Paraskevi Xenophontos (IMC21)

Senior Paid Social Buyer at Hearst Magazines

Tell us about your career path. How did you get where you are today?

When I began undergrad, I knew I wanted to pursue a career in business but wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to specialize in. Since marketing always interested me, I landed an Advertising, Sales and Marketing internship at Food Network Magazine after my first year of college. This internship taught me so much about what a career in marketing would look like and I learned that this was an area I wanted to focus my career in. My goal after this internship was to gain experience in marketing in various industries. For the remainder of college, I interned in the health and sports industries, which were both great learning experiences. Being that I came from a liberal arts background in undergrad, I decided that I wanted to earn a master’s degree in marketing to dive deeper into this field. I enjoyed the media courses at Medill the most, which led me to land my current role in media at a top magazine publisher.

What are your main responsibilities in your current role?

My team at Hearst is responsible for executing digital advertising partnerships across all social media platforms for 25+ magazine brands. I specialize in executing pharma and e-commerce media buys. My role involves launching and managing campaigns from start to finish. Once a campaign has wrapped, I provide detailed reporting and insights. This is a great opportunity for me to highlight the strengths of a campaign and to encourage the client to work with us again in the future. It is also an opportunity to suggest new ad products that I think would work well for the client. As a more senior member of the paid social team, I also work on developing strategies to improve processes that will ultimately have a strong impact on our day-to-day work. I also focus on formulating solutions for our clients with paid social limitations due to their legal guidelines.

How did the Medill Integrated Marketing Communications Full Time program prepare you for your career?

The Medill Integrated Marketing Communications Full Time program prepared me for my career in many ways. Firstly, the Consumer Insights course gave me a new perspective on how to think about customers. Since I work across all of our magazine brands, I constantly have to think about which creatives and ad copy are going to work best for each brand audience. Media Foundations also prepared me for a career in media as we learned how rapidly media evolves. In the two years I’ve been at Hearst, I have first-hand experienced media priorities change for both our clients and our internal teams. I also found the Media Insight & Strategy course to be very helpful for my career. A strong skill that I developed in this course was cultivating media insights. This was a very important skill for me to learn as I frequently write insights for campaigns I manage.

What did you do during Immersion Quarter?

My Immersion Quarter team worked on building an internal and external content strategy for Anthem. The goal of our project was to help Anthem transition from a health insurance company to a purpose-driven lifetime trusted health partner for internal and external stakeholders. Through conversations with various Anthem associates, our team identified an opportunity to reach the young adult audience with our external content strategy. A highlight of our project was conducting a health insurance survey to better understand young adults’ approach to healthcare. Based on the results of the survey, we recommended various ways to reach the young adult audience. The Anthem team found our project incredibly helpful as they often don’t get the perspective of young adults. I found the Immersion Quarter program very rewarding as it allowed me to apply all of my learnings from the program to solve a business problem.

What is a class or experience that stick out in your mind and why?

The Media, Insight & Strategy course sticks out to me the most since we got to work on a project with a well-known entertainment company. Being that I envisioned myself in a career in media, this course allowed me to use what I learned in the classroom to help a company solve a real business problem. This course was especially instrumental in seeking a job after the program as many employers were impressed by the project.

How has Medill Career Services helped you?

Medill Career Services was instrumental in helping me finetune my experiences in the program on my resume. The team was also helpful with guiding me through the interview process for full-time jobs. I especially found the team helpful for handling job offers and negotiating salary/benefits. While an NCAA initiative, I found the NEXT program to be a meaningful experience. I got the opportunity to shadow a Medill alum working as a Senior Producer on set of The View. This experience gave me meaningful exposure to working on a live show from the perspective of a producer.

What other types of master’s programs did you consider?

I considered both MBA programs and M.S. in Marketing programs. I ultimately chose to attend the IMC program at Medill because of the teaching philosophy and strong alumni network. The IMC discipline was founded by Medill, which meant I would get a world-class education directly from the source. I also admire the notable alumni as they hold positions at companies that interest me. I am thankful for the opportunities Medill gave me and I am proud to be a Wildcat!

How can your industry be more inclusive and representative of society?

In the world of paid social, I think there are many ways that we can be more inclusive and representative of society. In digital publishing, there is an opportunity to ensure we are highlighting stories of individuals of diverse backgrounds. It is also important to prioritize formulating ad copy and creatives that resonate with users of various backgrounds. Marketers need to make it a priority to focus on diversity and inclusion with their paid social efforts.

How have your identities influenced the way you navigate your professional career?

As a woman, I looked to continue my professional career at companies that have women in high leadership positions. I was especially drawn to Hearst Magazines as there are a high percentage of women in high leadership positions. Finding a company that supports female empowerment was definitely a priority for me.

What advice would you give to someone considering the Medill Integrated Marketing Communications Full Time program?

Whatever your educational background may be, I highly recommend the IMC program if you’re looking to embark on a career in marketing. I came into the program with a liberal arts educational background and a few professional experiences in marketing. This program gave me the education in marketing that I was looking for. I recommend that incoming students take advantage of all opportunities available to them. When I attended the program, I took advantage of career services, the San Francisco Immersion Experience, the NEXT program, and professional events hosted by Medill. By taking advantage of all of these opportunities, I was able to cultivate my professional path after graduating from the program.