirational ideas must be grounded in what's achievable, which is where experience and insight are invaluable. A barn-storming idea is all very well. But it's so much confetti in the wind if it doesn't feed back into a client's business objectives and achieve the desired results - a measurable change in the target audience's behaviour or in their perceptions of a brand. Giving a strategic view, sometimes acting as a 'critical friend', is also part of the role. Good advice isn't always about saying 'yes'. Working so closely with the media we often find out about competitor activity or spot business opportunities before the client. That advice can be priceless. As well as keeping the Seal PR team's on task and motivated, that's an easy job ' I seek to ensure the highest standards in all that we do. From headline grabbing press releases and eye-catching photographs to nurturing relationships that really matter, from key journalists to other influencers. Also, operating within an integrated agency, offering PR, design, marketing and digital services, I take the wider view in recommending which are the most appropriate communications tools to bring to bear to maximise clients' budgets.
Weekend Job
The sun shines, the birds sing and all of Saturday and Sunday is spent being Alan Titchmarsh, bringing my garden up to 'Yellow Book' standard. Well, that's the dream! In truth, yes it looks nice but it could be so much better. It's lucky that moss is the same colour as grass. And I still haven't entirely cleared my compost heap after 23 years! So that's what I enjoy the most, digging, weeding, pruning, planting. If I were to describe my gardening style it would be like Jamie Oliver's cooking. Rip this, tear that. Anti-fussy. But the result is very satisfying. So Friday night, relax, unwind, drink (a little) beer or wine, read Gardener's World magazine. Interact with family. Saturday plan to watch Dr Who. Talk my way out of going shopping. Make soup for wife's return from shops. Work at 'the list' of jobs that's been left me. Steal a guilty hour in the garden, while listening to the Villa. Get the tea. Remember Dr Who too late. Go out with friends - in the summer to see The Subterraneans or the Crisis Blues Band. In the winter the world has to stop for 'Strictly Come Dancing' (and Day Job for 'It Takes Two'). Sunday morning is devoted to Radio 4 and the Sunday roast (with home grown herbs). Desert Island Discs, Just a Minute or Sorry I Haven't a Clue and, of course, Gardeners' Question Time. Grab another hour in the garden if can get away with it (and while doing so come up with another PR brainwave). Early evening get round to watching Dr Who on iPlayer. Finally, trot off to bed after updating iPod nano with Friday night's News Quiz for listening later Day Job.