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Pictured: Erin Zillman, Olivia Hay, Aisha Jefcoate.
Foxtel Media marketing executive Olivia Hay understands firsthand that career growth at the Foxtel Group doesn’t just happen in a linear fashion.
For the past four months, she’s embraced the benefits of lateral career growth too, expanding her remit beyond her role in marketing at Foxtel Media to become a core member of our branded events team in Group Comms.
While Liv originally joined Foxtel Media to work on typical marketing activities such as digital trade campaigns and agency engagement initiatives, after 18 months in the role she realised the small exposure she’d had to event management sparked an intriguing new career interest.
In one of her regular performance check ins with Foxtel Media’s Head of Marketing and Communications Erin Zillman, Liv put her number one career growth tip into practice: Make sure you share your career ambitions with your leader.
After hearing that she wanted more experience with events, Liv recalls that Erin simply replied: “Let’s see how we can make that work,” before connecting with our Head of Brand Experiences Aisha Jefcoate, who leads Foxtel Group events, to discuss any opportunities.
Together, Liv, Erin and Aisha devised an expanded dual-role that would see Liv continue her marketing work while also supporting Aisha on the events side of the business.
“Liv is a high performer and I wanted to do everything possible to continue to foster her career development,” says Erin.
“I could see that, and I was excited to see how we could encourage that growth at Foxtel Group,” adds Aisha.
Now, in addition to running b2b marketing campaigns at Foxtel Media, Liv is working on all kinds of events across the breadth of the Foxtel Group.
Whether it’s a BINGE Original red-carpet screening, a Kayo Sports media activation, or an all-staff internal event such as our recent Day of Thanks in Sydney, she’s fast learning a whole new suite of skills that level up her capabilities as a marketing executive while also building her an impressive events portfolio.
Although Liv admits the dual-role can be challenging at times, with the support of her leaders and teams, she’s found a nice balance. There are plenty of overlapping skills that can be applied across both roles such as prioritisation, communication and managing workloads, but she’s also relished in opportunities to further develop skills in other areas.
“One of the biggest skills I’ve grown is stakeholder management. I used to primarily liaise with Foxtel Media stakeholders, but now I work with so many different departments with diverse business priorities, so it’s been great to learn how to effectively manage key business stakeholders to reach a common goal,” reflects Liv.
Upskilling is just one of the perks of putting your hand up for an expanded remit. Liv says she’s also benefiting from having two leaders to nurture her career ambitions.
Erin continues to help develop her marketing craft, emphasising the importance of planning ahead and being organised to deliver complex campaigns, while Aisha has shown Liv what it’s like to think on your feet and be solutions-focused under intense time pressure, as is often the case in the events world.
Today, Liv is thriving, continuing to strive for Different. Better. Special. across both her marketing work as well as in the branded events space. Each campaign is getting more effective, and each event is taking things to the next level for the company.
This breadth of work is a great reflection of Liv’s number two top career growth tip: Whatever comes your way, just say yes.
After you’ve asked for more exposure to something, be open minded about the opportunities that come back to you. According to Liv, taking on new challenges, stretching your capabilities and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone are all key to taking charge of your own career growth journey.
Most people might think that two leaders is enough to accelerate your career, but in a testament to her ambition, Liv is continuing to seek out more experiences across the Foxtel Group. She’s even recently connected with the Kayo Sports marketing team to see how she can shadow them and learn more about consumer marketing specifically.
Like many marketers, Liv one-day dreams of earning that Chief Marketing Officer title, and with such great experience so early in her career across digital, trade press, b2b strategy, event management and consumer campaigns, there’s no doubt that she’ll stand out from the pack when that time comes.
Thank you Liv, Erin and Aisha for sharing this amazing career growth story and showcasing what’s possible at Foxtel Group.