Diary of a Media Planner

I joined Media Planning because I can do it and I want to do great. Also, because I am too pop-cultured; have different sense of humor; don't believe I will ever be able to "create" historic campaign in my life time- realistically speaking. [email protected]

[diaryofamediaplanner]

Day 366

I did not expect the judgement day would come so fast. But it did.

When you have to excuse yourself to the bathroom to cry every single encounter, it’s a problem. And after going through so many shits in my previous jobs, I am not going to take anybody’s hysteria. If there’s a bitch in the house, it is going to be me.

So much happened during this one week and today that I’ve found all the reasons to back up my talk next week. And it became evident that I shouldn’t wait until the end of next week because in this velocity, I wouldn’t be able to get my feet out of the game because the procedure will be settled by Tuesday.

Let’s start with what I am going to say to my director. The scenario is that he will try to make me understand that this is only difficult because I am just starting out. But my goal is to get perfectly out of the game while only help out with English like translation and proof-reading when necessary, just like I do for any other clients. Period.

1. I will start the talk by telling him I need him to readjust my workscope. In fact, I would like my “supportive role” for client H to be linguistic work, no other.

2. I will add that balancing all those work is making me not fully completing my current work at hands. (I had to miss 3 different meetings because of that stupid client H2)

3. (Assuming that he will try to talk me into it) I believe that I will need to be able to do a proper work with the client that I am handling right now. At the stage of where I am, I need to be able to take the lead in managing a client. Client H1, for example, has been handed to me since the beginning, so I consider that as my brand. And I am starting to understand how the other 3 works so I believe I am becoming a lead. But during last week, I lost all that sense and went back to only being the assistant of my managers. .

4. Since I don’t even have a support team under me, I will have to take care of the supportive tasks of the current brands. And adding client H2 on top of that is only degrading my quality of work.

5. Thus, I will help out with client H2, but only with english because that is what is the problem at hand.

I think this is good enough argument. Besides I am not going to take no for an answer so that’s that.

So the situation is this: I got an assignment for client H2. No big deal. Manager Nana tossed me an entire task to complete a competitive report. Okay, not something that I signed up for, but no big deal.

Then the problems started. Since I have no concept of anything about this brand, I had questions. Of course, I’m going to have questions! Even the experienced employee will have questions. 

But after couple of questions, she calmly hold my hand and told me, “you handled more cases of global communication than me, right?(I redirected the question, “have I?” because that is not a reasonable excuse for this case.) Will you just take care of it under your judgement?”

So I did. Then when I went back with a developed report, her expression of any kind of emotion just faded away. And I can feel the weird vibe from her. It was vibrating like she is shaking from anger.

She started talking how I don’t understand what she meant, how she didn’t know that I wouldn’t even know how to do it, and just continued to talk about how-to. 

But what that is so confusing for me is that she wouldn’t listen to neither why I categorized the data like this nor when I summarized what she have said. She would cut me off from the first word that came out of my mouth like I said something absolutely stupid and wrong when I haven’t even said a thing.

So her just talking what she believes is a guide isn’t a guide but just ranting about how I didn’t follow her order. Because when I see it, the initial problem lies in the definition of how we categorize the data. But she wouldn’t listen but constantly showing me how to “search and define the material/product”. The funny thing is, that was useless because in the end, I have the check each material to see where it is categorized. But would she listen? NOOO. 

What is more absurd is that she said, “you know, I didn’t know I had to teach you how to do even this sort of things. I had to read the presentation slide myself!” Which means that she didn’t even know what the task was about, and she was “trying to give me guide”. Are you kidding me.

That has been going on for 4 days. This is the most detail I can write on here because if it becomes too specific, it is easy to find out what I do and who I work with with enough search online.

So I had to work over 16 hours everyday this week and for something that hasn’t to do with my brand but categorizing raw data.

