Industry Profile: Karen Papalia at Foxtel Media

Our Industry Profile takes a look at some of the professionals working across the advertising, adtech, marketing and media sector in Australia. It aims to shed light on the varying roles and companies across the buzzing industry.

Karen Papalia: Perth sales director at Foxtel Media.

Time in current role/time at the company: 

I’ve served as Perth sales director for 18 Months and at Foxtel Media for 10 years.  

How would you describe what the company does?

We connect brands with our highly valuable audiences across our sport & entertainment ecosystem at scale, via tailored solutions that deliver results. 

What do you do day-to-day? 

Strategy - planning ahead with how we go to market as well as engage with our clients and agency partners, work with the team on integrated brief responses and budget forecasting to make sure we're on track to hit our targets. 

Define your job in one word: 

Interesting (in a good way) 

I got into marketing/advertising/media/tech because: 

To be honest, I fell into it. I previously worked in Finance, but when an opportunity to make the switch over to advertising arose, I jumped at the chance, and I've never looked back. 

What’s the biggest challenge you face in your role?

Fragmentation of content. Subscribers have more choice than ever, which means more choice for advertisers. Throw an uncertain economy into the mix, and these become even bigger decisions for our clients. The challenge, and our primary focus, is helping brands cut through that noise. We do that by grounding their campaigns in premium, highly engaged environments, like live Australian sport, which gives them the certainty and scale they need when market conditions are tough. 

What’s the biggest industry-wide challenge you’d like to see tackled?

A unified approach to measurement with one source of truth would not only be beneficial to media owners but more importantly agencies & clients. 

Notable campaigns you have worked on:

Ashley & Martin's 'Turning Point' and 'Doing It Properly', as well as Steel Blue Boots & Road Safety Commission WA's 'Cricket Howlers' and 'Vital Stats'. 

Who has been a great mentor to you and why?

Nev Hasan, Foxtel Media's chief sales officer. I couldn't ask for a more supportive manager and feel incredibly lucky that I get to learn from the best. 

Words of advice for someone wanting a job like yours? 

You have to love what you do and, most importantly, believe in the products you represent;, if you have this, the rest will fall into place. 

If I wasn't doing this for a living, I'd be:

A primary school teacher, which I came very close to doing. 

My mantra is: 

Divide and conquer (which my team gets sick of hearing), but I believe in leveraging each team member's individual strengths - it's an extremely powerful tool. 

My favourite advert is: 

I'm showing my age here, but Yellow Pages 'Not Happy Jan' was absolutely iconic when I was growing up. 

Music and TV streaming habits. What do you subscribe to?

I have all of the platforms, Foxtel/Kayo/Binge (of course) as well as Netflix, Disney (for the kids) & Stan. 

Tell us one thing people at work don’t know about you? 

I'm a coffee snob. Instant or even pods - forget it. Has to be barista made - it's a problem. 

In five years time I'll be: 

Hopefully still at Foxtel Media!