In 2005, Marcus founded Medialab with 2 other partners… 15 years on, and Medialab has experienced its biggest year of growth to date. Marcus is still very much involved in the day to day, and has an oversight of performance across all the client accounts, alongside the internal facing aspects of the business.
6.15am
Alarm rings out, waking my wife and I up. Quick check to remind myself that it’s not a ‘taking the kids to swimming’ morning, otherwise it would be a 4.50am start! Much more civilised…
I’ll let our dog, Dotty, out, and get breakfast ready for the kids, before heading off in the car to the train station. We live out in the sticks!
7.34am
On the train in, I’ll plug into Blinkist to get an exec summary on some of the best business books out there. Like everyone else, I have imposter syndrome, and have employed people who know far more than me – so it’s a good chance to keep abreast of what’s what. I’ll also try and squeeze in 10 minutes of Headspace (mindful meditation), before getting to Marylebone; always helpful to reset for the day ahead. Both apps are now free for our team, and I couldn’t sing their praises enough – brilliant ideas, brilliant tech!
8.15am
I’m in the office, I’ve found a desk, and I’ve made a (very) strong flat white. It’s a habit that needs to be moderated, but I’m not there yet…
The night before I will have prepared everything for today, but I’ll refresh myself and chat with June, our Executive PA, to see if anything has changed. It almost always has. Before the oncoming rush of meetings, I’ll do some Inbox management, which involves collating emails from a person, finding that person in the office and working through it all in one go – I’d much rather catch up with people face to face.
10.00am
First meeting of the day. I’m an agenda junkie, so I always make sure that I’m fully prepped for any meeting – even if it’s for a coffee. So, for this meeting with one of our Not-For-Profit client partners, I’ll get an overview of campaign performance and any relevant insights from our client team, which I’ll cross reference against my own notes.
Generally, the relationships I have with our client partners are longstanding, and very familiar, so the aim of the meeting is to get an update on their world, and any business challenges they are encountering. I see myself as an enabler, and I’ll try to address any feedback they have, and see if I can make anything they need help with happen.
11.30am
My weekly internal catch up with Marketing usually revolves around upcoming events, content, awards, PR etc.. But as we are expanding into a new office space downstairs, our conversation is largely dominated by that! It’s incredibly exciting to see the space come together, as it will act as the main entrance to Medialab. There are plenty of moving parts, and we’ve had a lot of discussion around branding, design, and ways to make the space our own.
Lunch
My New Years resolution was to make lunch more interesting. And we are spoilt working just off Oxford Circus, but still it’s back to the same old haunts of Pret and itsu. I walked past a Japanese BBQ place the other day that I already know I’ll never go to. I do also like Poke – I must do that more often.
1.00pm
Straight from lunch at my desk, and I’ll dive back into a meeting with one of the board. In this instance, it’s with Ben our Chief Operating Officer, and it’s to get a view on our new People/Talent recruitment process. I’ll also chat to the other senior team members throughout the day to keep abreast of the latest developments within the business, whether that be within a client or enabling team capacity.
2.00pm
Most of the afternoon is taken up with more client meets. Yes, my day is a series of meetings! When we have clients in the office, I’ll make sure to pop my head in and say hello or catch them in the reception. It’s a behaviour I’m keen to encourage at Medialab, as I want anyone who comes in to feel welcome. Making a cup of tea for our guests always feels good, everyone chips in, and it’s important that I set the tone.
5.00pm
After dipping in and out of meetings, I manage to settle down at my desk and work through the mountain of emails that have been piling up. I get to a note about some TV performance stats, first look seems very positive; however I’m interrupted by my colleague Stephen from one of the client teams, who is trying to convince a relatively new Michael that John in the Data team is my dad… For reference, John is about a foot smaller than me… NO doubt Michael will get his revenge.
7.00pm
Time to head back home, which means I’ll be back in time to put the kids to bed and read them a story. My amazing wife and I are both running around in the evening, coordinating with the children, so we try not to drink during the week, but that’s very day dependent… It can end with a glass of wine and something easy to cook. We aren’t big TV watchers, and I’ll try and be in bed by just after 10 with my book. I’m currently reading a non-fiction book by Joe Eszterhas called Hollywood Animal. Joe is this crazy script writer from Hungary; it’s quite gossipy and early on calls out Stallone for being a piece of work. A quick mental prep for the next day, and that’s me done!
If you weren’t at Medialab, what would you be doing?
I’d love to be a sports journalist (Football or Cricket), travelling the world and writing about games that entertain and make us very happy – unless of course you support my team..! Oh dear.