Who would’ve known that she would be such a stubborn shithead when working. She got so angry without listening to what I have to say, that she hit the desk with her hands and made a sound that made everyone’s head turn. I was giving up right then and there. There is no way I am getting through this girl because she isn’t mad at what I did but something else. And after careful thought process, the only thing that could’ve ticked her off like that is english.

See, the entire team knows that english is the biggest reason that I was hired. And I’ve heard that people have been introducing my existence to new team members as “a girl who can speak english well”. 

Then there’s Nana, who have been feeling the pressure because english is her kryptonite. And apparently, her self-consciousness isn’t forgiving herself for getting help from me for that kryptonite because she needs to be one who is “better” yet she can’t. So she hates me for something that I can’t change and that I was hired for. But because she can’t express that, she is showing hate through work. I mean, she doesn’t even listen or see what I did but kept making comments as if english is the only thing that I can do. And she was all, “you need to learn how to do this too.” Um, excuse me bitch, but I’ve been already doing that for a year now.

But she wouldn’t know because she is in a different team. Yeah, I was trying to work with someone who isn’t even on my team.

So.

As I have grown into a person who won’t take on work more than I can handle nor take anybody’s shit, I believe I have enough reason to act on my plan. What an excellent way to start my 2nd year: to take initiative in a good and bad way.

[diaryofamediaplanner]

Day 365

I am good at multitasking. Taking care of at least 3 jobs at once is not a problem for me. But what I’ve learned about work environment is that when you do great, they will give you more work. It is never ending process. 

When that moment continues, you end up skipping lunch and even can’t find a break to go to the bathroom. And no one recognizes it.

So one of many (what I call) know-hows is to hand them the work until they ask or right on the deadline. There is no need to be greedy about proving how you are good. Because it goes away after a day. It is only you who gets exhausted.

Just saying.

[diaryofamediaplanner]

Day 364

Couple weeks ago, my director asked me to “help out” with client H on global communication. When I received that news, I knew that I would be handling more than linguistic tasks as it is rather difficult to do a brand’s work without getting to know what is going on. 

But after working as an intern for 2 years, you develop a sense of gut instinct when you are not in a comfortable position. Especially when you know that your weaknesses are not being able to say no, feeling ambitious about taking on brands, and your ego believes you can take on everything there is, you just know this road is a dead end.

When I received an assignment earlier this week, I decided that I am going to watch how this turns out for the next two weeks. Because even if I am going to tell my director that I need to turn down the opportunity because I don’t want to make the same mistake of destroying my health as well as the job, I will need a concrete evidence to support my logic. 

Of course, I already have an idea but it is hard to put into words.

But I am extremely glad that every single person in my department is aware of the fact that I was partnered up with her because of english and the way the job is being tossed over isn’t efficient nor reasonable. Because when I comment about it next week, they will know, and they will understand that I wasn’t just whining about it.

[diaryofamediaplanner]

Day 362

I only had to work 4 days last week. Friday was designated as temporary holiday as the actual one landed on Saturday.

So getting back to work after 3 days was not only refreshing but renovating. There are just those moments when you need to turn off your brain software entirely, not just log off. That is exactly what I did. For every single day, I slept at least 12 hours. On Friday, I watched the entire season of CSI season 2. On Saturday, I watched 4 movies and finished the remaining three books that I kept carrying around in my bag. On Sunday, I started two more books and rewatched a season of 2 different series.

After I came back from what could only be described as perfect getaway(yes, you can tell that I am an introvert from how I recharge energy by enjoying time alone), I could tell that I have entered the new level of junior manager. 

After two years of going through 4 different agency as intern, the first 6 months(including the internship phase) was a struggle for me because I had a hard time believing that I am now in a position that I can and need to take care of the brand. Then the next 6 months was hard because I needed to learn how media planning works as well as just every normal procedure about working in an office.

I still got a lot to learn but I can feel it in my guts that I can take on the new challenge. It is time for me to be able to handle a client without a supervising manager on my side. Not that I don’t need her- I do because she knows more and she’ve been handling it way longer than I have. But I need to be able to say that I know my brand.

