Ever wondered what it's like to work at one of Greater Manchester's leading tech employers or what specific job roles get up to each day?
Lucy Moore is Associate Director at Refresh.
We spoke to her to find out more about this role, her experience at Refresh, and what an average day looks like.
Name: Lucy Moore
Company: Refresh
Job Title: Associate Director
Time in the role: 5.5 years
How did you get into your current role?
I’ve always worked in PR agencies – my degree was actually in public relations, which is quite rare for people that end up in it! Most people come with a background in either English, Journalism, Psychology or Business.
I’ve done PR for businesses across many different sectors in my 12 years working in the field, but I started specialising in working with tech business to raise their profile and build brand awareness around eight years ago and haven’t looked back. So, when the role came up at Refresh with the remit of managing and growing the tech portfolio, I was sold.
What do you enjoy most about working at Refresh?
The diversity of the day to day (no two days are EVER the same) and the people I work with. It’s sounds cliché but the team you work with can really make or break a job.
What does a typical day look like for you?
This is a tricky one as there genuinely isn’t really a typical day in PR, which is one of the main reasons I love it. We’re a boutique agency of 15 which means I do a bit of everything in my role but my main remit is a hybrid of agency growth and culture/team development.
I work predominantly in our Northern Quarter office so I tend to start my morning with a walk from my house in Ancoats to the office, usually via New Islington marina so I can get a bit of calm and greenery before I start my day. I usually arrive at the office at around 8.30am, do a quick scan of my emails and the news headlines, reply to anything urgent and then turn off my emails so I can get stuck in to some distraction-free work for the morning. I find having the first couple of hours of the day with no distractions really important for productivity.
On any given day I could be doing anything from meeting a client to discuss their comms strategy and plans for the year ahead or working on a new business pitch, to analysing a business’ keywords and search traffic to inform a campaign, or delivering training to the team. I also get out and about whenever I can to industry events – I find them really useful for learning and also meeting interesting people!
What excites you the most about your work?
I love the thrill of taking a new business lead from brief stage, to ideating and building it into a campaign that makes a client think ‘wow’. PR has changed so much over the past decade which makes pitching a continuous learning curve that never really gets boring as requirements and the comms landscape is changing all the time – it’s no longer solely about getting your client in the press, although that still plays a part. These days PR and comms is much more respected in c-suite, so much of the support we provide to clients crosses over with wider business strategy and objectives. From this perspective, I really enjoy working with fast-moving start-ups and scale-ups – having the opportunity to genuinely shape a business’s direction and trajectory through PR is great.
I also love the other part of my role which is around culture and people development – I love working with the team to bring the best out of people and lean in to their individual skill sets and strengths.
What are some of the key things you’ve learned during your time at Refresh?
So much! I’ve obviously been here quite a long time now, but still feel like I’m learning daily. A couple of my biggest learnings have been coming up with PR campaigns that are strategic and fit into a client’s business goals, rather than just tactical with an aim of securing a lot of media coverage but not really being sure why. I’ve also learnt a lot about the importance of relationships and having a network which you cultivate over a long time. We’ve done work for clients who we originally met at events years ago that weren’t quite ready to do PR at the time but have remembered us from a conversation we had and got back in touch.
Lastly, I’ve learnt a lot about leadership and getting the best out of people – there’s no point forcing people into doing tasks they really hate doing as you’re never going to get the best out of people. So as a result, I’ve become good at delegating projects and clients in line with peoples’ interests and skill sets – it always gets the best results!
