A Week in the Life of…A health agency account executive
PharmaTalent

Emma Curley is a health agency Account Executive at Ogilvy Health

Top five skills

  • Team player
  • Multi-tasking
  • Eye for detail
  • Creativity
  • Calm under pressure

About me

I started working at Ogilvy Health almost a year and half ago, and I must say, no week is ever the same! When you work in a medical communications agency, things can change quite quickly; you’ll be working on a long-standing patient awareness campaign one day and rushing to get a press release out the door the next. I’ve tried my best to summarise the tasks I often have on my to-do list, as well as highlight the wide variety of skills I’ve learned in my first 18 months on the job: I don’t think that 500 words will ever do justice to how varied and exciting this role can be though!

Teamwork

Typically, I start the week by rounding up the team to discuss the account actions; what deliverables have been promised, what’s coming up in the next couple of weeks, and what everyone’s workload is looking like for the week ahead. I’ll follow-up throughout the week to make sure we stay on track.

Client management

I typically have two to four client calls a week where my role is to prepare either a status report or agenda for the client, capture meeting minutes during the call and follow-up with a summary and actions. The account executive is often the direct line of contact for clients on day-to-day tasks, meaning that a key part of my job is to help build and maintain a good client relationship, where the agency is viewed as a trusted partner by the client.

Social media

I tend to lead a lot of the social media activity that my accounts run, so a chunk of my week is dedicated to setting up, launching and monitoring campaigns across the various platforms our clients use such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Creative content

I often help manage the development of creative materials for various projects too – this might be anything from social media content to infographics for medical congresses. This involves liaising with our in-house creative team to make sure that everyone knows what we want to achieve with the campaign, the client’s expectations, the budget and the delivery date.

Internal activities

Aside from client-related work, I also like to get involved with internal activities at the office. Lately this has involved helping to organise an internal award night and editing the bi-weekly newsletter to keep everyone up-to-date on important and inspiring news! Being part of a health and wellness agency is fantastic because we also run lots of health initiatives, so I (try to) go out with the run-club every Wednesday for a mid-week 5k and have started to attend Pranayama breathing classes, which are super relaxing and a great way to re-focus for the afternoon’s work!

Varied and rewarding

As I say, that’s a more typical week of work, but I’ve also had the chance to travel around Europe, interview doctors and patients, organise advisory boards for healthcare professionals, set up and attend photoshoots and filming days – all ultimately contributing to work that has genuinely helped people within the healthcare space. It’s a hugely fulfilling role and one I’d highly recommend!

Career path to health agency account executive

Beaconsfield High School

A-Level Biology, Psychology, Geography and English Literature and Language

University of Southampton

First Class Degree in Psychology

Employment

I worked in a variety of jobs during sixth form, my gap year, summers during university and for a couple of months after graduating:

  • Bartender
  • Waitress
  • HR Intern
  • Domiciliary care worker