Happy 1 year anniversary.

(depending on how I count my days but)

[diaryofamediaplanner]

Day 352

I have been ordered to be in charge of english communication for client HB. The manager who is in charge of right now(let’s call her Nana) is currently in training from my supervising manager. But she felt a huge pressure since she was handed the work because english is her weak spot. 

After couple months, my director finally acknowledged her pain and told me to “help her out”. 

This is the first work we would ever be doing together, so after seeing each other for the last 4 months, I went up to her desk and said, “I came to introduce myself before we start working together.” I thought it was a cute move. We were making small talk about how we have no idea how the job works and her updating on what is going on these days. Then I heard London shouting, “her english is good, she’ll help you alot!”.(I guess she felt the need to emphasize that especially because I’ve corrected the entire media plan slide for her this morning.) When we looked over, I saw everyone in the team sneaking a peek at us, smiling slightly. 

I am currently in a very happy place because this is what I’ve wished for all these years: I want a job that use my english, but not a job that is only about language. That is exactly what I have and that is exactly what I do.

I do think when this goes on, it isn’t going to be good for me because I won’t have so much depth in my understanding of brand planning. But I will get to that next year. This year, I am going to enjoy how I am contributing to the team as well as getting to know alot of things about all these different brands.

[diaryofamediaplanner]

Day 351

You know how people use various words in multiple language when working in office?

Well, I knew that. But today, I was quite surprised to what extent these words can go. There is this manager who comes in from the client side and she use quite impressive vocabularies. It isn’t the words that you usually use, especially when english isn’t your first language. (well, it sort of is for me. But I don’t live in the environment.) So naturally, I assumed she is good at english. Then today, she told me that she had a hard time understanding the guideline we created because it is in English. 

I was like, Excuse me? You use all these fancy words and you happened to be bad at English? That’s news. Makes me think of how being good at language is so important when working. You need to be able to not only apply mother tongue to make important conversation but also differentiate languages in the communication.

[diaryofamediaplanner]

Day 350

I had to make a map of which bus shelter we are going to post ads. 

I screenshot the map from the search engine multiple times to connect into one big area. Then I numbered the location and put the designated image of the poster in a black square speech bubble.

I received a positive feedback from my supervisor when she came back in the afternoon from the field trip.

I know what I’m good at so I’ll do my best work if I can. I was happy to spend my day making a map although it has nothing to do with my job.

[diaryofamediaplanner]

Day 344

After over 6 months of working on client H. And I have finally fixed the yearly budget file. Oh yeah, you understood right. I’ve got it all wrong until today.

So the annual budget plan comes in every October or so. We put it into our own excel to keep up with it. Whenever client H change their spending plan, I pushed back the unused budget to the next campaign because I thought that the assigned annual budget is an indication of how much we can spend. Thus, I need to have it written in the file. 

I wasn’t able to change it before because I didn’t know earlier. The Bitch was yelling even when she herself doesn’t have the answer. And for client H, because she had it “temporarily handed over”, she had no idea. Or she didn’t care. Anywho, I didn’t know because she didn’t know/tell me. 

Now, I know because according to my supervisor, it “messes up the entire campaign because the initially planned budget is changed”.

Good to know.

[diaryofamediaplanner]

Day 343

I have two meetings tomorrow.

My supervisor had a meeting in the morning too, so to some extent I needed to prepare some materials on my own.

Not a big deal. I’m taking care of my client, my manager, my job. 

OF COURSE IT IS A BIG DEAL! Although I don’t fully understand my job at the moment(boohoo), I am at the level where I can brainstorm and execute. I am very proud of myself.

I am very blessed to have a manager who doesn’t care of the work(not that she doesn’t do work. She does all the work.) because she doesn’t yell at me for getting things wrong. But just like what my sister told me before, I will try to be a manager good enough that she can leave work with no worries.

