Meet Lisa Blake!

We’ve welcomed a new addition to the Front Door team – Head of PR Lisa Blake! Lisa is a former news editor with more than 15 years’ experience working for celebrity and lifestyle magazines such as OK!, Closer and new. She’s interviewed hundreds of celebs, including Kylie Minogue, Tom Jones and Peter Andre. But her all-time favourite is Robbie Williams.

However, in the last few years she’s switched things up a bit and has been working in TV PR, looking after the press coverage for a number of ITV classics including Good Morning Britain, This Morning, Loose Women, Lorraine, The Chase and Tipping Point.

As our luck would have it, she moved back to her native Wales recently and is bringing her expertise to Front Door, which we couldn’t be more chuffed about. Here, Lisa shares a bit of background into how she got into PR and how she’s getting on in the world of FD Comms.

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I got interested in PR and Marketing…
in 2020 after 10 years working as a celebrity journalist and editor on women’s weekly magazines. A job opportunity for a publicist of ITV Daytime’s Good Morning Britain and Lorraine came up and I was ready for a new challenge and to experience working in TV.

I could quickly see how my understanding of the UK media landscape, the contacts I’d acquired while working at a number of national titles, plus my skillset as a news journalist were helpful tools to generate positive coverage for the daytime shows and ITV as a whole.

During lockdown, I became freelance and adapted and developed these skills for local TV shows such as BBC Wales’ A Special School and S4C’s Cyfrinachau’r Llyfrgell (Best Kept Secrets). I also helped local businesses such as the Child of Wales Awards and community-led events such as Brecon Jazz Festival with their PR and Media management, and achieved national coverage on all media platforms.

As a journalism postgraduate, interviewing people, writing and delivering news is my passion. So it’s useful that those skills can be transferred to successful and meaningful PR and Marketing campaigns.

The first couple of months at Front Door…
has been lots of fun. After working from home for four years, it’s been great to have face-to-face catch ups and brainstorming meetings. I’ve definitely found my tribe when it comes to snack choices (can’t beat a triple chocolate digestive biscuit), decent coffee, and insightful conversation. The song choices on Alexa are not too bad, either – can’t beat a bit of Fleetwood Mac. But in all seriousness, the team work really hard and you can see how their different backgrounds – former TV and print journalists, corporate comms and digital PR and marketing all come together to produce a strong and driven agency.

I am looking forward to…
building my B2B contacts. With an entertainment and lifestyle background, I have worked with many consumer titles, so I have lots of lovely contacts in that genre. The business realm is fairly new to me, but I’ve hit the ground running with lots of introductory meetings and familiarising myself with the type of content the publications I’m working with feature. I’m also keen to learn more about the digital side of things, including how SEO works and tips and tricks for social media management as my background is traditional media.

Outside of work I spend my time…
walking/trekking (I recently did a sunrise climb to Mount Batur in Indonesia), listening to crime podcasts/watching a good documentary, going on weekend city breaks and eating out with friends – although I don’t like cheese – yes all cheeses, which is definitely a conversation starter!

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We’re over the moon to have Lisa joining us at Front Door and as any self respecting person will tell you, the best way to welcome a new team member is by indulging in multiple cans of wine at an awards do. As demonstrated below by the FD team!