My life in Advertising: Celina Bou Saab

Celina Bou Saab is a Media Relations Coordinator working at PR firm ASDA´A Burson-marsteller. In the following, she shares how a typical day at the agency goes by.

Frankly speaking, I was never able to share my daily routine with anyone. Why is that? Because working in PR cannot coincide with a daily routine, simply because a slight change in a client’s request or any new task that may arise can reshuffle my entire day, and sometimes pull me off my bed. However, let me share with you a normal day, when I get to wake up on my own. My alarm is set at 7:00 am, but the snooze button pushes it till 7:30 am. It takes me 30 minutes to get myself ready to stand up to the best part of the day: TRAFFIC that is! Let’s skip this part and move right away to my office hours, which start at 9:30 am after spending 10 indispensable minutes greeting everyone based and working on the same floor. Along with my morning cup of coffee, I usually go through my emails and monitor any news about our clients or their competitors to make sure our clients’ image is well portrayed in the media, and to keep track of the latest market trends. As a media relations executive at Asda’a Burson-marsteller, daily reports are expected to be sent to the management and clients showcasing all the media coverage about the announcements shared and a detailed analysis on competitor news. Yes, lunch breaks are very essential for us! It’s already 1:00 pm, time for all of us to gather at the balcony with our home-cooked food and share our moms’ “tabkha” of the day, or we just stick to deliveries. I cannot deny that some lunch breaks are interrupted by a client’s request or even a manager’s. My day continues with a small meeting with all the departments and the management to discuss our upcoming work schedule, tasks, events and proposals. The meeting might last for an hour or so in case the management decides on a team building exercise. At around 3:30 pm and after being briefed on the planned events, preparations begin: preparing a media list, sending invitations, calling media to confirm their attendance and reporting to the client… Not to forget the cigarette breaks and gossiping sessions in between, especially when the office is dominated by females. Usually my day ends at 6:00 pm, that’s when I get stuck in traffic once again, until I reach home and have the chance to pamper myself, get a good night sleep before the alarm rings again and again.