A Day in the Life of Chris Newman

Name: Chris Newman
Company: Eulogy!
Job title: Account director

What keeps you busy all day?
Overcompensating for the fact I can only use four fingers to type.

What keeps you awake at night?
The perpetual fear that someone important will finally realise I can only use four fingers to type.

Describe your working day:
Every day delivers a unique combination of writing, pitching and client servicing.

What’s your busiest time of day?
The morning. Afternoons just haven’t been the same since I quit coffee.

What brands/accounts have you worked on?
KPMG, Edison Mission Energy, Brakes, P&G, Fonterra, Equi=Media, EuroDirect, Gekko, Proximity London, British Quality Foundation, Sagatiba.

Best day at work:
Any day that features the words ‘client’ and ‘win’ in the same sentence.

Worst day at work:
It involved a brand new client, a great new team, a fabulous new strategy and a virulent new strain of gastroenteritis! Enough said.

Name one thing you’ve achieved that has made your bosses sit up and take notice:
Taking 22 journalists out to Cannes for a weekend at the film festival and getting nearly all of them back in one piece.

Ambitions:
“…commented PR guru Chris Newman.” Just once. I’m not fussy where.

Advice to other rising stars:
Always take the initiative and don’t be afraid of admitting your mistakes. Sometimes it is easier to apologise than to ask for permission.

Quote from the boss:
“What can I say about a Kiwi PR guru? A keen sense of what works in PR coupled with a great attitude to life; backed up by an 80 word a minute typing ability which got him the job here in the first place. All in all, the very attributes which should see him through the dark days when Ireland beat the All Blacks in this year’s rugby World Cup.”
– Adrian Brady, Managing director, Eulogy!