Rebecca Markey, Chief Executive at IFP Media
Rebecca Markey is the Chief Executive at IFP Media Ltd, and she joined the company 19 years ago.
She has over 23 years of experience in providing expertise in management, marketing, campaign planning, event management, branding and media.
After winning publishing company of the year, Rebecca led the launch, in 2017, of two new specialist divisions in IFP Media Ltd – Content Hub and Full House Events. Content Hub provides content creation services to clients, while Full House Events provides award-winning event management services, from concept to completion.
Rebecca has extensive experience as a publishing liaison with chief executives, directors-general and senior directors at leading representative organisations and blue-chip companies, including Alltech, Bord Bia, Glanbia, and the National Dairy Council (NDC).
Rebecca has also planned a series of targeted campaigns with the NDC. She is on the RDS Committee of Enterprise and chairperson of the Gold Medal Working Group; is a member of the SSE Airtricity League's marketing committee; is chairperson of the Irish Youth Foundation's Bloomsday event committee, and is a former chairperson of Magazines Ireland.
Tell us about your current role and what you like about your career/role or areas of focus.
I'm CEO of IFP Media - one of Ireland's leading media houses. We offer a full suite of media services, including print and digital publishing, content creation, PR and event management.
I love how diverse my job is. I thrive on the opportunity to engage with clients across a variety of sectors who are looking for new ideas, concepts and direction for their products, services, and business.
I enjoy the challenge of motivating a team to achieve these goals. No day is ever the same, which is exciting.
What inspires you, motivates you, helps you to make each day count?
I find inspiration in a variety of people and things. I set myself goals and purpose. Closing off each day, knowing I have achieved what I set out to do gives me the energy and focus to keep going.
How do you network? What is your preferred way to network?
Face-to-face! I have really missed meeting clients, colleagues, and peers this past year.
While Zoom, Teams etc., has been extremely handy, you do not get a person's measure unless you are in front of them.
How do you come across the idea of your business and why?
IFP Media is a family business. After working for a few years for an Irish advertising agency and then a charity, I joined the company 19 years ago as an advertising executive when it was a traditional publishing house.
Communications have evolved from placing text on a page for consumers to read at their leisure to an agile, digital-led society, and IFP Media has evolved with these changes. To sustain a successful presence in today's fast-paced environment, we are constantly developing and growing our strategies, skills, expertise and portfolio to remain ahead of our competition while maintaining our core principles along the way.
We have added content creation, public relations department and an events division to our offering, which has secured our new work and new clients. In essence, IFP Media that opened its doors in 1975, is the IFP Media that will always be at the heart of what we do, no matter how much our company diversifies, now and in the future.
What are the challenges of COVID-19 in your business? Does it have a positive or negative effect, and how have you been managing it?
Both! The negatives were seeing so much business fall away, and I've missed the interaction with the team in the office.
The positives are seeing my colleagues adapt and upskill and continue to deliver our services and products to our clients.
Our events division especially has been fantastic, and we are running numerous virtual events. We have had some great wins this year.
Do you have a mentor/coach to support you in your decisions/ideas/challenges, and what is the best advice you have ever received?
I have been extremely lucky as I've had many mentors.
First and foremost, my dad, David Markey, has been there for me throughout my career. He has always been very supportive of me and the direction I am taking the company.
In my early years, Bill Cullen and Ian Young were always there to guide me, and in the later years, our chairperson here at IFP Media, Shay Keany, has been a great sounding board and a fountain of knowledge.
Best advice? Listen with both ears – you never stop learning.
What is your project/company's mission, and how do you see it changing in the future?
It is important to continuously re-write our corporate narrative so that we fulfil our present and future clients' needs.
We have a three-pronged approach in terms of our future strategy: Engage, Create, Communicate.
This is across all our divisions – publishing; digital, design and production; printing; PR and events; and the content, campaign and communications division.
What are your thoughts on the future of social media and how it affects your business/company?
It is here to stay and should form part of a brand's overall marketing strategy. I do not think traditional media should be abandoned, though.
