Caught Between the Ashford Brothers

Chapter 13

Iris

I couldn’t stop fidgeting as Mrs Laurent, I think, the events director from the PR department launch, did a run-through of the plans the marketing and PR teams had prepared for the launch party after the collection release.

This had to be the biggest meeting I've attended since I got here. Well, second, if I count my one on my first day about three weeks ago. Everyone was present. From the CEO to the executive director to the creative director and the marketing team, everyone was present to discuss the pre-launch campaign that was already underway; the release of the collection itself that would be happening in just a few days, four to be precise; and the events lined up after the release.

It was a lot and nerve-racking since I had been the one to curate a part of the meeting agenda, the pre-launch social media campaign analytics. I knew I wasn't going to be the one to present it; after all, I'm not the social media manager who had decided on my very second day that I'd be the perfect fit as her personal assistant, but I'd been the one to carry out the research so I was still nervous.

“And you’ve confirmed with the press teams that’ll be available for that day?” I glanced up as Julian Ashford spoke up for probably the third time since this whole meeting started. I’ve come to recognise that he’s more of a listener in settings like this and looks annoyingly handsome with that serious look he has on whenever he is going through the reports.

Okay. That's not… that shouldn't be in my line of thoughts at all.

“Yes sir, though we’re still waiting on SQ. We should receive theirs by tomorrow evening.”

“Okay.” Mrs Laurent settled back in her seat.

“Now moving on to our pre-launch campaign that has been going on for precisely two weeks now…” Most of the executives flipped through the physical report to the section I had curated, making my heart flop around in my chest. “...what is the progress with that?”

“We’ve seen great engagement with our audience with over ten million impressions across all social media platforms over the past ten days.” The social media manager, Miss Jessica Carter, responded. “We’ve been able to get an average engagement rate of 6.4%, which places us above the current industry benchmark, as well as an initial visibility of over two million views during the first forty-eight hours after content release.”

“So you’re saying everything is good and dandy?” the CEO, a man in his mid-fifties, asked.

“Yes sir. We still have our loyal fanbase/customers and industry support as well as a lot of interest in what we have to offer next as a heritage brand.”

“Okay. That is good then. It shows that the stage has been properly set for the launch, right?” Everyone else nodded except for the executive director, Julian Ashford who kept going through the report. The room immediately became tense as everyone subconsciously waited for his response, even the CEO. After all, he’s the founder’s son.

“I see you also did a comparative analysis on our brand and… Aurellia," he finally said after a minute.

“Y-yes, sir," Miss Carter stuttered as she sifted through the report herself. Aurellia is a fashion brand that hasn’t been in the industry for as long as ASHFORD but is currently making waves so I decided to add a comparative analysis since they were also running a campaign at the moment.

“According to the report, it seems Aurellia’s engagement is doing way better than ours. Over five million initial engagements. 7.2% average engagement rate and an estimated 70% more interest in their current campaign than their previous ones, which indicates a better chance at overtaking ASHFORD in the industry if they continue with their current momentum.” He looked up after reading directly from the report, his eyes focusing on Miss Carter. “Can you elaborate more on that?”

Almost immediately, I felt the tension in the room increase. We were about fifteen or more in a really large room with the air conditioning on full blast, yet I felt hot.

“Uhm…”

One of the executives scoffed before she could say anything, though. “Overtake Ashford? That is not possible. We’ve been here for over twenty years with industry heritage and dedicated customers and you think a washed-up brand with less experience is going to overtake us.”

“No sir. I-i didn't say that…”

“That's what is implied in the report though…”

Shit. If I were fidgeting before. I was currently losing my s**t and feeling the need to throw up. I didn't mean to imply that. Okay, maybe I did, but not as a diss, as an insight to further the company and open us up to a larger audience. He didn't even go through the rest of my analysis.

“Uhm… so the report was worked on by me and the new intern.” Miss Carter tried to defend her case. “She did the writeup while I supervised the research so I think she might have added that as an oversight or mistake. Sorry about that.”

The silence was very loud.

“Who is this intern?”

Oh my God. I felt my heart sink to the bottom of my shoes.

“Iris Sinclair.” The whole room turned to face me as she turned and pointed at me.

Fuck.

“You wrote the report?” Mr Ashford asked.

"Y-yes, sir.” God, I felt like melting into the ground with how intense his stare was.

“And this analysis was done by you?”

“Yes sir. But I didn't mean it like that.” I added almost immediately. “I was only pointing out that since they seem to have the interest of the younger demographic, which is the larger part of that 70% increase in the report due to their recent adaptation of themes that resonate more with that audience, they're likely to become a bigger competition than expected if they continue with that momentum.”

The room fell silent after that rant.

“So what are you saying? That we should change our brand identity in order to appeal to a younger audience and competition?” 'Another executive, the creative director, I believe,' asked with a frown.

“Not really. Just that we could curate design themes and marketing strategies that would help us tap into that demographic which would in turn significantly increase revenue.”

“Hmm…”

Okay, maybe I shouldn't have said that. It's obvious that everyone was thinking I'm overstepping and honestly, maybe I am. After all, this wasn't even relevant to the launch we had in just a few days.

"This isn't even relevant to the launch…” Victoria, the head of marketing, said with a glare almost immediately, echoing my thoughts, then she smiled at the executives. “The launch is why we're here and we need to focus on that.”

"Yes," a few others agreed and waited for him, Julian Ashford, to agree. He closed the report and nodded calmly, like that whole convo hadn't just happened.

“What’s left?”

“Our collaboration with QUOLE…”

****

Immediately after the executives left our department after the meeting, I wasn't surprised to hear that Victoria wanted to see me in her office. Ugh, I should have known this s**t would cause problems. Stupid me. Doing a comparative analysis when the task I was given was our campaign analytics. Ugh, I had just thought it would win me points with the higher-ups.

But nope, I was in the red.

I picked up my phone at my desk thirty minutes later after a whole twenty minutes of getting berated by both Miss Hale and Miss Carter, who had joined us in the office minutes after I went in to see that I had missed a bunch of phone calls from Serena.

Huh?

I immediately became worried.

What could be the matter? She never calls at this time. Heck, she never calls at all, so why would she be calling me at 3 pm in the afternoon while I'm at work?

I dialled her number to ask her just that, only to end up with her voicemail. That immediately made me become more worried.

Is she okay?