Meet the Rooster: Izzy King, associate director

For our latest Meet the Rooster we chat to associate director Izzy King, our resident head of interiors and lover of all things design to chat about her return to the Coop and career at the agency to date.

Tell us about your Rooster journey so far, and how you got into PR…

This is in theory my second ‘Meet the Rooster’ as I recently returned to the Coop in my new role as associate director. I first started working with Vic as a bright eyed and bushy tailed intern while studying for my Masters degree and over the next seven years I worked my way up to account director. Speaking frankly, as I approached my thirties the feeling that I had not worked, or experienced, somewhere else was niggling in the back of my brain and I wanted to turn my hand to something new; particularly I was keen to try an in-house role, having spent my entire PR career to date agency-side.

I moved to a brilliant company, David Harber Ltd, based not too far from us in Oxfordshire as PR and communications manager. The brand, its products and my colleagues were fantastic but admittedly, I found starting a new role amid peak COVID-19 hysteria quite challenging. I missed the buzz of agency life and the call of the Coop beckoned me home. Luckily, I had an incredibly kind and supportive manager at David Harber who I got on wonderfully with, so I am very delighted to say the team are now a client of ours and sit within my design division, meaning I still get to work with them on a day-to-day basis – so it all worked out in the end!

How has the PR industry adapted to lockdown 1, 2 and 3.0?

Naturally when we went into the first lockdown it was like venturing into the unknown; as PR’s, and particularly at Little Red Rooster, we feel most at home in face-to-face environments. What would we do about events? Client meetings? Media relations? But as most businesses have discovered, you realise quite how nimble you can be – and how quickly you can adapt.

Within the second month of the very first UK lockdown, we were hosting virtual events and lunch briefings; I have a sneaky feeling these will be here to stay. They allow for so much added flexibility; the clients and journalists who don’t live in London and would usually miss out suddenly seem far more accessible; events need not eat up an entire day.

From my time in-house, I learnt how much publications valued your support too; many magazines, even in the major publishing houses, were coming under threat with budgets cut and advertisers backing out. In a recent conversation with Jonathan Stanley, VP of Marketing at Caesarstone, we talked about the kitchen industry; how the entire supply chain had to survive, from the manufacturing brands to the kitchen studios to the fabricators and so forth. I resolutely believe it is the same for the media. We all recognised we needed to get through it – the brands, the publications, and the PR’s that fall somewhere in between.

I would caveat this with the fact it has been a very productive time to open yourself up to new challenges and new opportunities; from the daily struggles of going virtual to managing a team remotely, onboarding new clients and so forth. Counteract this with the fact the interiors industry, which falls under my remit, is booming right now with some very positive statistics coming through from my clients, and – touch wood – it looks like we have fortunately made it through the past year relatively unscathed.

What does an average day look like at LRR?

I cannot function until I’ve had two cups of tea first thing. We have a team meeting every morning at 9am and you can tell when I haven’t had my second. It’s usually then a quick scan of the newspapers and key magazines but after this, literally every single day is different – that’s what keeps me on my toes.

What does your role entail?

I manage eight clients so ultimately keeping them happy is my main priority. I’m still very much involved in media outreach, drafting bigger feature pitches and selling into key national newspapers, supplements and top tier publications; most weeks I am usually attending journalist and/or influencer briefings on behalf of my brands. When appropriate and it suits my skillset, I’m involved in new business, working with the senior team to draw up client proposals and creative pitches. Moving forward, a large part of my role is to coach and mentor my team, helping them develop new skills to progress in their careers.

Top Instagram accounts you follow and why?

@wearetwinset are my absolute favourites for fashion and I am ashamed to admit I have spent an awful lot of money having been ‘influenced’ by them. @thelistbyhouseandgarden is brilliant for getting a decent understanding of key designers and luxury brands within the interiors space. @louiseroe and her accompanying home account, @louiseroehome would be my other pick; her house is my dream.

Dream client?

William Morris wallpaper, aka Morris & Co – every time.

Podcasts. Tell us your favourites, and which you’re listening to at the moment?

I would love to say I listen to something extremely cool and hip but sadly I do not. I doze off every night, without fail, to a history podcast of some kind. BBC History Extra, Hidden Histories and In Our Time are personal favourites, but Dan Snow has to be up there as the best. Anyone familiar with Sathnam Sanghera’s work for The Times should check out his various episodes on the former British Empire, which I’m working my way through at the moment.