[diaryofamediaplanner]

Creativity

My least favorite word

[diaryofamediaplanner]

Day 342

Conference call happening for client F. 

Although I have been warned that I will be taking care of the client from next year, I was invited to stand in with London because she was nervous about speaking English. She even had to take a herb pill to ease her nerves.

I didn’t do much. Except for this one occasion when the client wanted to know why our target is only narrowed to metropolitan city, not nationwide. She was struggling to spit the words that was in all of our heads out, so I stepped in to explain that the city is a representative area in the country as majority of the population lives in it.

It is always interesting to see how much pressure people feel with English. They usually do so well during ordinary occasions- enough to make casual conversation and do business. But when it comes to situation like when all the eyes are on you, you can hear the sweat coming. Not that I don’t understand. But it is sad to see people not having the confidence when they can totally be. 

London once said before of how she feels so embarrassed and angry when she reads sentences that I fixed for her. I told her that she doesn’t need to be because I have lived a big part of my life as a amateur translator/interpreter. And what she can do is to take advantage of what I have, not feel otherwise.

That’s how it should be done, right? 

[diaryofamediaplanner]

Day 338

It became official: we are going under other bidding. 

It is for a movie corp and the director wants to get started on market analysis. And he handpicked my senior manager London as lead.

London asked why she is in charge and not me since it obviously requires english skills. He said because I’m still a rookie.

So London will be in charge while the two juniors(I’m the one who is out) and the interns supporting the process.

That is when I realized what happened: he must have read our coffee brand presentation file. 

Of course he read it. He made us do it, right?

I bet he realized that I seriously am clueless about this whole things. Because I know that others had at least some kind of format of what they are planning to do. I bet he was “slightly” disappointed. 

But oh well- whacha gonna do? I’ll just get better now.

[diaryofamediaplanner]

Day 337

I started to notice little things that I need to work on;

1) I need to slow down when I talk. I talk faster than my tongue can pronounce the words these days. It not only make me get tongue twisted but I look dumb.

2) I somehow suddenly developed a habit of saying, “I’ll work on it” like I will try to do it but if it doesn’t work out, I’m gonna stop. This is bad. Where did this even come from?! Stop this immediately.

3) If I don’t have any solid proof to complain, don’t. I’m not even used to complaining, why suddenly start?

4) I need to keep up with the e-mails and work flow. Don’t give up on reading them. Read and remember. It will take time but remember the details of the work flow if I want to get better.

[diaryofamediaplanner]

Day 336

3rd day of working on the Media Guideline for client A. My day was spent on this task, but this week/month has been another level of enlightenment as a junior manager.

First, I’ve noticed how people communicate with the director. It is something I didn’t notice before. Maybe it wasn’t there when he was the team head. Or it was there but I just didn’t know. But when he gives his idea on the work, the managers would not comment on it. I don’t know how to exactly put it- I am not saying to stand against whatever he is saying. But there are moments when I believe it is okay to comment about your opinion and they don’t. For example, when he says he want to put comment A on the presentation slide but because it is already on here but in a different section, I would probably say that it is already written on there. It is as if commenting is disobeying to authority. Even my direct manager, who has very low communication boundaries of authority/elderly, does this.

Perhaps “commenting” makes him irritated because I’ve noticed his face getting red when I do comment time to time. Maybe he gets mad because I’m not making any sense because I tend to do that.

I am starting to think maybe this is the cause of everything that the team is talking about: how he is talking control and there is too much work. But I guess the cause also lied in us as well because we aren’t talking about it.

Second, this copy-pasting the media guide is a useless work because it is definitely not what client A want. My direct manager has been complaining about how this is purposeless work.

I agree with her in how there is high chance this work will go straight to bin. On the other hand, I understand why my director is doing this; because there isn’t any exact picture of what the client wants, it is our duty as well as a good idea to show them the recommended layout and lead them out of the water.