If you take magazines as an example, there is trust in the printed word. This carries a lot of weight and is something that has, maybe, been forgotten.
We run numerous social media accounts for clients and have our own social channels for some of our brands. Social forms part of the strategy and compliments and supports the other work that we do.
What is your favourite social media platform, and why?
Business: LinkedIn – contacts, contacts and more contacts.
Personal: Twitter – when a story breaks, whether serious or entertainment, it's interesting to see it develop and how it's interpreted across the globe. Everyone's an expert; everyone's a journalist.
How important do you think it is to designate tasks to others, and when it comes to your business, what are the tasks you ask for help with?
Very! While I think it is important that CEOs are as involved as much as possible in the day-to-day running of their business, you cannot possibly do it all, and you cannot possibly know it all.
I have surrounded myself with the best people, the smartest people.
Do you have any advice or examples of executing a successful business strategy?
In response to demand from the market, in 2017, we launched two new divisions in IFP Media - Content Hub, our content creation and PR division; and Full House Events, our events division. This allowed us to offer our clients a 360 service.
Not only have these new divisions strengthened our offering to existing clients, but they have also attracted new clients. We can now help to deliver a brand's message in print, online, and in person. It's a very attractive proposition.
Content Hub has utilised our experienced editorial team to provide creative and targeted content for clients. Full House Events, meanwhile, has become an award-winning events business, and during Covid-19, we successfully pivoted to bring our events offering online, gaining new clients in the process.
What drives or motivates you each day in a work environment?
The team! We really have the best in the business, and every day their enthusiasm to do the best job they possibly can drives me.
What advice would you have for someone looking to get into the same area of work?
Work hard, be decisive, take up intern opportunities when available, listen and never stop learning.
What do you feel is the most common reason for people failing or giving up?
Not having the support that they need and the belief in themselves.
Some people worry about failing and, in their eyes, being a disappointment.
We need to empower each other and help others realise they are good enough and succeed.
What are you most proud of in your life?
While it is a typical answer, it's the truth: my family.
Outside of your professional work area, what hobbies or interests do you have or what other areas of your life are of real importance to you?
Friends and family are everything. As well as socialising and reading, I have a keen interest in football, tennis and walking.
One of my favourite things to do is go to Anfield with my brother and sons to see the mighty Liverpool FC. I can't wait to go back!
When it comes to your life chosen career, is there a phrase, quote or saying that you really like?
"Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." – Winston Churchill.
What do you wish you had known when you started out?
You are going to make mistakes, but you will learn from them and not make them again.
Who do you most admire in business, academic or creative circles?
Without risking readers eyes to glaze over, I would say, my Dad, David.
From a young age, with my mum's support, I watched him build and develop the business.
He showed me the importance of a strong work ethic, determination, and belief in oneself. Traits I have carried with me.
What companies, brands, or institutions do you like or do you think are getting it right?
I am a little bit in love with Stripe. What they have achieved on a global scale is nothing short of incredible.
Their recent announcement of investing in Ireland and creating at least 1,000 new jobs over the next five years is the icing on the cake!
How do you define success, and what lessons have you learned so far that you could share with our audience?
It is an interesting question but for me, quite simply, I define success as fulfilment. I try and attack each day with a positive outlook and try to have a balance between the important areas of my life.
What skills do you feel have helped you to become successful?
I have strong emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills.
When managing a team, I believe empathy is very important. As Jacinda Ardern once said, "you can be both empathetic and strong".
Is there anything new that you are working on or involved in that you would like to share?
One of the new and exciting accounts that we secured through our business diversification was the pharmaceutical skincare account, RELIFE.
RELIFE is part of the Menarini Group, one of the foremost Italian pharmaceutical companies in the world. We were tasked with the RELIFE brand's first country launch, introducing it to the Irish market in 2019.
In that time, our Full House Events team has launched two skincare ranges onto the consumer market. And our Content Hub division has secured regular press coverage on national and regional print and radio, ongoing online press coverage, and ongoing engagement with key beauty and parenting influencers and thought-leaders.
Since its launch in Ireland, the brand has won two prestigious awards and gained almost 300 pharmacy stockists.