You can’t describe yourself if you’re in a constant state of becoming so I’ll let you draw your own conclusions when you meet me.
However, I do politely ask all clients and journalists never to refer to me as a PR, as I am still actually a journalist. One who just happens to be working in PR because the money is considerably better.
When the hair of the breaking news agenda isn’t wrapped around my fist, I’m running around after my yumpty-scrumptious twins Horace and Coco, and waiting on Tiggy, my better half. Other than that, we have a dog that doesn’t travel well and two Burmese cats who couldn’t give a damn.
My two favourite authors are Houellebecq and Guttiérez; my two favourite poets are Baudelaire and Hugo; my two favourite thinkers are Heidegger and Nietzsche; my two favourite artists are Bacon and Giacometti; and my two favourite darters are Barny and the Power.
I like rugby, road bikes, damn fine wine, even finer cigars, (deranged) philosophy and thought, Dylan Thomas and darts.
My two favourite quotes of all time are by legendary Geordie darts commentator Sid Waddell:
“Bristow reasons; Bristow quickens; aaaaah Bristow!”
“We couldn’t have more excitement if Elvis walked in and asked for a chip sandwich”
While searching the web for ‘responsible’ PR agencies for one of my clients, Just In Time PR literally jumped off the page … or screen. Wow, what a cool site, what great copy, an innovative approach, funky drawings…Yep, you guys will do nicely, my search is complete.
A few weeks later and I’m taking high tea with Dom (and my business adviser puppy, Hugo) and starting my initiation into Just In Time, where I head up the Marketing department. Oh yes indeed.
My background includes more than 10 years working as a Brand and Senior Brand Manager for the likes of Mars and Johnson & Johnson among others, as well as being marketing director for several local SMEs. I am no stranger to developing winning marketing strategies and delivering hard-hitting tactical campaigns for clients… no stranger at all… and I’d like to help you to do the same. Go on, it’ll be fun!
For many companies it’s the lack of detailed objectives, the failure to set a clear direction, the avoidance of allocating a set resource and budget, that causes the continuation of ad-hoc, rushed, ineffective, reactive (and not proactive) marketing. Yukky!
Not any more, no siree, Marketing Claire is here to save the day! Successful marketing is the key to your business, and outsourcing it to the experts not only makes you more money in the long term, but also saves you time and money in the short term, as you don’t have to do it yourself.
So what are you waiting for, call Marketing Claire today!
After being sold on artsy Goldsmiths University at an open day hosted by a seven foot drag queen called Karl who told me about the secret ‘essay or collage response’ option for all courses, I left my south coast boarding school, quite literally packed up my trunk, and made for the bright lights of London Towne.
Much like a made-for-TV movie I fell in with a bad crowd, undertook some light smuggling, arson and sold bootleg liquor from a van.
But after that difficult first week I settled in, and dare I say, flourished at Goldsmiths, achieving the best grades the englosh department has ever had (I believe).
It was whilst studying that I also began my stand-up comedy career, which I pursue for the art, and not the money, I might add. Have I Got News For You keep asking, but I just say ‘no thank you, very busy’. They can be trying.
However after three tetanus jabs and living in a tent down by the river I realized that I needed to gain employment and began working in political press, which Is what I’ve been doing ever since for political parties, members of parliament and a former statesman.
But learning the dark arts of political spin can be a big responsibility, which is why I have now decided to recklessly share these with the ‘Dream Team’ and Just In Time PR’s clients with nary a care for the consequences. Mwah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha…(Rocking maniacally on a chair. Fade to black)
As Just In Time PR’s resident broadcast media guru, I’d love to say I was born with a silver microphone in my mouth. Sadly nothing could be further from the truth. But my childhood ambition to be an astronaut foundered when I realised that rocket science is, in fact, rocket science.
So I read languages at Cambridge instead. Graduating hungover and overdrawn, I decided to become a journalist. A professional gossip: how hard could it be?
Soon I was an ink-stained hack on the local paper. The pay was atrocious, but the perks… well my name was on the guestlist of every nightclub in the Fens. Yeah baby.
OK, so I may not have been the East Anglian P Diddy. But I was very good at talking and showing off. So I switched to being a TV reporter. I joined the BBC, and rose up the ranks to foreign correspondent, first in Brussels and then Washington DC.
But this summer I decided to give my passport a rest and plunged headlong into the world of PR. From the Just In Time eyrie in Soho I’m now all about getting our clients as much broadcast coverage as possible.
I’m still drawn to cameras and radio studios like a moth to a flame, so I’m using my expertise to provide broadcast media training for clients who find the idea a bit daunting.
When I’m not persuading my journalist contacts to put our clients on air I’ll be at home talking French to my bilingual kids (after so many years in Brussels we’ve gone Eurotrash) or scoffing unpasteurized cheese and burgundy in the French ghetto that is Clapham.