But then again, I am confused because why is it so important to get every single element in design right at this stage? I know that is how my director works, but that is not the important matter at hand here. We can work on the design AFTER we get everything settled.

There are just full of miscommunications here and there in this agency. And I am starting to understand what is going around here.

[diaryofamediaplanner]

Day 335

I had lunch with Mimi. She told me that she had a little talk with her intern/junior manager. There are been some attitude problem which led to work chaos couple of occasions. The trigger was when 1) she arrived 2 minutes late and didn’t even apologize 2) she “notified” her in the mobile chatting room that she has to leave as soon as possible, while she was literally sitting a feet away from her. And last week, she sent an e-mail to the client that she will get the work done by Tuesday without any discussion, which caused Mimi to pull all strings.

And there were others things but it made me think about two different things: first, how my team and her team works under such different system. Two, how differently she and I thought of where the issue is laid. There is no excuse in what she have done- that is not the junior’s role and attitude to have. But she was getting strangely mad at the fact that she used the “notifying” tone in the message instead of “asking”.  I didn’t know that was something we should go over as such a huge matter. I still don’t understand but I guess it is something that has to do with authority and respecting the senior managers. Let’s skip that part.

So she told me that she called them over in the meeting room and told what the deal is. I thought she handled it well, especially when only 3 are working as a team. It could be because I had the WORST senior managers during my 4 internship(I honestly believe by now that I just was cursed- like there’s some kind of jinx of life for my internship phase. But moving on-), but I thought and also told her that you are being really generous with the kids. And they should know what, although I doubt they will at the current state. 

I also told her what she should do when she have another talk with them; you should have couple of evidence of causing trouble with work process and tell her how this behavior can cause issue as the whole team. And THEN add little minor details like being late and her ignorance around office as side note. Because at the moment, she is mad at you. Even hate you regardless of how reasonable it is. Whatever you does, she will hate you more. So for Mimi, you are doing really well not losing your temper(unlike all my previous managers). And for you to keep act very professional, you should strictly keep it about work. She will still talk behind your back and try to make you look bad, but if she had some common sense, she will know that you are doing it for her and won’t badmouth you as much as she want.

When I told Mimi along this line in the perspective of how I could rebelliously react if I were in her shoe and how tough talk would work on me, she told me it is a very good advice since she forgot how it is to look from the junior’s level.

I told her that I was here for that reason.

But it was a good talk because although my team doesn’t work like that(you know, get mad when you are 2 minutes late. Maybe I am not aware because I am always 40 minutes early on average. Though I remember them telling me something when I had to go to the post office in the morning and came back 40 minutes late(Yes, it’s my fault)), it is something I should be aware of always.

[diaryofamediaplanner]

Day 334

I received a 2016 Media Guideline from my client H. 

Since we are still struggling to even get started with regional media guideline for client A, we decided to copy and paste whatever is on the client H’s Media Guideline. Yup, we decided to plagiarize. This isn’t going out to the public- oh, no. It will be used to simply show the client how we think the guideline should look like (since they keep insisting that what we know as media plan is something they can create as guideline.)

So the late night work began for us this week.

[diaryofamediaplanner]

Day 328

Remember last month when the HQ Finance team constantly cancelled on the wrong invoice payment, so I had to draw tables and arrows to make them understand?

The regional office found out there are some gap in the budget and they concluded that it was the exchange rate that caused it because the invoice was submitted way later than it was planned. 

Well, that ain’t our problem, is it? You are supposed to take care of the budget. And if you have been managing the budget in HQ currency, we wouldn’t know because every single document and transaction has been made with local currency. 

Besides, you decided to remain quiet the ENTIRE time I have been dealing with the HQ while you were CCed in EVERY SINGLE communication. And you come along and blame us for the gap? Why don’t you ask the HQ directly? You don’t let us e-mail them but you wouldn’t do it yourself.  

How screwed up is that?