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Looking back over my 4.5 years at Nielsen McAllister, I’ve had my fair share of those “you won’t believe this” moments. Here are some of my favourites and lessons learnt along the way.
Client meetings can happen in cafés, airports and warehouses… but at Nielsen McAllister, I ended up in a sauna. Just a year into my role, I was invited to a “Customer Day” at a spa and golf course. Somehow, a client’s supplier and I found ourselves chatting about cold chain logistics in a steam room.
Lesson learned: always be ready for a business chat, even if it’s in 90°C heat.
PR takes you to places you’d never expect. After a trade show at the NEC, a group of clients from Prism eLogistics convinced me to be their “lucky charm” at the casino. They went all in on red and we lost every single penny. Moral of the story is charm doesn’t always pay the bills.
Not every unforgettable moment is about chaos, sometimes it’s about connection. Attending the Women in Packaging Awards with our client, the BCMPA, was one of those occasions where I felt truly lucky to be there. Celebrating female leaders and seeing clients receive the recognition they deserved reminded me why we do what we do.
Two years running as LogiPharma’s PR team in Lyon stands out as a career highlight for so many reasons.
Serious work: Coordinating journalists, managing media interviews with big pharma leaders and uncovering compelling PR stories from people doing incredible work in healthcare logistics. I learned
how to tell stories that matter, how to handle the pressure of trade shows and how to turn complex technical topics into narratives people want to read.
Fun stuff: Cowboy hats, after-parties in the National Science Museum, freeze-dried popcorn, too much French wine, impromptu caricature drawing… and enough steps to feel like I’d walked to Mars and back.
A whirlwind of learning, laughter and networking that’s definitely one for the PR highlight reel.
Sometimes PR leads to unexpected perks. At a Marketing Derby event, I joined a 50-strong game of “Heads or Tails” and somehow ended up winning four hospitality tickets to the England vs Pakistan women’s cricket match. Definitely not in the job description, but I wasn’t complaining!
Looking back, these PR stories are more than just anecdotes, they’re a reminder of what my time at Nielsen McAllister has given me which is the chance to grow, work with talented people and discover humour in the most unexpected places.
In her latest blog, Rhiannon discusses the five benefits of strategic outsourcing PR services.
PR is often thought of as sleek, controlled, and meticulously planned. Press releases, media events and content strategy are all carefully orchestrated. But anyone who’s spent time in this world knows the moments that stick aren’t the ones that went perfectly; they’re the ones that go completely off-script.