Junior Publicist

About The Role

We are looking to hire a Junior Publicist who is driven by delivering press results for stellar brands every day. This entry level publicist position will be tasked with media relations, PR sell-ins and hitting KPI targets across consumer clients.

Our ideal candidate is someone who is organised and a team player, and wants to build strong relationships across broadcast, national and consumer media spanning lifestyle categories.

Key Personal Attributes:

• A diligent and detailed approach to all tasks set
• The ability and confidence to establish and build long-lasting relationships with journalists
• Pro-actively develop your skill set, your understanding of PR and of your clients
• Demonstrate a sound knowledge and understanding of the UK media landscape
• The ability and confidence to use your initiative and problem solve if a sell-in isn’t working
• A keen interest in current affairs and able to take an educated point of view on news stories that are relevant to your clients
• Excellent listening skills
• Strong organisational skills
• A positive and ‘can-do’ attitude

Media Results:

• Continuously build/grow/develop your media and influencer contacts, aim to have a strong database of 20 go-to contacts
• Contribute daily to agency news updates, sharing stories of interest for your own and other clients
• Attend media appointments with senior members of your team and the rest of the agency
• Confidently call and pitch in to journalists
• Pitch and achieve appropriate feature coverage for a range of clients
• Develop an appropriate tone and style of email correspondence to follow up your pitch calls
• Ensure that you are securing consistent, quality coverage across all accounts to hit KPIs
• Read a range of magazines, newspapers and online titles across trade and consumer press on a daily/weekly/monthly basis to increase your knowledge of key issues, find articles of interest and discussion points for your clients
• Take the responsibility to ensure all media lists across your accounts are kept up to date
• Share media developments and journalist updates with your team and the wider agency
• Share appropriate news stories with the relevant person, team or with the wider agency
• Take the lead in drafting creative mailers, share with your team and then once approved send out and follow up
• Ensure all trackers and databases are updated in a timely manner, including your team media database, press lists and press tracker

Client Services:

• Ensure that all coverage updates & reports are sent to the client ahead of each deadline
• Understand your clients’ individual PR objectives, their brand, their market, competitors and individual products
• Accurately draft eloquent and factual press releases that fulfil the brief for each client
• Attend client meetings and conference calls where appropriate to provide updates on live pitching and coverage
• Be the first point of contact for your junior clients when it comes to pitching and coverage

Team and Self-Management:

• Update your team on the progress of your pitching in a timely manner, flagging any concerns in ample time to make sure that KPIs are hit
• Keep your managers, and wider team if necessary, regularly updated on your workload and deadlines
• Work with your managers to set out daily/weekly schedules and ensure that your pitching is prioritised correctly
• Record your hours accurately and update accordingly each week

About Us

If you want to future proof your career in PR and Comms then Halpern is the agency for you. We are an entrepreneurial, mid-size agency with a tenacious start-up approach, which is coupled with having the stability of being owned by WPP, the world’s largest network of global advertisers. We are also partners in T&Pm – a global group of ambitious agencies designed to help comms move at the speed of life. From creative, to strategy, experiential, production, social and paid media, joining the Halpern team will give you unrivalled access to our partner agencies and unlimited learning opportunities across the full marketing mix.

Our enviable client portfolio spans global innovators, culturally relevant trendsetters and purpose-led brands. This role will have a matrix set up across multiple clients with a variety of PR KPI’s to take ownership of.

We know now more than ever the importance of looking after our people and building an agency which the team are proud of and enjoy. Our ever-expanding employee benefits package includes multiple work/life balance perks, private medical care and a generous family policy care package too.

We are committed to promoting diversity, equity and inclusion through our recruitment process and welcome applicants of all backgrounds.