A day in the life working on Beyond’s consumer health and well-being clients
At Beyond, we have extensive experience working with consumer health clients to drive brand awareness and support product sales, aiming to improve people’s overall health and well-being. We work across the full spectrum of consumer health products, from over-the-counter treatments and supplements to medical devices, personal care products, health services and beyond.
Account Manager, Darcey Moore, talks us through a day in the life working in Beyond’s consumer health team.
What does an account manager in consumer health do?
Working as part of a team, I manage and lead campaigns across our consumer health and well-being portfolio. This involves developing brand plans, executing campaigns, conducting extensive media outreach, measuring success, handling budgets and proactively looking for opportunities to boost the reputation of our clients’ brands and products.
Our clients typically come to the consumer health team for awareness-building PR and social media support, whether that be developing a creative campaign to launch a new product, leveraging expert-led research to boost brand awareness, developing a robust social strategy, or managing influencer activity to increase exposure.
What does a typical day look like?
When we’re not launching a new campaign, I usually start my day by checking emails to see if we’ve had any press coverage come in overnight. I’ll also check my inbox for any media requests and opportunities, such as interviews with our experts. It’s always really rewarding to see our clients’ brands and products featured in the media, and I love building relationships with journalists.
Next, I typically move on to more focused tasks like drafting press releases, which often capitalise on timely news hooks, such as key awareness days, or leverage the news agenda. Depending on our campaign activities, I might pack some press gifts and post them out to health editors of key national and consumer titles.
In the afternoon, I like to concentrate on social media strategy, focusing on building a strong online presence for our clients’ brands, and working alongside our creative team to produce engaging content. The great thing about social media is that you can go directly to consumers with key messages, communicating directly with people who are already interested in your brand.
What’s the best thing about working in consumer health?
The best thing is that no two days are the same and there’s certainly never any time to be bored!
The role is very varied; I could be attending an event, liaising with influential healthcare practitioners, from physiotherapists to top consultants, hosting a broadcast day, carrying out a consumer survey, planning a product launch strategy, or working with brand ambassadors.
Most recently, I attended an event with Hello! Magazine, where I networked with influencers and celebrities to promote our clients’ products, to generate organic product recommendations.
What’s been a career highlight for you so far?
I loved managing a recent campaign that educated consumers about the prevalence of joint pain and its detrimental effect on quality of life. This included conducting research on joint pain sufferers, developing a 10-page report on the findings, onboarding a TV doctor to act as our spokesperson, developing key campaign messages and expert communications, and overseeing a broadcast day.
We secured 15 in-depth broadcast interviews, including 7 on regional BBC radio stations. In addition, coverage was achieved in national, consumer and trade media, all positioning our client’s product as a trusted joint pain solution.
Do you have any advice for someone wanting to work in consumer health PR?
Working in consumer health can be incredibly rewarding - you really are making a positive difference to people’s health and well-being. We like to work as an extension of our clients’ marketing teams, meaning we’re an integral part of helping them reach their goals and objectives.
PR is a fast-paced industry, so you’re always learning. You need to constantly stay on top of the ever-changing media landscape, build relationships with relevant journalists, craft compelling, topical, and newsworthy press releases, and develop new and creative campaigns to engage and excite the media.
Alongside this, in the UK, all licensed medicines, including over-the-counter and consumer health products, must comply with industry regulations. You must provide consumers with reliable, accurate and engaging information that does not mislead them in any way. I love finding creative ways to communicate key messages within regulations - it’s a great way to experiment with your writing.
Ultimately, if you’re able to work well under pressure and want a career that enables you to really make a difference, I’d definitely encourage anyone to work in consumer health PR.