A day in the life of JCDecaux's Toni Aspinall

Toni Jade Aspinall (she/her), Campaign Manager at JCDecaux, spoke to myGwork about what a typical day at the reputable advertising firm looks like. She also shares three vital skills required for the role of campaign manager, offering advice for those pursuing this line of work.

Tell us a bit about your role and how you got here? 

I am a campaign manager in the commercial sales team so my role is to book in and monitor campaigns that come through our Kinetic and Dentsu specialists. I was referred by a colleague here who previously worked in my role and now works as a tech lead – delivery manager. We worked together in our last job for five years and I was very excited to hear about a new opportunity here at Decaux.

What does a typical day look like for you? 

I like an early start, so I usually arrive at the office around 7:30am and enjoy a coffee (or four) each morning. Every day can be quite different as a campaign manager as this is a very busy role and we use around 25+ different software’s daily. However, the most common responsibilities day to day include booking in campaigns sent to us from the trading team and scheduling artwork for upcoming campaigns. We also need to monitor our live campaigns every day so I check the compliance of every campaign ensuring everything is running as it should be.

What part of your role do you enjoy the most? 

What I enjoy most is being able to work with various departments and I do often liaise with the trading and sales team. I do also enjoy scheduling artwork, particularly for one of my key clients (Netflix) as their creatives are always quite entertaining and I often get ideas of new shows to watch.

Which top three skills are vital for this role and why? 

I think attention to detail is the most important skill for this role to ensure the campaign runs smoothly. Even one small mistake can affect the overall compliance of a campaign or completely change the expected playout agreed with the specialist and client. Sufficient use of excel I think is also an important skill as a large part of our role is providing reports on our campaigns in the form of an excel document. Lastly, I’d say being organised / time management is crucial because we do juggle a lot and will have so many campaigns live each day, and we do also receive high volumes of emails which need to be replied to succinctly.

What’s the most challenging aspect of your role? 

The most challenging part of my role is finding your balance at work. For example we will have really busy periods and during that time, you need to be able to prioritise and manage your time well to be able to stay on top of everything but also manage to take some time away to make sure you do not burn out. I do however find my ADHD to be a bit of a super power at work because I know a lot of people do not think I take enough time away from the screen, so it’s nice to be surrounded by people who care about my work balance too.

How do you help others feel like they belong in your team/promote inclusion? 

I like to think I make other members of my team feel comfortable in our team and help to promote an inclusive environment. I like to offer my support which works both ways in our team and has helped us all to form a good rapport with one another, so we do discuss our personal lives too when we take time away from the screens. When we do have these discussions and showing real interest and support where needed, and showing no judgement with one another, you naturally feel more comfortable with eachother.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years? 

Truthfully, I would be very interested to work in other offices of JCDecaux including Sydney Australia. I’d be very happy if in 10 years I’m still with Decaux, I’m honestly very happy here and will always look to progress within the company.

Which podcast/Youtube series would you recommend to someone interested in pursuing a career in this area to help develop their skills/prepare them for the role?

Digital Changemakers!