Industry Profile: Varun John at Foxcatcher
AdNews Industry Profile: read the full profile here.
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.
Varun John: head of trading at Foxcatcher
Time in current role/time at the company:
2years and 3 months.
How would you describe what the company does?
Changing the way advertising is bought and sold by using the world's best algorithmic hedge fund trading technology and intelligence to understand and execute the brands success drivers.
What do you do day-to-day?
Work with internal teams whilst collaborating with publishers & tech partners to put together innovative products to drive client success, and then there’s investment & finance. So a bit of everything really.
Define your job in one word:
Multi-faceted.
I got into advertising/ad tech/marketing etc because:
It was the first job I got straight out of Uni, never looked back since.
What’s the biggest challenge you face in your role?
Honestly, managing and clearing my Inbox.
What’s the biggest industry-wide challenge you’d like to see tackled?
One of the biggest challenges that we’ve been working with brands and agencies to overcome is the collection and utilisation of their data to deliver business results. It was recently reported that almost half of the software-as-a-service companies pay for go unused.
This is understandable given the evolving landscapes as cookies deprecate and privacy laws change, however it is now more important to the get right tools and tech in place to help support digital led strategies across multiple channels, not to mention the challenges around attribution.
Previous industry related companies you have worked at:
Dentsu, CTRLSHIFT, ExchangeOps, IgnitionOne & Adjug
Who is/has been a great mentor to you and why?
My dad of course, but from within the industry it's Jason Curry who was the COO of the company I worked with in London. An amazing mentor and friend.
Words of advice for someone wanting a job like yours?
Collaborate, educate, innovate & stay positive.
If I wasn't doing this for a living, I'd be:
Running a coffee empire.
My mantra / philosophy is:
To live is to give.
My favourite advert is (and why):
“Budweiser Wassup” - it set a trend and was incorporated on game days at home.
Music and TV streaming habits. What do you subscribe to?
Spotify, Netflix, Disney+, Binge, Kayo, Stan, Prime.
Tell us one thing people at work don’t know about you?
I once rejected an offer to leave Uni and join Bollywood. Uni was definitely more important –well that’s what I thought at the time.
In five years' time I'll be:
Still being thrilled with the decisions I’ve made in the last five years with Foxcatcher.