Insiders' guide - BBC youth and children's advertising sales team

of seven titles, with Gerry Anyanwu the senior sales exec. Donia Dacey
is ad manager of pre-school and education, consisting of 13 titles, and
Emilie Bullock is sales executive, having moved recently from Top Gear
classified. Leanne Lawrence looks after all the direct marketing and
northern sales representative, Tessa Tingle, is covering for Liza Todd,
currently on maternity leave. Core to the running of the team is Pommy
Padum, the advertising coordinator, whose job is to keep it all
together, and Gemma Protor, who takes care of all business intelligence
needs for the department. We are also recruiting for a brand solutions
account manager, which will make us a grand team of 11.

Who is the biggest character? Tough question. Probably the lovely lady,
top row, fourth from the left in the picture above.

What is your office atmosphere like? It swings from pre-school (tears
and tantrums) to school disco (noisy and excitable) via playground
antics (grazed knees - don't ask!).

What stands you apart from the rest of the industry? Working on 20
magazines ranging in frequency from weekly (CBeebies) to fortnightly
(Doctor Who Adventures and Girl Talk) to three-weekly (Toybox and Amy)
to monthly (TOTP and It's Hot) stands us apart. Our magazines target the
whole spectrum of youth, from mums with babies through to teens. We are
also incredibly creative by nature of our products - we tailor brand
solutions for almost every brief. Our pre-school titles are read by
almost 4.5 million adults a month.

What does it take to get a job in your team? You need to be creative,
organised, tenacious and young at heart, with a passion for a night
out.

How are staff encouraged to hit targets? With so many magazines, it is
essential to have elements of team and individual targets. If one group
exceeds target, it will compensate for any deficit across the group. It
also fosters a great team spirit. Outside of this, the promise of a
bottle of wine does the trick.

Where do you let your hair down? Working in uber-trendy White City means
we're spoilt for choice! It's just too difficult to choose and I would
hate to upset one of the many local fine bars and restaurants in the
area by choosing one over another. We are, of course, very lucky to have
a lively bar on site, which has the added bonus of allowing us to return
(inebriated) to our desks before midnight and finish important work.