Trailblazers and Leaders: Matt Brown

Matt Brown | Director of News & External Relations | Transport for London (TfL)

How did you get into comms?

Like most people, through a circuitous route! I studied politics at university, which I loved, but hadn’t really decided what I wanted to do with it. I did some random roles to bring in some money, including working at a web start up and a recruitment consultancy, before getting a break into comms with the political think tank, Open Democracy. I got my first proper media relations role at the children’s charity Barnardo’s, where I learned from the most amazingly kind and committed group of people, before securing a job in the Mayor of London’s Press Office under Ken Livingstone. It was a weird, and brutal world. But it allowed me to combine my interest in politics with the comms skills that I had learned. I ended up doing four years – two under Ken and two under Boris – before escaping to Transport for London. 

What does an average day look like?

I know it’s bad, but pretty much the second I wake up around 6:45 (I have three children who start clattering around at that time) I check the BBC News website and my emails just to make sure nothing horrendous has happened over night. During the height of the pandemic, phone calls from media or from colleagues would start at about 7:30 and I would multi-task making packed lunches and fending off the cats from stealing my kids’ toast with briefing media or clearing press lines.  Thankfully, things seem to have calmed down slightly now and I’ve injected a moment of calm into my day at about 8:45 when I do a bit of yoga or go for a quick run.

From 9:30 there is usually a series of meetings throughout the day, whether that be with other directors, with the people running the Tube and buses, with my senior team or with colleagues from the Mayor’s Office to discuss forthcoming media announcements and strategy. There is a lot going on at the moment and I try to make time to catch up with each of my 6 direct reports so that I can give them support and help decide the strategic approach we take to the organisation’s priorities.

I also try to have a few 1-2-1 meetings with all 65 of my team, with quick catch ups with various team members at every level across the week, to give support and to understand what they need from me to succeed.

I see, and comment upon, pretty much every press statement, press release and briefing that goes out of the door, and cast my eye over briefings that are prepared before TfL’s key people go in front of the media or our political or non-political stakeholders.

And there’s always quite a lot to sort out on the staffing front. Someone is always leaving or arriving and a lot of work goes into preparing for both eventualities and making sure that everything that needs to get done gets done.

What advice would you give your 21 year old self? 

Keep on doing what you’re doing, but try to do more travelling while you can. I would also let my 21 year old self know about the pandemic so that a) they could go down the bookies (not something that usually happens outside of the Grand National) and that b) they / I could have been more prepared in my domestic life when it all kicked off. Having to become a home-schooler overnight revealed the limitations of my patience.

What is the one thing you wish you’d known when you started working in PR? 

I think the best thing I’ve learned is that it’s so easy to get sucked in to giving all your attention to the people who are not performing, to the detriment of spending time making sure that the best performers feel valued, energised and motivated. That’s a big mistake, and I try to rectify that every day – making sure that the people who are smashing know they’re smashing it and how grateful I am.

What’s your greatest achievement to date?

I’ve have had a career helping steer TfL’s communications through the Olympics, the 150th anniversary of the Tube, strikes, terror attacks, the launch of the Night Tube, Royal visits, the tragic tram crash in Croydon, TfL’s 20th anniversary, and the launch of the Night Tube and the launch of the Ultra Low Emission Zone to name a few things. Some of those have been very difficult, and generally it’s been pretty much full on since the start. 

The thing that I’m most proud of is that my team are the happiest, most engaged team in TfL. I want my team to be at the top of its game, but I also want people to enjoy their work, feel fulfilled and recognise that I put their lives before their work. I think that’s the case for most people. 

Winning Best in-house team at the 2019 PR Week awards and receiving the Mark Mellor Award for Outstanding Contribution to the PR industry at this year’s PRCA awards was also nice. And unexpected.

I think I’m the first Black winner. Which obviously tells its own ridiculous story.

Is there a particular comms campaign that you’ve seen in your career that you didn’t work on but wish you had? 

I was really moved by a 2018 campaign “Project 84”, which raised awareness of the number of men who take their own lives every week in the UK. The campaign, by the Campaign Against Living Miserably and Adam & Eve/DDB, used haunting statues of men placed on rooftops around London. Pretty unforgettable and sobering. 

So, that. And Barack Obama’s 2008 election campaign. That’s got have been great, right?

What’s the key skill you think a successful comms person requires?

So many! Energy, attention to detail, team spirit, passion, the power of persuasion, confidence (which can be built over time), an inner check on over-confidence, the ability to write crisply and cleanly. I could go on. That’s what makes it interesting I guess.