Features

24 Hours With… Roberto Pace, managing director, Eleven and Fleishman Hillard

24 Hours With… spotlights the working day of some of the most interesting people in Mumbrella’s world. Today we speak with Roberto Pace, managing director, Eleven and Fleishman Hillard.

Mumbrella Official 24 Hours With Logoroberto-pace

STUPID O’CLOCK: If ideas can strike anytime, anywhere, I wish mine would be a bit more orderly and not hit at 3:30am in Redfern. At least not on a school night. We’re working on the launch of a new app and my subconscious has finally worked through something from our brainstorm the day before.

I’ll share it with the guys later, and can imagine Russ, our CD, saying something like “that sounds like an idea you have at 3:30 in the morning”, which would be correct.

STILL WAY TOO EARLY: I roll over and wake up again at 4:45am, which is my freak-show respectable hour to get up. The next 10 minutes happen real fast: my other half kicks me for getting up too early (standard), Keith the Dog licks my face (also standard), I scroll through Facebook and Instagram for my dose of daily culture / lols while brushing my teeth, and into the car.keith-the-dog-roberto-pace

Breaking news is delivered by my PT who is part The Commando, part Virginia Trioli (no really, he’s an ex-journo) all delivered in a broad Australian drawl between singing along to Rihanna’s ‘Only Girl (In the World)’. Badly. But it makes up for the download on ‘Stuff I Should Know’ before heading to work. Here it is: Trump is screwed (yes). Baird backed down on greyhounds (no). We got hacked by China (ugh). I’m happy to pay for his services.

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FIRST UP: I’m at work early, mostly so I can get first dibs on the music playlist. Keith the Dog is in tow most days and today is no different, taking real issue with the guy who delivers brekkie. He always smiles politely. I always politely beg forgiveness. We meet somewhere in the middle. Which is pretty much how the first meeting ends up.

We’ve got a sticky situation with a client. I want them to go hard on an issue, whereas Mills, Fleishman’s head of corporate comms, wants to pull it.

We agree to meet halfway. I say ‘agree’, but Mills has clearly won this one, as she should. I make a note to sign up to our next negotiation course. Mills is pretty much at ninja level now.

MORNING: I meet with Russ and the team. Russ says, “that sounds like an idea you have at 3.30 in the morning” (lies, but similar). We bring in the tech guys to work through what could be a bloody brilliant idea to launch this new app. Fi, my right-hand-person at Eleven, takes the lead, and together with the creative and tech guys we work something up.

We get our planner mates at another agency in on it, too, and land on where we need to be. Fi hooks up a Google Hangout with the client to chat through it. We could phone, but they pretty much exist in the future. Goals.1-eleven_team

ARVO: Keith the Dog is sitting in on a new client meeting after whining at the door until our new prospect broke me with “Oh go on, let him in. We don’t mind”. Okaaaaaaay. Keith the Dog promptly takes a seat (literally) and watches us present. We’re sharing case studies on Krispy Kreme, Gatorade and some recent Macca’s work. I imagine his canine brain processes the meeting like this:

Human 1 (us) – talk about food (donuts, drinks, burgers)
Human 2 (client) – are excited by food (donuts, drinks, burgers)

We then talk about our last campaign on Virgin Mobile (which we’re all excited about).

Keith looks like he’s waiting for a banana to materialise on screen.

It’s just a first meeting, but we’re getting good vibes. They like our stuff about creating culture for brands, and we like clients that like doing brave things. And dogs. Keith just likes the thought of food coming his way. Hope is all around us.

LATE ARVO: My Insta / Facey trawl from early AM hasn’t been in vain, except the team has taken it to the next level and turned something we collectively spotted into a Disruption® Live opp.

It’s our way of creating culture from stuff that’s trending, or about to. They’ve written up a brief in a tweet and shot it off to the client for their (super-quick) thoughts on how we’ll turn it into a quick PR and social hit. They call us back and we’re all-in, getting designers to mock stuff up for digital while the PR guys pitch away.

EVENING: Con-call time with the Fleishman guys. Stu, who heads up our consumer PR practice, is on (what seems to be) an intergalactic hook-up across the Philips account team around the world. I’m brought in on the end to chat with our global lead about planning for next year. Keith the Dog twitches in his sleep. He’s probably chasing bananas.star-trek

ZZZ TIME: I’m generally a home / dinner / Star Trek kinda guy. But tonight Fi’s hooked me up with a chat with a new recruit we’re bringing in from London. I leave the hires to her and Jenna (our Fleishman GM), but Fi’s asked me to do a quick ‘hello’.

We’ve gone on a bit of hiring spree lately, which is a bit like a shopping spree except the stakes are way higher. I love our newbie in about 20 seconds. I go with my gut and thankfully Fi, Jenna and I mostly think the same, so hires aren’t hotly debated. My only question is “how soon can you start?”.

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