A Day in the Life of Laurence Markham

What keeps you busy all day? Preparation for the opening of Park Plaza Westminster Bridge London. The hotel is scheduled to open early 2010 the biggest new-build hotel in the heart of London with 1,021 rooms.

Name: Laurence Markham

Company: Park Plaza Hotels

Job title: Marketing Director, Park Plaza Westminster Bridge London

What keeps you busy all day?

Preparation for the opening of Park Plaza Westminster Bridge London. The hotel is scheduled to open early 2010 – the biggest new-build hotel in the heart of London with 1,021 rooms. We’re currently working on the hotel identity, signage, pre-opening brochures, photo shoots, advertising campaign and the on-property hotel collateral. A colleague of mine has a catchphrase “it’s never too early!” and he’s so right!

What keeps you awake at night?

Art Directing photo shoots. Of course “magic hour” is as the sun rises and sets – so we all get up to get the shot at an insane time and renew our membership of the “4.30am club”. You can’t get to sleep worrying that you might not wake when the alarm clock goes off! The images are worth all the pain though.

Describe your working day:

What I love about my job is that each day is different but the following are guaranteed:

Commute o’clock
Catch the train to London
Hope that I can get on a tube within 3 attempts
Walk to the office and get some fresh air

Office time
Tackle the emails
10am caffeine hit – dangerous to have prior to 10am!
Internal meetings
Meetings with Advertising, Creative and PR agencies
Lunch – never before 1pm
Work on the key projects
More meetings

Commute o’clock
Head home if there’s not a work event in the evening.

What’s your busiest time of day?

The reality is that it’s busy all day long. It’s a case of managing your time and workload effectively. You could easily work 24 hours a day 7 days a week and there’d still be plenty left to do!

What brands/accounts have you worked on?

CSS Ltd
One&Only Resorts
Conrad Hotels & Resorts
Park Plaza Hotels

Best day at work:

Getting the nod or a pat on the back from “the powers that be”.

Worst day at work:

Budget sign-off day. You know you’re never going to get what you want/need from “the powers that be”.

Name one thing you’ve achieved that has made your bosses sit up and take
notice:

Working with my Search Agency we vastly improved the ROI on our PPC and Organic search results and were consistently smashing the previous results. Subsequently I was able to increase my budget for the following year and improved on the ROI again. Much as I love the design and the touch and feel elements of my work, in these difficult times, it’s all about the ROI.

Ambitions:

To pursuade my wife that we should get a home-cinema system…oh, and to be SVP of Marketing.

Advice to other rising stars:

Give credit where credit is due. After all, there’s no “I” in “TEAM”.

Quote from the boss:

“It’s never too early!”