My Media Week: Mungo Knott

Monday

My day starts with a little Classic FM carefully set to wake me up at 5.55am with some delightful music, and no intrusive ads to follow in about three minutes' time. I wonder what the week holds in store.

First meeting of the week is in Essex with [retailer] Martin McColl. We finalise details of their recent appointment of Primesight to manage ad sales on the point-of-sale digital screen network across 3,000 stores. It will fit well with our national convenience six-sheets.

Head to the office, passing some outstanding creative for Lurpak that makes great use of the media space. This is a real focus for us at the moment, having recently launched a creative analysis tool, Primedesign, which is now helping clients like GSK to measure whether their poster design will communicate effectively.

Lunch is in-house, where the Primesight team from all over the business meet for food, weekend stories and football chat. There is limited interest in F1, but I keep trying.

Over to join my competitors and sometime colleagues as chief executive Mike Baker chairs a marketing meeting for members of the Outdoor Media Centre. We consider some excellent new research, launching shortly, which throws light on the impact of outdoor advertising on the customer journey.

Tuesday

Walk to the London Overground station, passing my local Primesight billboards, then catch up on the depressing state of the economy via Lawson Muncaster's City AM.

The business section is a great read, although the sport section definitely suffers from the current dearth of F1 news!

I spend the morning at POSTAR, the industry's joint research body, where managing director James Whitmore chairs the committee tasked with creating the world's most advanced out-of-home research.

In the afternoon, it's a business review at Kinetic with managing director James Copley and investment director Colin Bundock. We consider the opportunities still available for the Olympic period.

The regulation by LOCOG to protect sponsors has highlighted the importance of outdoor, but may have caused concerns about price inflation for clients.

Home for piano lessons. I'm rubbish and wish I'd learnt as a kid, but remain a believer that "it's never too late".

Wednesday

Take the Tube this morning and it's a chance to check out what campaigns CBS is running. By the time I arrive at the office, I've seen 65 poster ads, but consumed no TV or commercial radio, read no papers and scanned no web pages.

This is a point I make at our marketing meeting as we plan our next communication around the benefits of outdoor advertising, to support the sales team.

Lunch is with Chris Marjoram, managing director of IPM, at the Ivy. Mark Craze is in his usual seat and today's celebrity spot is comedian Dara O'Briain. Heading back, we bump into MPG Media Contacts CEO Mark Mendoza and Mindshare CEO Jed Glanvill in short succession – that's the media village for you.

I leave dead on time to chair a governors' meeting at my local secondary school. We've become an academy, but business and education are yet to become comfortable bedfellows, so it'll be a long night.

Thursday

Entertainment during the morning commute is TuneIn Radio on the iPhone – a brilliant app. Listening to Radio 4, straight news, no ads – my professional interest can't overcome my natural instincts.

Breakfast at the Town House with Frank Bryant and Nick Davis from Posterscope and Nigel Clarkson, our sales and marketing director, who is shortly to leave outdoor for coupons. He will be sorely missed by many.

Lunch is unfortunately non-existent, as I travel to Vue Cinemas to meet Louise Trinder, head of creative solutions at DCM, along with our development director Terry Dyer.

We're installing digital advertising panels in the foyers of cinemas across the country with DCM and need to agree locations with the team at Vue.

I am pleasantly surprised when one of them tells me he was at the unveiling of the new season F1 McLaren at their headquarters in Woking the day before. At last, an opportunity to discuss double diffusers.

Back into town for Lindy Hop lessons – well, why wouldn't you?

Friday

MediaTel is hosting a seminar on the future of Media Research. Torin Douglas from the BBC is an excellent chair, so the debate is engaging and runs smoothly. Knowing what the issues are in other media sectors protects us from insularity, with issues such as attribution modelling and final point of consumer connection.

All are agreed on the increasing importance of data in our rapidly moving industry.

Lunch with Paul Shearring, the former UK MD of Kinetic, then back to the office to tackle some paperwork and to catch up on Friday trading. It is still too manual, but we have developed the ability to offer etrading and I'm sure we'll see a revolution in the transaction process in the next two years.

Home to my wife – she's a reception teacher and her week is certainly tougher than mine – and our teenage sons who occasionally occupy the house while there is still food to consume.

We sit, eat and talk – what could be better?

This article was first published on mediaweek.co.uk